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Articles from James Murphy | Selfgrowth.com
- X-Gap: Using Strategic Planning to Close the Project Execution "Gap" - by Submitted on Apr 24, 2012 from James MurphyTeams and organizations are constantly plagued by project execution errors and failures. These failures create an execution gap -- a gap between what an individual and/or team plans to do and what they actually do instead. Just as retention rapidly degrades after learning, so does project ...
Views: 1132 - Collaborative Leadership: A Process for Success in a Turbulent World - by Submitted on Mar 12, 2012 from James MurphyDo you know how to provide collaborative leadership in a disciplined fashion? And how does one define disciplined collaboration? The current business and leadership literature touts the importance of collaborating in our turbulent world. Large and small businesses and teams struggle to wrap ...
Views: 1173 - Simplicity and Elegance: Expressing Your Core Competencies - by Submitted on Mar 07, 2012 from James MurphyDo you know what your business's core competencies are? Is there just one or are there many organizational attributes? If you answered that there are many, how would you describe them succinctly? Core competencies are one or a combination of a few unique or rare abilities; however, a ...
Views: 1094 - Organizational Gravity: Three Steps to Foster Continuous Improvement, Defy Obsolescence and Take Flight - by Submitted on Jan 12, 2012 from James MurphyGravity can be a wonderful thing. It is an irresistible force that keeps us grounded on this big, beautiful, floating blue marble. It is even applicable to organizations in the form of organizational gravity. For example, I worked with an organization that coined a catch phrase for a challenge ...
Views: 1495 - Executive Coaching and Debriefing for Corporate Leadership Development Programs - by Submitted on Dec 19, 2011 from James MurphyIn today's management environment, new forms of and tools for corporate leadership development programs have emerged. One of the most popular development tools is executive coaching. The number of executive coaches has more than doubled in the past decade and corporate leadership development ...
Views: 1128 - The Red Team: A Simple But Effective Method to Improve Mission Planning - by Submitted on Oct 27, 2011 from James MurphyThe May 1, 2011 mission to find Osama Bin Laden has become one of the most celebrated military mission planning successes in recent memory due to the utilization of a little-known and seldom-used practice called the Red Team. The mission was a daring raid executed by the courageous members of ...
Views: 1240 - Thirteen Elements of Effective Planning - by Submitted on Sep 23, 2011 from James MurphyAll plans are not good plans. In fact, even good plans can fail. We cannot predict the future – we can only imagine it imperfectly. In our companies and organizations, effective planning is a social activity. Deciding on a strategic planning process as a group, rather than as an individual, ...
Views: 1157(1 vote) - Effects-Based Thinking Part III - by Submitted on Aug 09, 2011 from James MurphyIn Part I of this series, I introduced the concept that, from the perspective of complexity, everything exists within a system. In Part II, I outlined a three-tiered framework of effects-based thinking (EBT) and planning that is critical to understanding how change propagates throughout these ...
Views: 890(1 vote) - Effects-Based Thinking: Part II - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2011 from James MurphyIn 'Effects-Based Thinking - Part I', the definition of effects-based thinking, or EBT, was established as an approach to strategic planning which contributes to long-lasting organizational impacts. Expanding on this concept, let's look at what the differences between strategic planning with EBT ...
Views: 1309(3 votes) - Strategic Planning and Effects-Based Thinking: Part 1 - by Submitted on Jul 22, 2011 from James MurphyAs the name implies, effects-based thinking (EBT) is an approach to strategic planning and decision making where the effects of specific actions are assessed, not in a narrowly defined and time-limited way, but through a perspective that is sensitive to broad-ranging and lasting impacts. ...
Views: 1127(2 votes) - Complexity: The Execution Challenge You Don't See - by Submitted on Apr 19, 2011 from James MurphyWhen you think of the word 'complex', do you ever think about what it has to do with project execution? Ask a management consulting firm to define 'complex' and you'll get a response like "well, it's a concept that can affect your life, your family, your team and your organization." That's ...
Views: 854 - The Benefit of Safety Debriefing – Developing a Culture of Learning through Lessons Learned - by Submitted on Mar 23, 2011 from James MurphyOrganizations must possess both formal and informal learning structures to adapt and thrive, and safety debriefing skills learned from a qualified consulting firm is just such a structure that is a necessity in any rapidly changing environment. Anyone who has not recognized the need for ...
Views: 1776 - Project Execution through Successful Leadership: How to Lead Like a Fighter Pilot - by Submitted on Jan 10, 2011 from James MurphyPracticing successful leadership seems fairly simple - one acquires the positional authority to lead, and does so by influencing or guiding others. But too often, "leaders" assume that just because they've achieved total project execution under their guidance that they deserve the title. To be ...
Views: 1389(1 vote) - Recruiting America's Military Elite to Lead Your Organization - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2010 from James MurphyAmerica's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan's unconventional conflicts has resulted in an unintended consequence - elite military professionals that are experienced in independent and adaptive thinking and leadership. In a recent article, Time magazine charted how this war has created a ...
Views: 1226(5 votes) - Checklists - Building Teams in Complex Environments - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2010 from James MurphyHumans excel at solving complex problems. Unfortunately, humans are also prone to making simple errors without a reliable 'road map,' or operations checklist. In the digital age, we are amazed at the abilities of computers to solve problems. But the computer's capacity to solve problems is ...
Views: 1949(1 vote) - The Value of Military Leadership Experience in Turbulent Business Environments - by Submitted on Dec 09, 2009 from James MurphyIn today's turbulent business environments, every leader should be concerned about how well his or her organization executes and how well it adapts to change. Execution has been on the list of top concerns of CEOs for years now. But the turbulent business environments of the past few years ...
Views: 1405(1 vote) - Execution Rhythm Encourages Effective Business Communication - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2009 from James MurphyTo say that the way we communicate in business today is undergoing major changes would be a wildly profound understatement. Many businesses simply feel overwhelmed by the advances of Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, not to mention the near total penetration of mobile devices like the iPhone and ...
Views: 1336(1 vote) - Execute Rhythm in Six Steps with an Easy-to-Implement Strategic Planning Process - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2009 from James MurphyMany businesses have a strategic planning process that leads to objectives and goals that hopefully, in turn, lead to flawless execution. This process usually equates to some sort of far-off ideal and loose timeline for achievement. Few organizations have Mission Objectives that relate daily, ...
Views: 1326 - More Than a To-Do List: Build Teamwork, Improve Execution with a Project Checklist - by Submitted on May 12, 2009 from James MurphyTwo unique sources demonstrated a strong link between the use of a project checklist and effective team building in January 2009: the US Airways incident in New York and the release of a study on medical checklists. The January 2009 Special Article of the New England Journal of Medicine ...
Views: 1465 - Flawless Execution: Bridging the Continuous Improvement Gap - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2009 from James MurphyCreated in the 1980s by Motorola and popularized in the '90s at GE, Six Sigma has been shown to improve processes and reduce error rates, but does it still stand up to today's fast-paced, hostile business environment? In comparison, Flawless Execution, a continuous improvement process perfected ...
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