Taking the Very Long View in Strategic Planning

For a few years my firm has championed the idea that strategic planning efforts must take place over a long horizon.  By “long” I mean 20 to 30 years out.

It’s not an issue of individual time management, at first blush, as you can see from the article I wrote in the Jamaica Daily Gleaner: Taking the Very Long View in Strategic Planning.  (For more details about the approach and its application, see my colleague Amie Devero’s book – Powered by Principle.)

What I didn’t mention in the article, however, is that many strategic plans fail because of what I call “the last mile.”   In order for a plan to work, a number of things must happen in the daily working world of the employees that must implement it.

The first is that they must be able to “find the time.”  A strategy will get nowhere if those who must change their behavior in order to make it work are at the limit of their performance, and need an upgrade in their time management skills.  If they don’t know how to perform this kind of upgrade, the strategy is dead.

The second is that they must learn how to change their habits, practices and rituals in order to take the repetitive actions needed to give the strategy some momentum.  Most employees are weak in this area, and simply don’t know how to construct habit changing systems.  They simply nod their heads in faux agreement, and don’t even bother to try.

The results are the same — the strategy isn’t implemented, even if it’s brilliant.  The simple solution is to teach employees how to accomplish more, and to build this kind of activity into the roll-out of the plan.

 

 

Teleclass Recording and a Brand New Way to Learn

Last week’s teleclass focused on the most recent research in time management, and how it can be used to improve the way we schedule our time, and change our habits.  I used the research by Dezhi Wu and the authors of Change Anything as my primary sources of information, taking their best ideas that we’re working with here at 2Time Labs.

Here is the link to the teleclass, which you may also download.

Also, I want to give you access to a new way of teaching and learning time management via e-learning – using an interactive simulation that we developed.  It’s a game of sorts, involving different choices you can make to help Brenda, a young professional, use the best time management techniques to navigate her first day back at work after a long vacation.

Here is the link to the simulation: “Brenda Returns from Vacation.”

Our Open House Continues… a Teleclass!

Our Open House is in full swing and people are registering in the Free and Plus programs as speak.  It’s an exciting moment in the history of 2Time Labs!

On Thursday night (Oct 6th), the adventure continues with a teleclass entitled “Breakthroughs You Can Use.”  I’ll be sharing how you can use the findings on the most recent time management research in Scheduling (Dezhi Wu) and Habit Change (Patterson et al.) to derive personal shortcuts to personal productivity and peace of mind.

Here are the details of the call:

Conference Details
Scheduled Conference Date: Thursday, October 06, 2011
Scheduled Start Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Participant Access Code: 676330
Dial-in Number: 1-270-400-1500 East Coast
See you on the call!