From Vision to Impact: Aligning Goals for Maximum Productivity Establishing alignment between vision and delivery is crucial for monitoring outcome productivity and ensuring long-term success. In a recent survey conducted by Forbes, I was not only unsurprised but also relieved to find that 90% of senior leadership respondents "believe a strategic plan is necessary to [...]
Portfolio Management Through a Strategic Lens Linking delivery to purpose I have been fortunate to have worked with a very diverse range of organizations as part of their strategic planning process, and one thing is always consistent: there is a strong desire to link delivery to purpose. This connection is crucial in ensuring that every [...]
Bridging the Gap: Aligning Your Strategic & Financial Plans for Success Things are rarely predictable in the business world. Just when you think you've nailed your business plan, a curveball arrives, tossing your meticulously laid plans into the wind. We all remember 2020. The pandemic's arrival highlighted how quickly external forces can upend even the [...]
Stop Wasting Time and Money on Failing Projects Let’s face it: running a business, whether it’s a bustling city department, a thriving university, or a dynamic private enterprise, is a constant balancing act. You’re juggling priorities, managing resources, and striving to achieve ambitious goals. But amidst the chaos, a familiar feeling creeps in: the sinking [...]
Strategic Performance Made Visible with StrategyBlocks 6 We've all been there: a strategic plan gets announced with fanfare, but then gets buried under a mountain of emails and outdated information. Progress updates are hard to find, and decision-making feels stuck in the past. The world moves too fast for static plans and manual reporting. That's [...]
Why KPIs are Critical for Business Strategy Quantitative measurement is critical to a strong business strategy. Surprisingly, however, it is often overlooked. While there are any number of reasons why, many companies make the mistake of believing Key Performance Indicators (business metrics) are obvious and therefore don’t need to be clearly articulated as part of [...]
Measuring Success: Evaluating Company Strategy With Performance Metrics We talk a lot on this blog about how to create a successful strategic plan—after all, companies with clearly defined and documented plans grow 30% faster. But how do you know if your plan is successful? This can often be where strategy falls apart. As a recent [...]
Should Do or Need to Do? How to Spot the Difference in Your Business Strategy When trying to make decisions for your business it’s easy to get caught up on what you should do to succeed, versus what you need to do to succeed. If you’re having trouble spotting the difference, let’s be clear: the [...]
Strategic Portfolio Management: The 4 Key Categories of Portfolios The StrategyBlocks team are giving a lot of thought to the process of categorizing strategic thinking and activity. Through discussions with customers, there seems to be a consistent challenge: “what work management programs (projects, portfolios, initiatives) should we really be focusing on and investing in … what [...]
An Integrated Framework for Strategic Execution I do enjoy a great diagram, especially a visual framework or a methodology. I have seen many well constructed diagrammatic frameworks covering various aspects of business strategy including planning, execution, delivery, values, outcomes etc…. But they can be a bit dull and, on occasion, overly academic! I am always [...]
