Insights for the Journey

I know of a unit leader who successfully negotiated a special status for his unit that gives him freedom to experiment.Here a few thoughts on how you might create such a contract with top management and how you might make so appealing that they actually agree to it!

Before you start your adventure, this question more than any other might help you chart the course: how far are you willing to go, what risks are you willing to take?

Remember the two conditions for a company-wide transformation: the CEO must get it and want it, and so must the board. If the CEO is not on board, a wholesale transformation is off the table, but you might still bring about beautiful changes within your own sphere of influence.

This episode is about what might look like a point of detail... but a revealing one!I'm not a big fan of the word "vision". Rather than developing a vision for the organization, can we hear a call for where the organization wants to go? The difference, as subtle as it might sound, is fundamental to me.

Indicators and targets are central to the old ways of trying to predict and control the future. Can and should we do without them?

Budgets are often the central backbone of organizations. Let's think through if budgets still make sense in a world where "sense and respond" replaces "predict and control". And if so, how.

Today we often plan much more that we need to. From it's not far to the typical misunderstanding: planning is bad!It's not. There are simply two pitfalls to avoid: planning too much and believing our plans.

A deep dive into how we can do strategic thinking when we no longer want to "predict and control", but instead want to listen to where the living system of the organization wants to go.

What about the strategic plans we used to do: is some form of that still helpful in a world of "sense and respond"? Very often, I believe the answer is no. But here are four reasons it might make sense to do "strategic thinking"

Often we simply wrap nice sounding words around the products and services we offer... and ta-da, there is our purpose. Most likely, though, this is simply a "fake" purpose. Remember: purpose is not something we design or declare, it's a voice that whispers if we know how to listen and calls us to a better future. It's time we stop the BS and face the fact that a true so much of what organizations do is destructive and that a true purpose is antithetical to continued destruction.In this episode, I offer a simple but powerful test to see if your purpose is true or fake. Prepare for a possibly uncomfortable but absolutely worthy conversation about your organizations purpose!