All posts by jjones

Strategic planning is the process of looking ahead according to Eric Vo, a writer for The Hartford.  The strategic planning process involves a business, large or small, envisioning the success they’d like to have in the future and setting goals to get there. It’s not enough to just think about the future. Organizations should go about the process of developing a plan on how they will be successful by first determining which method they will use.  Regardless of the method employed, there are five key components that every strategic plan should include: the vision, mission, goals & objectives, action plans and a review process.  These components are the basic pieces that should be developed by an organization. The most important of the five steps is the vision. Some organizations create a vision for the company that is impossible to reach; This is a mistake.  A vision should be created and established as a realistic path to a future goal that is attainable in a set amount of time.

According to VP of Product at ProjectManagement.com, Stephanie Ray:

<A vision>…. states the current and future objectives of an organization. The vision statement is intended as a guide to help the organization make decisions that align with its philosophy and declared set of goals. It can be thought of as a roadmap to where the company wants to be within a certain timeframe. A vision statement is not only used in business, as nonprofits and governmental offices also use them to set goals.

A Vision for the Future

A famous quote from the Bible says, “with no vision, the people perish”.  How true!  In business, we could say it in these words: “Without a thoughtful determination of what the organization should be doing and where it should be going, it will not be successful.”

A vision may be crafted by the leadership within an organization, but it should be massaged by employees.  Why?  Because the employees carry out the execution of the strategic plan goals and objectives that employ the vision.  Without buy-in and participation from employees, a vision will fail to be effective.

Visioning Exercises

To get thoughtful interaction amongst leadership and employees, outside consultation may be beneficial in helping to lead productive exercises that culminate in consensus and shared understanding about what the goals and objectives of the organization should be.  A visioning exercise is a thought-provoking way to generate positive ideas about the future of the organization and what it will take to make it successful. Hari Srinivas, a leader at the Global Development Research Center, created a useful guide called “How to Conduct a Visioning Exercise”. See the full instructions on how to implement this exercise by clicking here.

The first step in your organization’s journey of developing a strategic plan is to create a vision. iSeek experts can guide you through the visioning and strategic plan development process. Contact us at [email protected] to start your journey.

Are you familiar with the reality show, “The Amazing Race”? On the show, teams embark on a journey. At every destination, each team must compete in a series of challenges, some mental and some physical, and only when the tasks are completed will they learn of their next location. Teams who are the farthest behind will gradually be eliminated as the contest progresses, with the first team to arrive at the final destination winning the contest. The journey of “The Amazing Race” is a lot like life, personal and business. The goal is to finish while successfully completing a series of tasks along the way.

The takeaway from this analogy is, it’s not good enough to finish the race but fail to complete the tasks along the way. And, it’s not good enough to complete all the tasks, but not finish the race. Finishing first after having satisfactorily completed all tasks is a whole ‘nother level, but it’s the goal.

Unlike “The Amazing Race”, in life, we often have the luxury of identifying potential challenges, assessing the effects each might have on our ability to meet our goals, then finding ways to mitigate the impact. Too, we often have the ability to adapt to, improvise around and overcome an unplanned event that has negatively impacted our goals.

In business, that process is called a Business Impact Analysis or Assessment (BIA). The BIA focuses on events that disrupt or impede a business’s ability to operate normally. The Business Continuity Institute, a professional organization focused on helping companies prepare for emergencies, says in its good practice guidelines that there are four main types of BIA:

• Initial BIA: This is a high-level analysis that serves as a framework for more detailed BIAs.
• Product and Service BIA: This identifies a business’s most important products and services and the impacts they would face.
• Process BIA: This analysis identifies the processes or workflows that are needed to deliver the most important products and services.
• Activity BIA: This identifies the activities that deliver the most urgent products and services.

Paul Kirvan, a fellow at the Business Continuity Institute, says that past events are the best source of information about what impact a disruption would have.

2020 has left us no shortage of unplanned events that have negatively impacted business operations in one or more ways. It’s safe to say, every business (mom & pop, small, large and enterprise) would benefit from an impact assessment. Perhaps the results from a BIA are strategies that catapult the business from surviving to thriving or the pivot roadmap or data-driven input to the annual business continuity or strategic plan update. Regardless, every business is, or should be, developing mitigation, pivoting, sustainability, growth or exit strategies.

iSeek Solutions, through our management consulting services, empowers businesses to meet their goals. So, of course, we facilitate Business Impact Assessments. Our Assessment often entails thorough assessments of one, multiple or all of these areas: business processes, technology platforms and infrastructure, human capital and organizational structure.

The goals of every business are akin to those of “The Amazing Race”. Contact us today to assist your business in assessing the impacting events of the past and developing mitigation strategies for the future. To learn more about us, check out our website, subscribe to our blog, or follow us on LinkedIn!

There are thousands of books, articles and literature that speak to exemplary principles in leadership.  In fact, you can find over 90,000 books on Amazon if you did a search on the broad subject of “leadership”.  The best sellers list includes favorites like The Five Dysfunctions of a Leader by Patrick Lencioni and Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek – indeed classics for anyone looking to enhance their leadership acumen.  Interestingly enough, only 2% of these leadership books focus on the blending of “leadership” and “crisis”. One may ask, “Is the relationship between leaders and the crises they face not a tangible subject of those who educate, pontificate and write?”  The small percentage of books on crises that we can find that focus on the “principles” of good leadership demonstrates the need for much more research and development on leadership in the state of crisis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have already seen over 10,000 books written on the subject of this crisis.  Of these books, we have seen some emphasis on the principles of good leadership as a critical component in resolving the crisis.  But not nearly enough.  As leadership guru John Maxwell posited in his book The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.…but knowing how to lead is only half the battle”.  In order to prepare leaders for the current and future epidemics of our era, more focus is needed on developing leaders in a state of crisis.

In Part I of Leadership in a State of Crisis we asked, “Is leadership an essential component in resolving a crisis?”. We answered the question by highlighting several examples where exceptional leadership created a shared agenda of listening and acting on a social contract.

A social contract is a commensurate exchange between a leader and a team established by a relationship that is linked together through human touch. In the midst of uncertainty, a social contract can capture the loyalty of employees, consumers and investors.  Be it government, corporate or private entities in crisis, leaders are called to approach difficult circumstances with an innate or trained mindset capable of navigating uncertain situations with emotional intelligence.

While leading in a state of crisis, there are 3 key features of leadership that must come naturally or be part of a leader’s professional development plan: The power to influence; The ability to make an impact; and The capacity to imagine positive change.

The power to influence. John Maxwell says, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less”.  In order to move a person, team or organization from their current state to where you want them to be, you must “influence” them. The academic approach to influencing others uses the art of persuasion which is a method of constructing thoughtful arguments.  A layman’s approach is to identify shared goals, then work to find commonalities that can be achieved together. According to leadership researcher Nathalie Drouin, transformational leaders are good at focusing on goals that are shared by everyone.  In a crisis, leadership is about influencing the emotions of the team to achieve a shared goal.

The ability to make an impact. Leadership coach Michael Dale wrote his doctoral dissertation on The Effect of Servant Leadership on Technology Project Outcomes.  He researched 10 leadership attributes and measured their impact on successful project outcomes.  As a result of surveying project leaders from around the world, the data indicated that positive outcomes were significantly impacted when leaders were committed to helping their team to grow. Growth can be defined as the achievement of personal and professional development goals ascertained by team members. Significant impact is what former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani referred to as the social contract developed during the tragedy that occurred on September 9, 2011.  During this crisis there was an exchange of shared goals between the leader and the team that ensured everyone would be successful. Leaders in a state of crisis can manage people during difficult circumstances by focusing on making a positive impact in their personal and professional lives.

The capacity to imagine positive change. Leaders imagine positive change when they’re capable of clearly communicating in words and behavior. Extraordinary leaders engage the team to imagine and construct well-thought out ideas that are not ignored but recognized and considered.  Leadership expert J. M. Burns says that imagination can run rampant in a positive and productive way when both the leader and team members wield power equally. In a state of crisis where good leadership is essential, a thoughtful and considerate imagination that is open to impromptu ideas and adjustments from the team has the power to produce positive change.

At iSeek, we believe that an investment in Professional Development for Leaders, regardless of the type, reaps numerous benefits for your organization. Professional Development positions your organization to create effective leaders with enhanced skills and greater insight to guide their teams through crises.

iSeek’s Learning & Professional Development professionals are educated and certified in industry-leading leadership curriculums. We facilitate bootcamps for those preparing to sit for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) and Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) certification exams offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Additionally, we provide training to enhance leadership skills. Our leadership series is based on the teachings of transformational leaders such as David Cottrell, best-selling author of the Monday Morning series and John Maxwell, a world-renowned leadership expert.

Visit our website to learn more about iSeek’s Learning and Professional Development program offerings including ways to upskill your leadership team’s acumen to prepare for a state of crisis. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn to be one of the first to know when new Resources and Insights are available. To create or customize a program offering to meet your organization’s Learning and Professional Development needs, you may contact us directly at [email protected].

Is leadership an essential component in resolving a crisis? It’s a yes or no question.  Fairly easy to answer if you have witnessed the profound impact that effective leadership has had on a society, country or organization in crisis.  In times of great difficulty, history has shown us the extraordinary difference that good leadership has made to counter the detrimental harm caused by mismanagement, mistreatment, and misuse. The question can also be answered by anyone who has witnessed the absence of good leadership in a crisis.

During the global financial crisis of 08’ & 09’, we witnessed a highly touted CEO named Martin Winterkorn come to Volkswagen to turn the automobile manufacturer around. While competitive brands such as Nissan, Toyota and Honda began to surface from the financial crisis, Winterkorn’s challenge was compounded by Volkswagen’s difficulties in dealing with new emissions standards.  In an attempt to address the challenges, Winterkorn made examples out of employees he perceived as lack-luster performers. He also sought to publicly humiliate workers who did not meet his standards of perfection. Trust and respect with his employees were absent resulting in distrust between leaders and workers. Using a command and power approach to leadership, Winterkorn failed to reduce the damaging impact of the crisis on Volkswagen.

Around the time of Winterkorn’s tumultuous failure at Volkswagen, a relationship-oriented leader named John Donahoe was at the helm of a fledgling online company called eBay. At this time, eBay had performed inoperably in an online market that was transforming into the new digital age.  Although eBay was one of the first online stores to reach prominence in the global marketplace, it was facing a financial crisis that would make or break its future.  eBay’s competition was against the likes of internet giant Amazon who had the majority share of the market. Donahoe had his work cut out for him, but his “human touch” approach to leading people was reciprocated immediately.  By engineering a culture of corporate loyalty through listening and acting on a social agenda, Donahoe captured deep seated loyalty amongst employees and investors. His capacity to apprehend the needs of people and connect them with corporate goals was key to a positive shift out of the crisis.

Leadership is an essential component in resolving crises. Corporate leaders such as Donahoe at eBay utilized the “human touch” approach to influence, impact and imagine positive change. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called it a “social contract” that established a relationship of trust between leaders and followers during the 9/11 crisis. In this current period of unparalleled crisis, leadership is needed to create a coalition of reciprocal trust between employees, investors, and consumers.

Well known leadership author, educator, and businessman Stephen Covey said, “Leaders are not born or made – they are self made.”  A “self made” leader is one that becomes successful by his or her own efforts, often through educational pursuits, mentors, or professional development.

At iSeek, we believe that an investment in Professional Development, regardless of the type, reaps numerous benefits for your organization. Professional Development positions your organization to create effective leaders with enhanced skills and greater insight to guide their teams through crises.

iSeek’s Learning & Professional Development professionals are educated and certified in industry-leading leadership curriculums. We facilitate bootcamps for those preparing to sit for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) and Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP®) certification exams offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Additionally, we provide training to enhance leadership skills. Our leadership series are based on the teachings of transformational leaders such as David Cottrell, best-selling author of the Monday Morning Series and John Maxwell, a world-renowned leadership expert.

To learn more about iSeek’s Learning and Professional Development programs visit our website. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn. To create or customize a program to meet your organization’s Learning and Professional Development needs, you may contact us directly at [email protected].

Management Guru, Peter Drucker said “Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives’ decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.”

Organizations struggle to balance their existing portfolio of projects with a growing list of new demands. While managing competing projects, these organizations are expected to maintain peak performance in their core services and operations.  Therefore, deciding how to prioritize and separate the strategic and high priority projects from lower priority projects can be a grueling task.  Emotions can run high when people debate what is important to them.  This is why a structured and objective approach can be helpful in achieving consensus and balancing the needs of the entire organization, along with the priorities of each stakeholder.  Using a decision matrix is a proven technique for making tough decisions in an unbiased way.

iSeek’s Decision Matrix (iDMX©) has been used by several organizations to support structured decision-making. Our clients have benefited greatly by using our tool to objectively weigh each of their competing priorities in an effort to select what is most strategic, transformational and operationally important to their organization and stakeholders. When deciding which decision matrix tool is right for your organization, you should consider what’s included in it.  The iDMX© provides:

• Help to consider complex and unclear constraints when there is a substantial number of benefits and value determining importance
• A quick and easy, yet consistent, method for evaluating options
• Enhanced objectivity by taking some of the emotion out of the process
• A quantified way to consider decisions with numeric rankings
• Adaptability to any priority-setting needs (projects, services, products, etc.)
• Flexibility when used by a single person or group of stakeholders who require engagement and agreement

To learn more about iSeek’s Decision Matrix (iDMX©) tool, visit the Resources page on our website. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn to be one of the first to know when new Resources and Insights are available. Contact us directly at [email protected].

Now, more than ever, the ability to effectively pivot might very well be the difference between thriving, surviving, or outright failing. Pivot, by definition, is a fundamental change in a company’s business model.

Whether the change is equipping the workforce to effectively work from home or shifting production from automotive parts to ventilators or deploying new business and technology platforms – change is challenging.

Over the past few months, we’ve highlighted the discipline, “Organization Change Management” (OCM), which addresses “the people side of change”. Change management has many moving parts, but the most important pieces are understanding the part people play, getting people on board and participating in the change.

In last month’s blog post, Organizational Change Management – Is your Organization Effectively Leading Change?, we identified two perspectives that are required to effectively manage change within a company: an individual perspective and an organizational perspective.

We stated that, according to Prosci, the organizational perspective is the process and activities that project teams utilize to support successful individual change. The individual perspective is an understanding of how people experience change.

As mentioned in our previous blog, change has become a constant. However, with change comes the natural reaction of employee resistance that organizations and leaders must be prepared for or what Prosci calls “proactive resistance management”. Resistance to change is one of the top obstacles to successful change. Here are 5 likely sources of resistance for almost any project:

• Uncertainty: Employees who are highly invested in the current way of doing work
• Pride of ownership: People who created the current way of doing work that will be changed
• Increased workload: Employees who expect more work as a result of the change
• Loss of Control: Those who advocated a particular alternative, say Option B, when Option A was ultimately selected
• Fear of the unknown: People who have been very successful and rewarded in the current way of doing work

Prosci | The Global Leader in Change Management Solutions states: How many times have you heard, “our employees are our most important asset”? Then, when it comes time for a change to be implemented, employees are sent an email on Monday for training on Tuesday for go-live on Wednesday. That is not the right way to treat people, especially the people that are your most valuable asset. By proactively engaging and supporting people in times of change, we demonstrate in action that we value them.

Investing the time and energy to manage the people side of your organizational efforts pays off in the end – in terms of success of the effort and avoidance of the numerous costs that plague poorly managed change.

Prosci’s ADKAR® Model describes change as successful when an individual has:

• Awareness of the need for change
• Desire to participate in and support the change
• Knowledge on how to change
• Ability to implement required skills and behaviors
• Reinforcement to sustain the change

If an individual is missing any of these five building blocks, then the change will not be successful. The goal, then, in leading the people side of change is ensuring that individuals have Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement.

Along with identifying why change is difficult and why some changes succeed while others are unsuccessful, the ADKAR® model also helps leaders identify what steps to take to prevent or mitigate resistance before it emerges and impacts the project and the organization.

Ultimately, change management focuses on how to help employees embrace, adopt and utilize a change in their day-to-day work. iSeek professionals trust and implement the Prosci ADKAR® Model to ensure thorough processes, minimal resistance and impact, and lasting change.

If you’re in the midst of pivoting, rethinking your strategy post-COVID-19 or making the necessary enhancements required to keep market share, don’t forget the “people side of change”. Let us help you navigate the change management process to mitigate change resistance and reach the intended ROI. Contact us today at [email protected]. Check out our website, subscribe to our blog, or follow us on LinkedIn for more insights!