Decision-making is one of the most important things leaders do. We expect leaders to be decisive. We expect them to make good decisions. Unfortunately, most of the writing on decision-making and a whole lot of practice is oversimplistic with “bias for action” replacing good sense. There are already boatloads of » Read More
Tag: Planning
Just enough planning
It’s time to think about next year. Will you draw up and plan and stick to it? Or will you simply go with the flow? A little bit of both is the best choice. Planning can help you choose wise courses of action that will get the results you want. But we plan things when we know the least about them and the world around » Read More
Why people would rather plan than execute
In their marvelous book, Execution, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan say: “Execution is not only the biggest issue facing business today; it is something that no one has explained satisfactorily.” Execution was published 2002 and things haven’t changed all that much. Executives, investors, and authors » Read More
On your mark, get set, get set, get set
Starting To get ready To prepare To begin To ponder How to select a committee To study the feasibility Of choosing a course of action That you can plan Doesn’t get you very far. Action does. Boss’s Bottom Line It is usually best to take action quickly with an imperfect plan than to wait until you’ve got » Read More
Complex Adaptive Systems and You
Return with me for a moment to those thrilling days of yesteryear. We love machines. They are the primary metaphor that we use for organizations. And why not? Machines, starting with the Newcomen engine, were what made the Industrial Revolution possible. By 1850 or so we’d moved to the second stage where those » Read More