strategy

New clichés for organization development

Jargon, clichés, rhetoric – talking while saying nothing. Companies develop their own language or accepted terms. Professions develop their own lingo. People use stock phrases or go-to frameworks. All of these are an attempt to communicate, to create a common understanding, to fit in, to prove what you know, and to make sense of [...]

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Tagged as: change management, facilitate, facilitation, meeting, organization development, strategy

4 questions leaders need to ask … themselves

Leaders at the top of the organization are accountable to deliver results. Some leaders believe results come from questioning others. Here are 4 questions leaders need to ask themselves, before they begin to ask anything of others: When’s the last time someone disagreed with me in a meeting? What am I teaching? Am I getting [...]

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Tagged as: leader, leadership, motivation, strategy

What Steve Jobs reminds those in technology

Steve Jobs retired last week. Steve Jobs had incredible impact as Apple CEO as well as a cultural icon whose products re-shaped and re-defined our relationship with technology. Steve Jobs’ retirement reminds those in technology that a liberal arts view to their work could serve them better. It might be a stretch to say Apple is [...]

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Tagged as: Apple, Bill Gates, Brian Solis, Deidre Breakenridge, human resources, information technology, liberal arts, Microsoft, Steve Jobs, strategy, technology

Who knows?

In collaboration, there is a notion that we share thoughts and perspectives of what we know to make better decisions. What we know and share is important for context to any decision and you may have seen some or heard something similar to this: What you know you know, What you know you don’t know, [...]

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Tagged as: coaching, communication, decision, information, leadership, strategic planning, strategy

Influence of The Modern Firm

The Modern Firm: Organizational Design for Performance and Growth by John Roberts Brief: The most fundamental responsibility of a general manager is to craft strategy and design an organization where the strategy can succeed within the economic, political, legal, regulatory, social, and the technological environment the firm operates. A direct challenge to the design is finding alignment within the [...]

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Tagged as: economics, influen, influence, innovation, leadership, management, organization design, strategy

Your company social media strategy reflects organization culture, part 1

If you want an idea of your organization’s culture there is no simpler place for this insight than your organization’s social media strategy. Companies who view social media only as a marketing vehicle miss far more than an opportunity to engage. It is as likely these companies have lost their employee’s motivation in similar fashion [...]

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Tagged as: communication, culture, marketing 2.0, organization development, policy, social media, strategy, web 2.0

The best meeting icebreaker to break the ice

Meeting icebreakers can be as painful as a bucket of ice down your shorts. The icebreaker’s intent? Loosen things up, meet people, set the stage for effective work. The challenge, if you are going to use an icebreaker, is to understand the difference between hokey and intentional. Know your audience is a constant refrain. But sometimes, [...]

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Tagged as: facilitation, ice-breaker, icebreaker, meeting, strategy, team, teams

Getting it done versus getting it accomplished

Some people, and some organizations, can confuse very elemental operational concepts. The confusion is tough to trace to a culture issue or a perception issue between getting it done versus getting it accomplished. Getting it done means you care more about finishing than about quality. Very different terms. Very different concepts. An alternative way to [...]

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Tagged as: goal, leadership, management, milestone, project, strategy, task

The final frontier of competitive advantage

Competitive advantage: the final frontier. Today only 2 areas remain for competitive advantage: talent management and project management Put another way, an organization has 2 ways to beat their competition: their ability to motivate people and their ability to reliably deliver projects. Talent as a hard asset Hiring the right talent and keeping that talent [...]

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Tagged as: competition, hiring, motivation, organization development, organization performance, project management, strategy, talent

The bureaucracy option to manage risk

Does organization culture benefit with bureaucracy? Bureacracy may, indeed, provide organizations a strong case to manage risk. Policy, procedure, and bureaucracy tend to creep as an organization grows in size: revenues, market share, employees. While a small organization may have flexibility and ad hoc procedures based on 1-on-1 interactions, as an organization adds people the [...]

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Tagged as: bureaucracy, bureaucrat, business process reengineering, culture, policy, procedure, process, risk, strategy

Project management is useless without scale

Project management is a profession. Project management is a discipline. Project management is a skill. Project management is a function. Project management is a knowledge Project management is useless without scale and project management helps no one if it is not scaleable. Compare an accounting function of a Fortune 50 company to an accounting function in a 60-person organization. The [...]

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Tagged as: accountant, accounting, management, manager, project, project management, project work, risk, strategy

Communication, change, and your mission – if you choose to accept it

Change is fun for some: the energy of the unknown, the passion instilled in people looking forward to a new adventure. Some embrace the unknown as an opportunity to both learn, grow, and stretch their current perspectives. Change is pain for some: the feigned excitement for heading into unknown, the new roles and responsibilities to [...]

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Tagged as: actions, change, change management, communication, goals, objectives, strategy, vision

Fistful of beans 03/30/2011

4 things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. Still too big to fail — CFO Magazine Too-big-to-fail is defined as the government using taxpayer dollars to rescue “systemically important” banks. Few debate that the expectation of bailouts provides banks little incentive to guard against excessive risk. Today the solutions being debated may elevate overall [...]

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Tagged as: CFO, coaching, innovation, magazine, mission, strategy, Talent Management, The Economist, vision

An organization intervention is not an organization inquisition

Proposals for organization intervention, from business process reengineering to Lean initiatives, typically focus on problems to be solved. Many of these organization interventions for change, however, soon look like organization inquisition. As once a problem is identified, the problem is the focus to diagnos soon both the organization and the people involved pointed out as [...]

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Tagged as: AI, Appreciative Inquiry, change, change management, intervention, organization development, strategy

Business strategy failures are project management failures

The essence of strategic change is not a new direction, but a series of directives on what to start, what to stop, and what to continue. After all, a strategic plan really acts as a roadmap or charter for change. A plan not carried out is a project failure. The difficulty of strategy implementation is a [...]

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Tagged as: culture, executive plan, management, plan, project, risk, scope, strategic planning, strategy

Fistful of beans 02/09/2011

5 things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. Apple, With or Without Steve Jobs — Bloomberg Businessweek Perhaps there is a coincidence last week’s Fistful of Beans presented an article to divine Google’s possible transformation through their leadership queue, but it looks like Apple is heading into their own multiple-choice risk scenario. Now [...]

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Tagged as: Apple, Bloomberg Businessweek, Chief Learning Officer, CLO, diversity, Diversity Executive, fistful of beans, magazine, positive deviance, risk, scenario planning, strategy, The Atlantic

Crowdsourcing your organization strategy, what’s to appreciate?

Crowdsourcing relies on people to participate in a meaningful process as potential partners. In crowdsourcing people who were formally known as the customer now become the collaborator. The power of collective collaboration can not only drive product innovation, but has been leveraged for decades to build organization strategy. Where most organization strategy process finds more [...]

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Tagged as: AI, Amanda Trosten-Bloom, Appreciative Inquiry, Bernard Mohr, change, change management, crowdsourcing, David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, inquiry, Jane Magruder Watkins, Jeff Howe, Robyn Stratton-Berkessel, strategy

The value of information and the link to development

Information is not competitive advantage, knowledge is competitive advantage. What you know is information, only when you socialize your information does it then have potential to become knowledge. An organization’s socialized knowledge is really their competitive advantage and information and knowledge are both human capital issues. Enterprise knowledge management is a critical strategic need and [...]

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Tagged as: actions, communication, competitive advantage, development, goals, information, knowledge, knowledge management, linkage, objectives, socialize, strategy

Fistful of beans 01/19/2011

5 things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. The tussle for talent — The Economist Successful companies integrate talent development with their broader strategy to ensure that companies are more than the sum of their parts. P&G, for example, likes its managers to be both innovative and worldly: they cannot rise to the [...]

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Tagged as: acquisition, fistful of beans, HR Capitalist, human capital assessment, magazine, strategy, talent, The Atlantic, The Economist, Wall Street Journal

Ernest Byers, Project Manager, Massachusetts General Hospital

“‘Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment…’ “The opener to a timely and effective comment made by Toby at a organizational planning meeting I attended with him. Despite tempest external conditions (New England winter), and unpredictable internal dynamics (half dozen tired, over worked, and hungry professionals), conditions not too far removed from a corporate board room, his [...]

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Tagged as: accomplishment, activity, alignment, Ernest Byers, mission, organization, organization planning, strategy, visions

Fistful of beans 12/29/2010

5 things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. Speed to Market: Increasing Knowledge Velocity — Chief Learning Officer Magazine The most pressing strategic learning need facing business today is managing knowledge needed by front-line performers. There is a prevailing belief that management knows best and front-line employees just need to be told [...]

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Tagged as: CFO, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Learning Officer, CLO, Fast Company, fistful of beans, human capital assessment, Human Resource Executive, human resources, influence, learning, social media, strategy, The Atlantic

The pain with change

Bill Hybels, on stirring change, says, “Leaders move people from here to there… The first play is not to make ‘there’ sound wonderful. The first play is to make ‘here’ sound awful.” Though this is a quote on leadership, the key to so many change mantras is that change only comes about when the level [...]

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Tagged as: AI, Appreciative Inquiry, Bernard Mohr, Bill Hybels, change, change management, community, Jane Magruder Watkins, leadership, organization development, strategic planning, strategy

Fistful of beans 12/22/2010

5 things I’ve seen, read, or thought might seed results: 1. Is the belief that mergers drive revenue growth a delusion? — McKinsey Quarterly To evaluate a merger’s success evaluate the impact on revenue. Revenue determines the outcome of a merger, not costs; whatever the merger’s objectives, revenue is what hits the bottom line harder. [...]

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Tagged as: advertising, Bloomberg Businessweek, Boston Globe, CFO, change, Chief Learning Officer, Competing Values Framework, EI, Emotional Intelligence, Fast Company, fistful of beans, intelligence, IQ, M&A, management, marketing 2.0, McKinsey, McKinsey Quarterly, media, mergers and acquisitions, strategy

The 2 most important learning metrics

CEOs care about learning programs. To gain more executive-level interest, guess what learning and development folks? CEOs want metrics. The learning metrics you may have collected and reported on might need adjustment to become important to an executive. The organization challenge that leader’s need to recognize is that an organization’s ability to learn and to [...]

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Tagged as: development, human capital strategy, impact, Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Learning, Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Evaluation Model, learning, metrics, roi, strategy, training

Recap: Emotional Intelligence

Social intelligence, social competence, emotional competence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, emotional adaptiveness, emotional quotient, emotional intelligence, EQ, and EI. There are many schools and many thoughts about what is and is not emotional intelligence. And just as many tools that attempt to measure, monitor, and predict the impact of emotional intelligence. For me, Emotional Intelligence [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, EI, emotional competence, Emotional Intelligence, EQ, hiring, recruiting, social competence, strategy, VC, venture capital

Mergers and acquisitions systems thinking strategies, part 2

Many mergers and acquisitions fail to understand the full impact of what systems truly encompasses. When evaluating merger integration risk the reality is true integration risk identification can only happen with an evaluation of systems integration. However, systems strategy discussions frequently devolve into information technology systems strategies. As much as the information technology needs an [...]

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Tagged as: integration, M&A, mergers and acquisitions, portfolio, private equity, Roger Evered, strategy, systems theory, systems thinking, Thomas G. Cummings, VC

In review: Mergers and acquisitions systems thinking strategies, part 1

October 2010 in review. A roundup of blogs from the previous month: Mergers and acquisitions systems thinking strategies, part 1 — Leadership, management, and talent create and sustain organization success. The total environment of an organization is a major determinant of corporate choice and corporate success. A key to change is circular reasoning — Supporting the [...]

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Tagged as: change, change management, communication, cost of culture, leaders, risk, strategy, trust

Mergers and acquisitions systems thinking strategies, part 1

I transitioned into a human capital focus gradually over my career. My collected experiences just overwhelmingly led me to realize without commitment, understanding, and ownership you have little hope of individual, team, or organization success. What on earth brought about a mergers and acquisitions systems thinking approach? Well where we are usually has a lot [...]

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Tagged as: change, change management, human capital assessment, human capital strategy, Kenneth Boulding, Leonard Lewin, M&A, mergers and acquisitions, Robert Ornstein, Roger Evered, strategy, systems theory, Thomas G. Cummings

What for-profits can learn from non-profits

For-profits commonly look down upon the management and staff of non-profits as woefully inefficient. Non-profits are hounded relentlessly to operate more like for-profits. An Economist article, Profiting from non-profits, writes about the reverse flow of innovation for-profits can gain from non-profits. When I mentioned non-profits, charities might come to mind first, but non-profits covers: hospitals, [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, for-profit, motivation, non-profit, private, strategy

9 views into your organization with a project management lens

Project management offers a way to breathe new life into your organization’s competitive and operational advantage, but why is project management seemingly stuck in engineering or scientific theory? Project management may look like an engineering, top-down control process, but project management is less process and more a discipline: like accounting. Anyone familiar with accounting knows asset [...]

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Tagged as: John Kotter, leading change, management theory, organization change, project, project management, Project Management Institute, strategy

A key to why so many companies blow it in social media?

Last week I posted Marketing interruption still trumps engagement, really? I quoted global brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin’s Advertising Age blog where he presents his case that brands have always had it correct: Brands always had conversations with consumers, whether via broadcast TV or chiseled on clay tablets. The rules have also been consistent over [...]

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Tagged as: advertising, communication saturation, Conversation Prism, engagement, Marketing, social media, strategy

Organizations don’t change, people change

Organizations are, quite simply, made up of social interactions: groups of people. Organizations will not change if people do not change. There is no such thing as organization change, they don’t change, people change. All change: transformation, business process reengineering, technology implementation, mergers & acquisitions, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, strategic planning or, if you [...]

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Tagged as: change, change management, Charles Darwin, leading change, organization development, project management, strategy

Organization development is business growth

Organization development has yet to earn a role in all organizations. Only the most progressive companies even have an organization development role, staff, department, or group. The challenge to organization development success is that it is hard to find a linear trajectory for success. Organization development may have clear goals, but the reality, there is rarely [...]

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Tagged as: Boston, Fortune 500, Massachusetts, MassBayODLG, network, networking, new england, new york, od, ODNNY, organization development, organization performance, SBODN, silicon valley, strategy

Media’s two tribes – Rupert Murdoch’s Wall

In a follow up to July 12th’s post Media’s two tribes – charging for content Th Atlantic’s James Fallows reports The Times of London has placed their bet you will love their headlines so much you will pay for the opportunity to read the article. Click on any link within The Times and you are [...]

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Tagged as: content, Google, James Fallows, market, media, news, pricing, strategy, The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal

Bill Beyer, Partner, Deloitte Consulting

“Toby worked with me at Deloitte, he was excellent at strategy, developing conceptual organization models that when implemented had huge impact. He did not fall into the trap of changing reporting lines but looked at holistic organizations and performed interventions that were long lasting and effective. “He is a great communicator and a guy that [...]

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Tagged as: Bill Beyer, communicator, Deloitte Consulting, effective, impact, interventions, models, strategy

Media’s two tribes – charging for content

The lines are drawn: charge for content, give content for free. In Media’s two tribes The Economist breaks down the thought of charging for premium content over giving content away. In this article from The Economist, read about what 2 UK media outlets weigh in their chosen strategy as well a look at some of the [...]

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Tagged as: Apple, content, Google, iPad, Kindle, market, media, pricing, strategy, The Atlantic, The Economist

The maven or the laggard – Clive Thompson’s view

Those early market adopters, the techno-weenies that stood in line for Apple’s iPhone 4, they represent only about 13.5% of the potential market. It seems many consumer and technology products look for the big splash that Apple seems to land as a sign their company and their product are cool, hip, and successful. Early adopters [...]

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Tagged as: Apple, Clive Thompson, innovation, iPhone, market, product launch, strategy, technology, Wired

Scope or: how to manage projects for organization success, part 1

Organizations rely on projects to remain competitive. Projects are the way organizations deliver and realize their executive strategies. The ability to deliver a project is the ability to compete. Scope kills projects and projects that are not delivered kill organizations. Scope is one of the most important ways to manage project success. And when projects [...]

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Tagged as: communication, organization development, portfolio, project management, project work, resistance, resources, risk, scope, scope management, strategy

Low risk, low return human resources

My 11-odd-years in business and talent management consulting [the other 9 in marketing] have shown a few disturbing trends that I see from most poorly-run companies. These type of organizations, across all industries, ascribe to, what they believe is a low risk strategy, but in reality it is a low return strategy for human resources: [...]

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Tagged as: diversity, innovation, interview, job competency, job description, knowledge, recruiting, return on talent, risk management, skills, strategy

Isn’t it enough that I told them?

Does your organization communicate or inform. Does your leader invite conversation at the table? Does your leader offer an environment of dialogue? If the answer is no, how does that affect organization motivation throughout all levels? Do your project leaders and project sponsors sit around the table and audit the failed implementations with comments like [...]

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Tagged as: collaboration, communication, conversation, dialogue, failure, John Kotter, leadership, leading change, strategy

Talent score report brought to you by your credit agency

How’s your credit score? Perhaps I could ask another way, how accurate is your credit score? Perhaps another way, how accurate is your credit score in assessing your talent, management, or leadership potential? According to Equifax, their internal assessments “directly aligns human resources to overall organization goals” and you can read about it here: Talent [...]

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Tagged as: assessment, leadership, strategy, workforce performance

Jane Stachowiak, Director, Student Wellness & Health Promotion-LiveWell, Berklee College of Music

Working with Toby Elwin in 2009 I was fortunate to reverse the role of mentor/mentee. The mentor (me) received great advice and help from someone I have been mentoring over the past two decades. Toby Elwin played a major role at Berklee College of Music in transforming its student 8-page print newspaper into an electronic [...]

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Tagged as: Berklee College of Music, facilitate, Jane Stachowiak, Marketing, mentor, project management, reference, social media, strategy

All hail the solution to the micromanager

How to handle the micromanager? Raise your hand if you love working for a micromanager? Are you a micromanager? You can raise your hand if you are, no one else knows, actually everyone already knows. Micromanagers grind work to a halt. If there is no confidence in work getting done, the fish rots from the [...]

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Tagged as: Deloitte Consulting, management, Michael Raynor, micromanager, operations, organization development, Requisite Organization, requisite uncertainty, strategy

The NFL draft and your company recruiting strategy

There is little doubt each National Football League (NFL) team spends an extraordinary amount of resources preparing to draft their number 1 pick. An NFL team’s number one pick is intended to be the team’s future star and this year the NFL draft has changed their format to glorify the first round draft even more. [...]

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Tagged as: assessment, human capital assessment, Jamarcus Russell, management, NFL, NFL Draft, NFL Oakland Raiders, Oakland Raiders, Ryan Leaf, strategy

Human capital assessments – the symptom or the disease

The drive to evaluate operations and to contain costs is mistakenly applied as an operational issue across the board. Too often human capital assessments are lumped into the systems theory world of process and become a technical asset for management’s diagnostic view for cuts. The result becomes an assessment or evaluation process that is really [...]

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Tagged as: human capital assessment, intangible, organization performance, private equity, strategy, tangible, valuation, VC

Tips to turn your blog into a pod(cast) into revenue

Tired of trying to reach a critical mass with your blogs? Tired of sitting in front of the blank compute screen trying to channel your Ernest Hemingway? What about podcasting? Podcasting is one great alternative to reach millions. “Podcasting?” You say? ”To reach more people than my written blog?” You say? It is true. And [...]

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Tagged as: blog, communications, Fast Company, podcast, strategy

Change management bottom up or top down

Classic change theory: leadership drives change; leadership must be committed for change to work. Seems to make sense, but in reality leadership is irrelevant. The organization’s ability to change is dictated by the operational units and employees, not leadership. The reality: culture eats strategy for lunch. Your workers dictate change and strategy. Leadership doesn’t drive [...]

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Tagged as: change, change management, cost of culture, John Kotter, leadership, management, strategy

Human capital portfolio management and simple math

A venture’s viability really comes down to a bet on a team to deliver. It is the interpersonal process where venture performance is most impacted. Modern portfolio theory allows investors to maximize return and minimize risk. The goal is to estimate both the expected risks and returns, as measured statistically, as an accumulation of investments. Why use [...]

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Tagged as: asset, human capital assessment, management, motivation, portfolio management, risk, strategy, valuation

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Quick Bio

Toby Elwin has lived around the world and worked globally with, and for, some of the most highly-respected leaders and organizations in their fields.

This site, and thoughts, are rooted in the role leadership and talent have on an organization's motivation to influence, achieve, and sustain.

Toby's work combines systems theory, organization development, marketing, and portfolio and project management from more than 15 years in post-merger integration.
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Biggest Influences – So Far

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The Modern Firm: Organizational Design for Performance and Growth by John Roberts

The Workforce Scorecard by Mark A. Huselid, Brian E. Becker, and Richard W. Beatty

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein

The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig

The Truth About Thriving in Change by William S. Kane

The Motivation to Work by Frederick Herzberg, Bernard Mausner, and Barbara Bloch Snyderman

The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott

Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

The HR Value Proposition by Dave Ulrich

The Strategy Paradox by Michael Raynor
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