Discovery Archives - Page 13 of 15 - Straightforward Consulting

Finally, strategic planning and project management for real people

This post is part four in a series of five covering the Straightforward Consulting approach to strategic planning. I've seen way too many strategic plans just sitting around collecting dust. And from my perspective, the reasons for that are as simple as this formula: Good intentions + bad focus in process + lousy execution = waste of time and money Good Intentions The previous article detailed the underlying issues with the MBA and PMI approaches…

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March 19, 2019

Discovery

Parfait Analysis

There's a great scene in Shrek where Shrek and Donkey are talking about the different layers people have, and how sometimes, what's on the surface isn't the same thing as what's underneath. Shrek tells Donkey that Ogres are like onions…they have layers. Donkey provides an alternate analogy…parfaits. Because people like parfaits. And not everyone likes onions. https://youtu.be/WXs_G8GFspg Ogres are like onions. But what about parfaits? There's an interesting lesson in that dialog. It's one of…

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February 12, 2019

Discovery / Momentum

Why you shouldn’t want it all

If you had a list of 10 things that you could do, but you only had resources to do 5, how would you go about picking which 5? How would you pick the 5 you would do? And more importantly, how would you pick which 5 you would NOT do? I've been there. A world of infinite possibilities! And by comparison, infinitesimal resources. When I find myself in that space, I use a simple, straightforward…

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February 4, 2019