Tag Archives: strategic planning

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relentless focus

Relentless Focus, Will It Make a Difference

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Are you in pursuit of something special? Is it something that will make a long-term impact or is it more of a flash in the pan? Relentless focus may be the difference between a quick flash and lasting impact.

You can be a special guest at the baseball game and maybe even throw out the first pitch, but it isn’t the same as what the starting pitcher will do.

Perhaps you can whip up a pretty good Thanksgiving Day dinner, yet it probably isn’t at the same level of the gourmet chef who has spent a decade or more crafting the perfect dish.

Showing up for work each day might mean something, but it isn’t the same as diving in each and every day with a specific focus on accomplishment and impact.

Often the highest performing employees and businesses are the top achievers because of relentless pursuit.

Do you have it? Are you deploying it?

Relentless Focus

It typically doesn’t need much explanation. If you can’t see it, touch it, taste it, or otherwise experience it you probably haven’t achieved it.

Love it or hate it, Amazon, in most cases, appears to have relentless pursuit for the customer. Zappos has been known for this and so has Disney.

How do they do it?

There is a good chance that it starts with their strategic approach.

If the organization spends too much time on evaluating short-term cash, short-run individual winning, and short-run paychecks, the long-run will always come up short for the customer.

All of those things matter, cash, individual performance, and what employees get paid, but they won’t necessarily result in something delightful for the customer.

For the individual employee or the organization at large, what you focus on is what you’ll get. Sounds simple and easy.

Maybe it is time to take a deep dive and really understand more about your focus.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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fluid approach

Does a Fluid Approach Seem Like a Good Path?

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A plan and a goal always seem to make sense. Are your goals rigid or do you use a more fluid approach?

Are you a little bit more of a perfectionist or do you scribble outside of the lines?

Most pathways start with a vision. It is a plan, of sorts, with directions, timelines and milestones. Spoken or sometimes unspoken they are all part of the plan.

Plans are designed to work. They are expected to achieve outcomes by going through barriers, leaping hurdles, and most certainly against all odds.

Some people identify with a system, a structure, and a protocol. It might be similar to a flight plan, a rocket launch, or a thousand-mile road trip.

Not everything fits inside the plan, and that is when the plan becomes even more important. The what if’s, or what to do when, are all expected to be part of a really good plan.

Have you budgeted for fluidity? Does a fluid approach make sense?

Fluid Approach

Sometimes people call it a backup plan. Plan B is often suggested for execution will all else has failed during plan A.

Those committed to the plan are hesitant to jump off plan A and switch to plan B. They may insist that plan A has not been exhausted yet and staying the course is most important.

Leadership requires resilience in the face of adversity. Plan A or plan B, both might contain a pathway for success.

When you plan for fluid approaches, it doesn’t necessarily mean one pathway must close in order to access another. It also doesn’t mean that one is right and one is wrong.

You still have a choice with your goals.

Stalls, delays, or dead-end stops are likely not as good as study movement.

When time matters, and it nearly always does, a detour around the block, and then right back on the original trajectory is probably much better than waiting for the traffic jam to free itself.

Leadership keeps things moving and makes way for a reason or logic to embrace a shift. Belonging often means safety, security, and a sense of accomplishment.

When getting there is the objective.

A fluid approach may be your best path.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


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strategy failures

Strategy Failures You May See Coming

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Nearly everyone wants a good strategy. Being more strategic will pay off big when the strategy you plan for is the right strategy. Why do so many teams and businesses get sideswiped with strategy failures?

Planning Mistakes

The first mistake that many organizations make is that they hire the wrong strategy consultant (doing it internally, without external expertise, may also be a mistake).

Who is the wrong consultant? The consultant who believes he or she is the only one for the job and the consultant who believes strategic planning is about a SWOT analysis. Both are wrong.

Strategic planning includes much more than a SWOT, much more than asking about problems, and much more than suggesting do X and you’ll achieve Y.

One example is the strategy of how the business will use its time. Time is something you’ll never get back. Yes, you can start again but if the competition didn’t have to, good luck catching up.

Understanding Time

Restaurant owners understand time. Bad weather and nobody comes in for dinner. That revenue is lost forever. When your patrons choose to eat at home that is a meal you’ll never get back. The day is lost, the time is lost, gone.

The business that ships a commodity product understands time. When your customer waits the threat of the customer seeking a different vendor is pending. Being the quickest is likely linked to your brand. If it takes too long, business may be lost, gone, done. Forever.

Then there is the business that is built around value. The confusing part of value is understanding where you waste your time.

Value is subjective and having just enough is good. Doing more than enough could arguably be a waste of time. Working towards perfection takes time, and you’ll miss everyone who wants it the quickest.

Strategy Failures

Too many strategy planners get stuck in the moment of assessing what the company wants to do and confusing that with what the company needs to do.

Creating a clever mission statement is good. Stating you’ll become the best in your region, state, or the nation may be a want, but that has nothing to do with understanding how you’ll position for that achievement.

Don’t want to waste your time? Strategy failures often develop from the first mistake you make.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

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