Monthly Archives: July 2013

#211 No whining

Leave a reply
Send to Kindle

This is a problem when raising children, and this one is sure to be common across all cultures. Their incessant whining makes parenting more difficult than it has to be. But somehow both parents and children seem to get past the whining, the children grow up and enter the work force. But the lack of early training and conditioning means some (okay, many) kids bring their tendency to whine into the workplace.

Whining will drain your energy and your co-workers will feel a loss of energy when they listen to you. This is a good reason not to whine, but there is a more compelling reason.

Before you whine to your co-workers, you are whining to yourself in your head. You formulate your complaint, your negative thoughts, rationalize it in your mind, and prepare to deliver it. This is an utter loss of productivity. You may have conditioned yourself over many years, thus the habit may be hard to break.

Nevertheless, if you whine, even occasionally, it is time to change this behavior. Now.

Share

#210 The Strategy and Planning role

Leave a reply
Send to Kindle

Every organization needs a strategy and planning role. The only question is, who will perform the role?

First, what does this role do? A senior incumbent will shape and influence strategy. All incumbents will analyze strategy, facilitate conversations to define strategy, clean up ambiguities, resolve contradictions, and keep emotions under control. The output will be a list of initiatives and programs, an estimate of scope, complexity, cost, and a high level roadmap. The outputs will be reviewed and signed off by key sponsors and stakeholders.

In large organizations, this role will be performed by the Chief Strategy Officer. In medium to large companies, this role is performed by a PMO. In small to medium companies, this role is performed by consultants or some hapless soul who looks like he or she needs more work.

Some pieces of the role are core, and thus should be kept with or closely supervised by an employee. It is generally a thankless role and very few individuals have the fortitude to make a career out of it. If you do a tour of duty in a strategy and planning role, you will gain a broader perspective not to be had unless they get to a very senior position.

The most important thing to know about the role: it must be like a dial tone. Always on, always aware, reliable, always ready to connect the dots at a moment’s notice.

Share