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Greg Githens is the author of How to Think Strategically (2019). He is a recognized thought leader in designing and delivering strategic initiatives.-
Read these recent articles
- Unlocking Strategic Thinking for Business Success – A Summit for Leaders and High Performers (Free)
- The Skills Stack for Resilience
- Five tips for speaking truth to power
- Better Conversations Generate Better Strategy
- Insights Are the Secret Sauce of Strategy
- How a Strategic Decision Differs From a Tactical Decision
- Unlearning, learning, and a culture of strategic thinking
- How Mapping Can Improve Your Strategic Thinking
- How to Measure Business Acumen
- Strategy Execution as a Learning Process
- Why I favor a mental stance of disorder
- Critical Asking
- Transcending the Status Quo
- Connecting Strategy to Execution
- Complexity: Four Principles for Program Managers
- Use the PAVER Framework to Assure Strategic Commitments
- Strategic Experiments & Agile Responses
- Avoiding Four Pitfalls of Rapid Growth
- Operational Excellence or Strategic Excellence?
- Design Thinking: Five Landmarks for Strategic Initiatives
- Seven Must-Do’s for Better Strategy Execution
- Strategy as Problem Solving: An Example from a Large Technology Organization.
- Five Mental Anchors that Impede Your Strategic Initiative
- Five Must-Know Patterns of Disruption
- Beginners Guide: Competent Strategic Initiatives
- Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, & Ambiguity (VUCA)
- Four Recommendations for Effective Program Governance
- Six Strategic Thinking Skills: Developing the Proactiveness Habit
- What’s the #Strategy? Let Me Tell You a #Story
- Benefits of Being a Visible Expert
- Strategy is Not Long-Range Planning, Vision, Mission, or Values
- Five Ways to Involve Smart New Voices in the Strategy & Agile Innovation Conversation
- Is it Possible to Have a Perfect Strategy?
- Facilitating the Business Model Canvas: A Few Lessons Learned (Part 1)
- Designing Strategic Initiatives for Results: The Two Kinds of Coherence
- Perspective is More Powerful than Vision
- The Real Reason Strategy Implementation is Difficult (and the Solution to It)
Talk to the Expert
Need a strategic planning facilitator, implementation coach, neutral mediator, workshop, seminar, or hands-on program manager? Greg Githens provides coaching, workshops, hands-on, and more. Contact him at GregoryDGithens@cs.com or 419.424.1164Categories
- Ambiguity and Strong-Minded Thinking
- Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders
- Examples of Strategic Initiatives
- How to Improve Your Story Telling Chops
- Incremental Benefits Delivery
- Interpreting Strategy Documents
- Program & Portfolio Management
- Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives
- Strategy
- Strategy Coaching and Facilitation
- Strategy, Ambiguity, and Strong-Minded Thinking
- Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives
- Transforming the Organization
- Uncategorized
- Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tag Archives: vision
“Make it Happen” — More Tips for Developing Buy In for your Strategic Initiative
“I know that I should be a person that makes it happen for this strategic initiative,” confided Steve, “but, when I consider the risks and obstacles, the best I can do it help the strategic initiative along.” Greg Githens defines true commitment and explains how it is different from enrollment or compliance. He provides leadership tips for building commitment. Continue reading
Posted in Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged 3M, ambiguity, bank, benefits, buy in, commitment, Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, core team, emotive benefits, empowerment, Greg Githens, heroic journey, initiatives, program management, serve and sacrifice, Strategic initiative, vision
2 Comments
How to Secure Buy In for Your Strategic Initiative
Greg Githens explains that commitment – or “buy in” – means people accept and support a specific concept or course of action. He explains how to advocate benefits to stakeholders. Benefits are of two types: emotive (soft) and economic. The secret sauce is to establish the emotive benefits first, which serves to motivate stakeholders and buys time for acquiring economic benefits. Continue reading
Posted in Program & Portfolio Management, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged change management, commitment, Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, economic benefits, emotive benefits, Greg Githens, how to secure buy in, Jack Welch, Organizational culture, program management, Sales, secret sauce, Six Sigma, soft benefits, Strategic initiative, StratEx, vision
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How to Energize Strategic Initiatives with Outcomes
Performance outcomes are time-based trends that serve to crystallize the strategic vision. This “how to execute strategy article” explains that the strategic initiative team builds a cause-effect model. Applying its model, the team develops the strategies that lead to the desired improvement in performance outcomes. Helpful tips are provided. Continue reading
Posted in Interpreting Strategy Documents, Strategy Coaching and Facilitation, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged ambiguity, change management, collaboration, Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, Decision making, Greg Githens, innovation, Management, management tools, program management, questions, revpar, stkeholder expectations, Strategic initiative, Strategic management, strategy execution, success metric, teams, transformation, vision
12 Comments
Strategic Initiatives Drive Growth and Innovation in the Travel Industry
Competitive industries – for example the travel industry – use strategic initiatives to create competitive advantage. Greg Githens explains that there are 5 important tasks for leaders of strategic initiatives to create growth through innovation: understanding the brand promise, understanding the voice of the customer, effectively leveraging business intelligence, establishing appropriate success metrics, and driving effective and fast decisions. One example is how Vancouver’s port made it easier for US citizens to clear customs for cruise ships. A second example is how Hilton is innovating in its design of hotel business lounges. A third example for Marriott hotel’s bedding initiative. Continue reading
Posted in Examples of Strategic Initiatives, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives, Transforming the Organization
Tagged airline, brand promise, Business, business intelligence, Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, cruise line, cruise port, Decision making, fast decisions, Greg Githens, growth, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, hotel operations, innovation, Management, Marriott, ncl, norwegian, Problem Solving, Strategic management, strategy execution, strategy formulation, success metric, Tourism, transformation, Travel, vision, voice of the customer
2 Comments
Strategic Initiative Case Study: Destination Disney
Destination Disney was a strategic initiative that deployed a customer relationship management solution that transformed the customer experience at Disney World from product centric to guest centric. Greg Githens points out that an important leadership lessons is using the customer experience as a driver for the strategic initiative. Continue reading
Posted in Examples of Strategic Initiatives, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives
Tagged business drivers, customer experience, Customer Relationship Management, delight, Disney, Goal, Greg Githens, program management, Strategic initiative, strategic project, strategy execution, transformation, vision, Walt Disney World
6 Comments
Validation: How to Get Strategy Right
Strategy validation is a process of assuring that there is a “correct strategy.” First, review to find a distinct statement of problem or opportunity that is coupled to a proposed solution. The program manager – just like the CEO – validates strategy with the important stakeholders. Avoid over and under commitment to the strategic initiative. The #1 reason that Boards fire CEOs is because they don’t adequately communicate the reasons for the strategic initiatives. Continue reading
Posted in Interpreting Strategy Documents, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged CEO fired, change management, Discovery Channel, Greg Githens, Hasbro, IBM Infosphere, Problem Solving, program management, Strategic initiative, Strategic management, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, strategy execution, strategy formulation, The Hub, transformation, Translation, United Bank Limited, validation, vision
10 Comments
Strategy is a Boundary-Spanning Activity
Greg Githens explains how leaders develop the strategic initiative execution plan by integrating concepts. Vertical connections are done through metrics and horizontal connections are a search for strategic synergy. He explains a pitfall of many strategies, which is to focus on the solution rather than the problem or opportunity. An example is provided for Human Resources strategy. This post describes Step 3 of 4 for interpreting strategy documents. Continue reading
Posted in Interpreting Strategy Documents, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Strategy Coaching and Facilitation, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged ambiguity, balanced score card, Balanced scorecard, horizontal integration, Initiative, open innovation, program management, Strategic initiative, Strategic management, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Strategy, strategy execution, strategy formulation, vertical integration, vision
6 Comments
What are the Strategic Pillars that Support the Vision?
Strategic pillars and planks hold up the strategic vision. Describes examples of strategic initiatives at Google, Boy Scouts of America, Schibsted, GE, pet supplies retailer, and an approach for content marketing strategies. Continue reading
Posted in Examples of Strategic Initiatives, Interpreting Strategy Documents, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged content marketing, document analysis, Goal, Greg Githens, program management, Strategic initiative, Strategic management, strategic planks, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, strategy execution, strategy formulation, vision
7 Comments
Can You See Your Vision Statement?
An important task for the leader of a strategic initiative is to bring clarity to the vision statement. Provides criteria for a vision and 5 methods for improving a vision statement. Step 2 of a 4-part approach on interpreting strategy documents. Continue reading
Posted in Interpreting Strategy Documents, Strategy Coaching and Facilitation, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged alignment, commitment, program management, Strategic initiative, Strategic management, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, strategy document, strategy execution, vision
11 Comments
Strategic Initiatives Case Study – Domino’s Pizza Turnaround
Provides detail on Domino’s Pizza turnaround strategic initiative, with 7 leadership lessons. Continue reading
Leading Strategic Initiatives 