Supporting Prioritisation Across The Business
on May 11 in Priority, Understanding tagged Prioritisation, Teamwork by KeithBit of food for thought today.
We have been working with a client recently on a simple, clear way of prioritising both strategic and day-to-day demands on time (in this case for the IT department).
If It’s Too Hard, Abdicate It…?
At Critical Action, we’re great believers in the principle that managers and leaders can’t create two independent sets of priorities for strategic (”we must improve the business”) and tactical (”we must keep our users and customers happy”) activities, and abdicate to operational staff the balancing of the two in the real world. Read More
Making Improvements: Can Simple Really Work?
on Dec 01 in Priority, Understanding tagged Action, Analysis, Prioritisation, Strategy by Keith
Simple Tools...
One of our mantras is “keep it simple“, because we work in an area that is complicated enough to begin with!
When we look at how businesses can improve, it inevitably means having to maintain the big picture (where are we heading?) together with digging into the details (as they can often be the blockers). To drive simplicity through what we do, we evolved a very simple set of tools & reports, which we use to run projects.
Why simple, when we’re trying to analyse and solve complex problems? Read More
Project “P”s - Three or Five
on Aug 05 in Planning, Priority, Understanding tagged Objectives, Planning, Prioritisation by KeithIn a recent Twitter exchange with one of my friends (@eileenb), we were discussing productivity and planning. We covered things like the “5 Ps” (perfect planning prevents poor performance). As you might imagine, with a project manager’s hat on, things like the 5 Ps are stocks-in-trade for delivering the results clients need. My standpoint was slightly different though.
I suggested “3 new Ps” - Productivity, Priority and Purpose. Read More
Managing Elephants in Rooms
on May 17 in Blog, Priority, Understanding tagged Analysis, Planning, Prioritisation by KeithRisk For The Rest Of Us - Managing Elephants in Rooms
Risk Management is a huge area with lots of specialist people, companies, books, qualifications and so on. So should we even go there if we’re not black belts…? And what’s this about elephants? Read More
Perfectionism - Enemy of Priority?
on Jul 14 in Priority, Understanding tagged Analysis, Prioritisation by KeithBusiness improvement thoughts come to me in the strangest places…
We’ve just had a period of sunshine and rain that has been great for the grass in our horses’ field, but it has also caused the ragwort to sprout. Ragwort is poisonous to horses and needs to be thoroughly eradicated from fields (I think it may even be an offence to knowingly let it grow).
This means going out with a special fork to remove the plants including the deep roots. My wife asked me to concentrate first on the plants that had grown enough in the week to flower, to prevent them going to seed and exacerbating the problem.
Being my usual self, I set out with the wheelbarrow and fork, determined to clear every last vestige of ragwort from a 3 acre field. Read More