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At the Crossroads: Piecemeal Programs or Culture Change?

The Practical Leader

Fad surfing in the C-suite often leads to dunking trainees in the training tank , slogans, improvement projects, marketing campaigns, motivational programs, educational fix-them efforts, etc. It’s typically executed with pushing rather than pulling through manipulation and bribery to “motivate” higher performance.

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“Nailed it.” A lesson in overcoming project complexity

Deming Institute

When your project shows signs of trouble, go basic first. Having been a consultant/leader with a Big 4 firm, my project experience is extensive and varied. Project work sometimes got complicated, and we’d have to resort to heroic measures to finish. Sometimes people got burned out, but we delivered. How did I figure this out?

Project 28
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What if the Miracle Question Worked with Corporate Teams?

Mike Cardus

A form of the Miracle Question: I tried a variation with a Project Team of Aircraft Engineers. The team and I had spent 3 days working through root-cause analysis and struggling to determine what was causing a certain screw to vibrate lose during flight. Also, this may help to establish goals. Wikipedia.

TRIZ 146
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Vital Keys to Leading a Fast, Flexible, and Agile Organization

The Practical Leader

In their frantic rush to implement the latest change program, many organizations have essentially said to their project teams, “don’t just sit there; improve something.” Stand-Alone Projects/Programs. Proactive Root Cause Analysis and Search for Systemic Changes/Strengths. Bolt-On Change Programs.

Agility 124
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Debriefing: A Simple Tool to Help Your Team Tackle Tough Problems

Harvard Business Review

Critical players get pulled onto another project. In business, debriefing has been widely documented as critical to accelerating projects, innovating novel approaches, and hitting difficult objectives. You also may want to hold one after significant events or project milestones. What caused our results?

Tools 8
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Data Can Do for Change Management What It Did for Marketing

Harvard Business Review

The failure of major transformation projects to deliver the expected benefits is a well-documented phenomenon : many change programs simply do not achieve their business goals. When a change practitioner talks about data, typically that is qualitative information, generated by a root cause analysis workshop or similar.

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6 Ways to Screen Job Candidates for Strategic Thinking

Harvard Business Review

When you are working on a strategic project in your current job, how do you go about identifying the relevant stakeholders across the firm? Alternately, you can ask them to list a few ideal or dream projects they’d like to work on in the future and then consider what percentage of those dream projects are strategic.