Developing a Non-Profit's Strategy
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An example of the development of a strategy for a non-profit project to restore a Historic Julia Morgan building.
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Planning Large Programs
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An abstract introduction to the methodology we’ve developed to manage large programs over the past 20 years, through hundreds of client experiences around the world--from the $6B Saturn program at GM to multi-million & billion dollar solar and semiconductor fabs. They all share a common foundation in our best practice research into how teams deliver the right “thing” at the right time.
Read MoreDecision Modeling - The Basics (3)
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I’ll use a simple example of selecting a new car. Here are my three choices, a Porsche, a Lamborghini, and an electric car called Tesla.
Read MoreProduction Versus Project Thinking
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We’ve observed two distinct types of thinking, the process mindset associated with producing many things requiring an understanding of volume, yield, and quality--and then a second thought process associated with projects; which have a start and finish and where something is created... when done the team moves on. However, with the former, the team stays and continuously improves it.
Read MoreDecision Modeling - The Basics (2)
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The core of any decision is the goal, or statement of the problem that you are trying to solve. A well articulated goal is rare and we often use the modeling process to refine it with the decision stakeholders.
Read MoreDecision Modeling - The Basics (1)
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Introduction to decision analysisis a basic discussion of the decision modeling framework we use to engage decision stakeholders and accelerate many different types of group decisions.
Read MoreBeing Roughly Right... When to Act
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Being roughly rightis a key characteristic of the high performerswe’ve worked with over the past 20 years. They’ve made the conscious trade-off between having all the information to reduce risk versus being roughly right with a decision which is made sooner, and then using the time gained to refine the decision through a continuous improvement process.
Read MoreFocus... You Can't Do it All - Part A
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Project Portfolio is a discussion of how to prioritize projects, when resources are finite and you need to select the best portfolio of projects to maximize benefit, or in other words, “Those projects that give you the biggest bang for the buck.” How do you prioritize projects when resources are finite?
Read MoreFocus... You Can't Do it All - Part B
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In this screencast called “Part B” I will show you the third constraint type using Resources. We’ll deal with the same problem statement, “How to prioritize projects based on a limitation of resources.” We need to select the best project mix to maximize benefit in order to meet our objectives.
Read MoreFocus... You Can't Do it All - Part C
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In this screencast called “Part C” I’ll introduce the time dimension to the modeling process.
Read MoreChief Portfolio Officer (CPO)
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Converting strategy to portfolio mix/priorities; It's the job description and competency "set" for an organization's CPO.
Read MoreIntrinsic Drivers that Motivate High Performance Results
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Daniel Pink confirms what we've seen, since our first best practice studyin the early 1990's, about the intrinsic drivers that motivate people to achieve high performance results.
Read MoreVOC: What, Want, How & How Much
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In this presentation I’ll discuss a decision modeling concept we’ve developed that is based on voice-of-the-customer prioritization models created with our clients and their customers. We call this “What, Want, How, and How Much.” Many problems can be seen from this simple metric. The order of these are important, which you will see later.
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Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff
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A consistent and fundamental problem we see in our practice is too many projects and not enough resources (people, materials, equipment, and money). Why?
Read MoreThe Dinner Party
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We created this fictional "story" to describe a composite of obersations and experiences we've had over the years concerning strategy and the resulting product portfolio. Have you ever been to a Dinner Party like this?
Read MoreCost-of-Delay
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What is the cost of delay? It grew out of our best-practice research, where we observed successful new product development teams using various methods to quantify the cost of schedule delay.
Read MoreAggregate, then Drill Down
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Aggregate, then drill down by exception.One problem when assessing a multi-project portfolio is knowing where to focus. In some cases there can be hundreds of projects in various stages of completion.
Read MoreCreating Sustainable Change
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We were asked by a client to define the factors that determine the duration needed to create sustainable change.
Read MoreThe Rhythm of Accountability
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Refresh Planning... The weekly rhythm of refreshes is what makes them work. Team members know they are accountable to their colleagues every week at a set time. It can’t move and it can’t be postponed. And doing them more than once a week is even better, but they must be short and crisp value-added events.
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