Organizational Strategy

This section contains practical articles on strategic planning at an organizational wide level. Use this section to formulate, implement and evaluate your corporate and divisional strategies.

Strategy fundamentals

• When to do strategic planning. How to know when to do strategic planning. The top 10 reasons for doing strategy.
• What are visions and values. This article explains what an organizational vision and values are, and how to use them to solve organizational problems.

Strategic roles

• The new CEO's first 100 days.What are the most important leadership activities a new CEO or leader should focus on during his first 100 days? This article highlights how to win support, set ground rules, and create the focus.
• New CEO - how to prepare your first speech to your management team.One of your first tasks as a new CEO is to win the support of your management team. This tool shows you step by step, how to prepare a powerful first speech to your management team.
• The CEO's role in strategic planning.What makes strategic planning fail or succeed. Warning signs a CEO should take note of before, during and after a strategic planning workshop. How to set the tone for successful strategic planning.
• How to write a strategic plan - for CEOs and strategistsThis is not a simplistic one page strategic planning template. Rather this guide will help you to write a comprehensive strategic plan. One that you can present with confidence to a board of directors, a parent company, or an external funder.

• The role of a strategic planner or head of strategic planning. The roles played by the head of strategic planning, and his/her strategic planning department. .
• Head of strategic planning. How to negotiate the role that will make you successful within your own organization. The role of the strategic planning department differs from organization to organization, and is often the result of a negotiation. Use this tool to negotiate the role you should play within your own unique context.

Formulating strategy

• Strategy planning process. Plan a strategy workshop. Workshops often form part of a strategy planning process. But how do you go about planning for a successful strategy workshop? Strategy planning process. Select delegates for a strategy workshop. Choosing who to involve is an important part of any strategy planning process. Use this article to guide you in selecting delegates for a strategic planning workshop.
• Prepare for your strategic planning workshop. Pre-strategy interviews.Prevent politics from sabotaging your workshop. Get buy-in from delegates and creative input from important customers. Use our pre-strategy interview questions.

• Recession strategies. 5 strategies for managing during a recession. Recession strategies. 5 positive strategies that will build your organization during a recession.

Implementing strategy

• A CEO's guide to implementing strategy. What do you do, once your strategic plan has been developed? This article shows you how you can use your vision to lead your executive team. It then provides you with 12 steps for implementing your strategy throughout the organization.

• Strategy implementation case study. A strategy implementation case study of an intervention designed to help a frustrated CEO. It describes a workshop for his executive and management team.

Evaluating strategy

• How to evaluate a strategy. We invest a lot of time and energy in developing our strategic plans each year. But how do we know if we have achieved? How do we evaluate the end result of our efforts - the strategic plans? And how do we evaluate the process we followed to achieve our end result? Read this article if you need to evaluate a strategy.

This section is designed to support people who are managing innovation on an organizational wide level. It contains articles on innovation and innovation systems.

If you are:

• The head of an innovation function.
• A member of an innovation steering committee.
• A CEO or leader who is trying to create a culture of innovation in your organization.

then the articles and tools in this section will help you.

Set up an innovation system in your organization.

• Develop an innovation system. If you are starting an innovation function, or you are struggling to get people to submit ideas to an innovation, then read further.

Develop an innovation culture.

• Creativity and innovation management. Develop a supportive culture.Doing creativity and innovation management? Do you have the culture that encourages people to be innovative?

This section contains articles on change management, organizational development,and leadership. It is designed to support people who involved in leadership and organizational change or organizational development. If you are:

• A leader trying to implement change in his/her area.
• A head of a change management division.
• A head of an Organizational Development division.
• A CEO who is trying to cascade an organizational strategy or values throughout the organization, or manage a merger.
• A project manager working on a project that will impact on the entire organization.

then the change management, OD and leadership articles and tools in this section will save you months of development work.

Leadership

• Effective leadership styles.Effective leadership styles. This article examines both the dark side of leadership and its potential toxic effect on organizations as well as the light side of effective leadership.

Diagnostic tools for change management and organizational development

• Poor morale in the workplace - diagnostic toolA tool to help you diagnose poor morale in a team or organization. Based on a complex decision tree, this powerful coaching tool provides a quick way to diagnose a morale problem plus 40 + practical solutions.

Research on change management

• Change management research - resistance to change.A comprehensive change management research study on the challenges faced by executives, change consultants, human resource leaders and other change professionals. 1072 people were surveyed.

Sell the need for change

• Do you need to sell the concept of change management in your organization? Are you starting an internal change management function? Do you need to explain what change management is, and how it will benefit your organization or project? We have developed a set of slides that you can use in a presentation to your executive team or project team.

Build a change management infrastructure.

• Develop an integrated change management approach. Do you need to formulate a change management framework or integrated approach? Do you want to sell the concept of a change agent network into your organization? We have developed a set of slides that you can use in a presentation to your executive team.

Measure the effectiveness of change management.

• Change management dashboard - expert system. A high speed, visual change management dashboard. Use this expert system to assess the effectiveness of the current state of change management on a project and get advice on what you still need to do to ensure success.
• Qualitative measures- how to measure the soft side of an organization. Measuring impact rather than activities creates more meaningful measures for qualitative work in organizations.

Change management fundamentals

• Change management dictionary. Have you ever been confused with all the terminology around change management? Use this wonderful dictionary by Robert Gilbreath.

Roles played in change management

• Roles in change management.The three main roles played in change management. The leader of a change management department, a change manager or consultant and a change agent.
• The role of a change manager. From change agent to change master.The role of a change manager. From change agent to change master. The 9 different roles played by a change master. Qualities of a change master.
• Organizational change and development. Assess the competence your organization needs. Assess the level of change management or organizational development competence that your organization needs. The first step in determining the roles to be played in change management or organizational development.
• The role played by the head or leader of a change management department A detailed description of the roles, actions and skills of the head or leader of a change management department. Use this to develop a job description for the individual or team leading the change management function in an organization.
• The role of a change manager or consultant A detailed description of the roles, actions and skills of a change manager or consultant. Use this to develop a job description of a change manager or internal change consultant.
• The role of a change agent or champion A detailed description of the roles, actions and skills of a change agent or champion. A job description of a change agent.

Develop a change management strategy

• Why change fails. Ten reasons why change fails and why company strategies don’t get successfully implemented. Ten steps to manage change effectively in an organization.

• Manage resistance to change. Develop a change strategy How to develop a change strategy to overcome resistance to change. A useful tool for change managers, project managers, change consultants and anyone responsible for implementing a change that will impact on an organization.

Implement large scale, complex change.

• Successful mergers & acquisitions. How to manage a merger or acquisition successfully. What to do during each stage of the merger or acquisition.