Biases in meetings can undermine the effectiveness of strategic planning and the subsequent strategy the company chooses to follow, particularly when a strategic company decision is to be made. This article offers strategies to effectively managing biases in meetings. Advice given is to begin by including a diverse group of members to increase the level of critical thinking. Diversity of backgrounds, cultures, area of expertise, and ideas will broaden the range of perspectives and feedback.
Before the meeting takes place, be sure to assign homework to participants that includes collecting sufficient and accurate data from which to base decisions upon. Perhaps creating fact gathering teams charged with developing opposing hypothesis and actively discussing the key points.
Creating a “peer-like” atmosphere is yet another tip in managing bias by allowing members an opportunity to share experiences or data-driven opinions. In this atmosphere, encourage expressions of doubt and create a climate that recognizes reasonable people may disagree when discussing difficult decisions.
There will be better success if, prior to the meeting, leadership ensures members understand the purpose of the meeting (to make a decision) and the criteria needed to make the decision. In this stage, using the “postmortem technique” of looking ahead and imagining that the outcome has failed and then listing possible causes for the failure will help identify weaknesses in the proposal.
Article Quote:
“For the portion of the meeting where a decision is going to be made, keep attendance to a minimum, preferably with a team that has experience making decisions together. This loads the dice in favor of depersonalized debate by eliminating executives’ fear of exposing their subordinates to conflict and also creates, over time, an environment of trust among that small group of decision makers.”
Member diversity, creating an atmosphere that allows for data driven opinions, and postmortem techniques are all useful tips in taking the bias out of meetings in order to make better strategic decisions. It is very important to keep the focus of any meeting on outcome and action. In this case, the outcome focus in on making a decision, but the very next and equally important step is to develop an action plan that is in line with the strategic effort, resources, and ability to successfully carry out the action plan.
This lecture by Dr Ian Mackechnie is an excellent presentation on strategic management. It is part of the modules that are offered by the MBA at www.stamfordonline.com.
Strategic management requires a skill set that first starts with an assessment of the market and what stage the market is currently in. Identifying where the market is on the innovation curve is important because how you approach a new market or adapt within your current market helps strategic managers better position the business.
The closer to early adopter stage, the more your product will need to have, add, new, exciting features; the closer it is to early majority, the more you will need to emphasize stability and productivity;the closer it is to the late majority phase, the more you will need to emphasize ease-of-use and entertainment feature sets.
This lecture by Dr Ian Mackechnie is an excellent presentation on strategic management. It is part of the modules that are offered by the MBA at www.stamfordonline.com.my.
Most advice on strategic planning begins with a set of steps such as these:
1. Start by defining your Vision or your primary goal,
2. Next frame your Mission and Purpose
3. Then do a SWOT analysis (assess your strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats)
4. And finish up by building out a set of strategic initiatives.
A very important element missing from this list is reviewing the progress with a focus on outcomes. The outcome is the ultimate goal you with to achieve and is the reason why organizations engage in strategic planning. In order to remain focused on the outcome, one must consider the time remaining and what value the initiative will add to the outcome.
Many business professionals recognize the duty for operational planning but don’t necessarily embrace the habit. Strategic thinking or planning isn’t just for business plans and financial investors. It should be a routine part of your business day or another way to say it, a regular part of operations. Strategic thinking is the identification of where you are going with your business, department, or career. It is the journey toward your designated destination. Without knowing the ultimate destination, you will never know if you arrive successfully.
The really cool part about strategic thinking as part of operations is that you can determine the time frame. Sure there are reasons for having 3-5 year plans, but this journey for operations can be a weekend trip or a one month operation plan. I’ve actually had clients that would have panic attacks at the mere thought of planning for their business, department, or career. You may be one of those people that don’t plan anything or you may be one of those that plan every minute of your day. The important part is not the time established for the plan but the action that accompanies the movement toward the ultimate destination.
We all know people that live in a constant victim mentality state. They wait for things to happen to them or they live in constant surprise about what will happen next. These are the business professionals that never seem to accomplish their goals but live in turmoil not knowing when they will successfully reached their destination.
The purpose for the destination will be identified and the mode of transportation chosen. The journey will be marked with landmarks and milestones. You can decide who the passengers are for this journey and those that will simply be spectators. You will see billboards on this journey and detour signs. The journey may have obstacles that must be overcome or bypassed and future endeavors identified.
Strategic thinking is a process that can keep your career exciting and moving forward. Or you can be like the majority and let things happen to you. Some would consider the lack of planning more exciting or worthwhile but studies show that it is those professionals that determine the journey that have more successful results in their careers, companies, and businesses.
According to a 2007 survey conducted by Career Builders, 84% of Americans do not like their jobs. Many of those same people have allowed others to determine their destination and journey. Come with me as we plan our trip. Take control of your destination and create your journey. ~Operational Strategies
Possible risks and profits to be made can usually be predicted if the majority of traders only had more accurate forex forecasting tools to base their trade decisions on. Forex forecasts are only one way of keeping up with the volatile Forex market. Success will depend the most in knowing what and who will affect the rate changes on a regular basis.
In Forex forecasts, nothing specific is given. If you have seen a forex forecast, be sure to check on some projected rate fluctuations wherever possible so you would have an idea it the forex forecast is realistic or not.
Keeping up to date with the latest news and happenings around the world can help traders determine when is the best time to buy, sell and stay away from a particular market. All these things are important in the performance of your trade in the Forex market. Some Forex forecasts if only to serve as guide for making trade decisions on. Relying only on one forex forecast is not the thing to do. You should at least have some more determining factors in the process of making an investment decision.
In the end, Forex forecasts can be a very good source of information, but the real advantage these days is technology. With new smart trading Forex robots that can predict as much as 90% of winning trades, the possiblities are endless.
Technology has drastically changed and now the power really lies with the individual investor. With many quality Forex trading systems available for a low price, anyone can get started trading currency online with as little as $300 to start investing with. With the recent turmoil of the U.S. Stock Market and Wall Street, the Forex marketplace is getting more attractive to the average investor each day. Now that you know you can have an access to the world’s number one currency market what’s holding you back?
Few companies would argue about the benefit of a comprehensive Disaster Recovery plan that covers all areas of the business and holds the key to successfully resuming day to day business activity should the worst happen.
Most companies would be pretty unlucky to suffer from huge downtime due to things like fire, flood or theft. act of terrorism generates a huge measure of column inches and the effects of something like 911 are truly devastating however even in the current climate these occurrences are thankfully few and for between.
What is more likely to happen is an email server failure, a corrupt database or the network being compromised by a computer virus. Guarding against this type of outage should be the bare minimum a firm should cater for, even though most of us could manage for a few hours without email, for some businesses this would lead to a huge loss in revenue.
If a server failed completely, most IT Departments wouldn’t promise delivery of the service back up and running normally in anything less that a day because this would mean relying on tape backups to rebuild the data held by the server. Commonly accepted logic is that tape isn’t all that reliable (a side issue is that most companies don’t perform regular tape restores, so don’t know how good the data on the tape is – even if they can get it back).
If a business can ‘get by’ for a couple of days without the server in place then this tells us how critical to the business this particular server or application is. For these servers using tape isn’t probably too much of a concern, but for other more mission critical application, hanging around while the hardware is rebuilt is unlikely to have the FD jumping with joy.
For critical applications see about some ‘on-site’ data replication. What this means in elementary terms is that the data on Server A is replicated real time to Server B. Should server A fail, it’s a simple matter to failover to Server B, normally within a couple of minutes. Because the data has been replicated up to point of failure the users won’t lose lots of data and the system will be up and running much quicker.
Of course, this provide s local high availability which although gives protection against server failure it doesn’t provide any real Disaster Recovery, if the office burns to the ground, the data will be lost. However, having invested in this local high availability solution it’s a relatively simple process to replicate the data off-site as well and deliver a true local and remote high availability and Disaster Recovery solution.
Disaster Recovery can be seen as an expensive luxury but it really depends on how you view it and more importantly how you implement it. In the current economic climate you can probably think of lots of other things to spend your limited budget on, however can you really afford for your main business systems to be off line? The good news is that you can identify the key processes that make up your business and the IT platforms that support it, you have your starting point and like all things, it doesn’t have to cost a kings ransom.
One last thought for those who see Disaster Recovery a bit like insurance policy, do any of you not bother with house insurance?
What is the foundation of leadership?. When looking up at a skyscraper, all you see is what is visible above ground. The building blocks holding the structure in place is largely unseen. But the foundation has to be strong, otherwise the entire building will fall. Similarly, the foundation of effective leadership is largely invisible. But it is composed of two behaviors. One is building trust. The other is generating what I call “spark.”
Quantum Leap 1: Align the Core Values …………………………… 1
Quantum Leap 2: Sharpen the Focus ……………………………….. 31
Quantum Leap 3: Lead Through Others ……………………………. 54
Quantum Leap 4: Manage Decisions Well …………………………. 80
Quantum Leap 5: Accelerate the Pace of Change ……………… 117
Quantum Leap 6: Stimulate the Creative Process ………………. 150
Quantum Leap 7: Spread Systems Thinking ……………………… 170
Quantum Leap 8: Communicate in 12-D ………………………….. 198
Quantum Leap 9: Start With Yourself …………………………….. 220
Quantum Leap 10: Help People Assume Responsibility ………. 250
About the Author ……………………………………………………….. 279
Index ……………………………………………………………………….. 281
In the book, the ten quantum leaps are fully explained, with examples and action steps to develop these areas within your own organization.
In times of increasing complexity and accelerating change, there is no better time to pick up “Leading at Light Speed” and read its step-by-step systems and tools for becoming an effective leader and creating a high-performance organization. It reveals astonishing tips, tools, and systems we have discovered over the past 10 years consulting leaders to build the best performing organizations in the USA and the world. These are nonprofit, private, and public companies. Regardless of what type of corporation or organization you have, you can benefit from the tools inside Leading at Light Speed.
Add Leading at Light Speed to your arsenal today!
Written by Eric F. Douglas, the CEO of Leading Resources, Inc – providing consulting services for leaders and leading organizations. Workshops, tools, and management consulting to help your organization succeed in times of accelerating change.
With no regard for the sort of business you are engaged in, there is certain to be a particular time of the year when your business would possibly not be as flourishing.The slowdown season could be a period of great stress for entrepreneurs. The level of stress can be significantly minimized if entrepreneurs plan bit ahead and implement some smart methods.
The slowdown season is best dealt with by setting lower targets. After all, during this time phase, your business isn’t highly likely to make as much profit as at other times. So, accept the fact that the sales and target goals must come down and intimate your staff about the same. Reduced targets will help them concentrate more on the job at hand and bring the company back into maturity,rather than getting stressed out over the slug.
Work more during the top season. You know there will be a downfall, so it is just reasonable that you prepare for it in advance. Put in a little during the peak season so you can make up for the losses that you will incur when the business slows down.This will help strike a balance and keep your troubles away. Since you have just made up for the slowdown season, you will not have your stress levels rising as the business begins to go slow.
Go in for promotions. They are a sure shot means to makes your business go great guns. It is advisable to keep all the discount schemes and offers for the slowdown season of the year. There isn’t any denial of the fact that the pocket friendly schemes can send an open invite to all the customers.This can prompt them to buy the products which they might not truly be needing. As an example you have a business of the air conditioners you can sell them in winter season by introducing several discounts and offers. You will be stunned to see the increasing number of customers interested in making a purchase.
Pep up your advertising. Surely,you advertise all around the year even when your business would possibly not be in dire need of it. Escalate your advertising a bit. It may not help yield great results but it will certainly take your business up by a notch.However, you must make certain that the amount you spend on advertising yields equivalent lesser results.
The abovementioned smart strategies will help you a lot to fight out the slowdown phase of your business. If you think that you can not witness the downfall in your business, go on a vacation with your folks and take a break. When you will come after enjoying and holidaying, you will notice that the slowdown season has come to a close and thus you are all prepared to start working with the peak season again.
The corporate world today is all about cut throat competition where every company tries to outdo the other. In such a scenario, it is advisable for you to make your business, competition-ready by introducing new and unique schemes for clients.Here we look at how you can take your business forward with the help of promotional gifts.
Promotional gifts can help your business in various different spheres. One of the most significant things it can regularly assist you with is a rise in sales. Many companies decide to give away free presents with their product. And these schemes in turn, go a long way in securing sales and further business. They help lure in new clients and also encourage old patrons to indulge in bulk buying.As a consequence,you could see a major increase in your sales figures.
Promotional giveaways are also used by certain corporations as a means to bolster their bond with their customers and staff.Giving them to the latter group could make them feel cared for and sought after.Giving them to your clients, otherwise,will help strengthen business ties. However, the gift you choose for your clients should be selected very carefully as you can’t give them anything that’s lackluster.
In the present day situation, firms are investing a lot in advertising to promote themselves and any promotional gifts that they give away can contribute directly to publicity for the company. As an example,a promotional umbrella outlined with your company name will get you spotted by countless people on the streets. Compared to a little advert in the paper,this form of promotion is certain to grab many more eyeballs.
If you’re a latterly set up business organization, these promotional gifts can play a much more major role for you. They can be of valuable aid in selling your business. With these gifts at your aid,you will not have to try too earnestly to inform people about your existence. Distribute them in cineplexes, shopping centers,markets, schools and you are sure to get spotted in no time at all.
Considering all that these promotional gifts have to offer, it only makes sense if you put them to be used in your business. In case, you are considering using these gifts, you have one or 2 options to choose from. Pens, mouse mats, umbrellas, mugs, paperweight, notepads, sticky notes, stress toys…you name it and you have it. You can easily pick one that suits your budget and use it to the best of your advantage. But, make sure that these gifts are well printed with your business name and logo.
Thus,using promotional giveaways are a great way to garner publicity for a business, whether old or new. They’ll help promote your company while bracing your ties with clients and employees.
Have you ever wondered about supply chain logistics? You can get a good understanding of it by looking closely at a factory assembly line. Because through that manufacturing line, supply chain logistics are applied in a manner and method that keeps the line functioning and working.
The overriding demand for a cohesive supply chain plan begins when the line is started and ends when the product being manufactured is finally delivered into the hands of a satisfied customer.
Logistics, and more specifically, logistics management play a very important role.Along the way, logistics plays a crucial role. Before an assembly line is fired up, you have to determine what the specific parts of a product will be that will be integrated together. This typically is determined ahead of time by a design team. In fact, the very construction of any manufacturing efforts depends on how those different pieces will be put together and in what order.
Part of the supply chain management process even speaks to this: Will the creation of your product be automated or done by hand. Will it be manufactured by hand? Or will it a be a combination of both?
Applying supply chain logistics to this aspect of the assembly line means recruiting, hiring and scheduling a work force. Typically this becomes the duty of the human resources department. Although they may not like to refer to their personnel staff as supply, they are in essence a crucial element of the overall supply chain.
While a staff is being assembled, the logistics of the delivery of the various items needed to be worked out. These particular items could be coming from many different sources, which, for example, is the case of automobile manufacturing.
Inventory levels need to be at the correct stock levels to finish all the orders.If one piece of the puzzle is missing, the fulfillment line comes to a grinding halt. Part of working out supply chain management requirements is to insure enough inventory to complete a particular order. This should also include “back-up” parts in case there is a failure of any piece. Now that the parts are ready and the staff is in place, the assembly line can begin. But supply chain logistics are still an active part of this line.
What happens when the product is built?
It needs to be appropriate fulfillment management, according to the orders. There will also need to be a “shadow crew” of maintenance workers standing by in the event that some part of the assembly line breaks down. Planning for this well in advance of it happening is crucial to the proper execution of supply chain logistics.