DASHBOARD GROUP

Archive for 2009|Yearly archive page

The One Destination

In Strategy on October 19, 2009 at 7:38 pm

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

From Alice in Wonderland.

As a dog lover, it is hard for me to admit that a cat could be right, but in this case, the Cheshire Cat is exactly right.

You can’t develop a strategy until you know where you want to go.  Therefore, the first job of the senior leader is to set a clear goal.  To decide on One Destination.

Some organizations want to grow flat-out to reach a revenue milestone.  Some organizations want to cash out.  Some want to grow but with minimal risk.  Others want to harvest cash.  Still others are out to maximize their lifestyle.

All of these (and others) are valid destinations … the challenge is to choose the one that is best for you.  And making that choice is a lot harder that it sounds.  Harder still is to get everyone in the organization to agree with the choice.

In an organization, you decide on the destination, and the strategy development process evaluates the various alternatives.  There are lots of potential strategies … the challenge is pick the best one.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Organizational Hypocrisy

In Employee Engagement on October 6, 2009 at 10:17 am

One of the root causes of disengaged employees is what we call “organizational hypocrisy” … where organizations say one thing but do another.

They say that employees are their greatest asset, but axe them without reservation as soon as the economy sours.

They say that the customer is number one, but don’t even measure customer satisfaction.  Worse yet, they don’t confront the brutal facts about their delivery performance issues because fixing the problem will cost too much.

They say one thing in their core values, but the resource allocation decisions say another.

They say that teamwork is essential to success … and even take the management team to a ropes course, but the executive bonus plan rewards only individual performance.

They preach excellence, but practice mediocrity.

Frankly, employees are rightfully cynical.  They witnessed so much dysfunctional behavior that they tune out the words.  It is just executive blah-blah-blah.

If you are serious about building a high-performance organization, focus more on your actions than your words.

The Most Important Number on Your Dashboard

In Employee Engagement on July 27, 2009 at 11:14 am

“Second only to your people, your information is your most important asset.”  EMC Corporate Overview

Based on this idea, it stands to reason that information about your most important asset – your people – is the most important information to have.  Therefore, the employee engagement number is the most important number on your Dashboard.

The research is clear and overwhelming.  Companies with high employee engagement outperform their competitors.  The Best Places to Work awards are based on a nationwide survey of over 4,500 organizations.  Winners are simply the organizations with the highest employee engagement score.  Winning the award produces tremendous benefits, including:

  • Increased retention by reducing the “grass is greener” turnover, which in turn reduces costs.
  • Increased quantity of job applications – winners receive 7 times the number of job applications, which means that winners get to select the best applicants from a much broader pool.
  • Increased quality of applicants, since the best people want to work for the best places.

Achieving these benefits requires a systematic approach … and a willingness to confront the brutal facts.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Jim Collins on Alignment

In Alignment on July 21, 2009 at 9:01 am

“There is a big difference between being an organization with a vision statement and becoming a truly visionary organization. The difference lies in creating alignment – alignment to preserve an organization’s core values, to reinforce its purpose, and to stimulate continued progress towards its aspirations.”  — Jim Collins

Whether your company has 2 people or 200,000, aligning them into a high-performance organization is essential to success. A high-performance organization where:

> Every employee is committed to the mission, whatever it takes.  No laggards.

> Every employee lives the organization’s values.  No backstabbers.

> Every employee is completely bought-in to the organization’s strategy.  No under-miners.

> Every process is intentionally designed to execute the plan.  No time-wasters.

To achieve these results, high-performance organizations apply One Discipline – the discipline of alignment. This discipline brings every person and organizational process – their structure, budget, reward system, customer experience … everything – into alignment.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

The Trust Gap

In Leadership on July 13, 2009 at 8:36 am

Most organizations suffer from a “trust gap.”

When asked, “I trust my manager,” 72% of employees answered “strongly agree.” When asked, “I trust the senior leaders of the organization,” only 24% answered “strongly agree.”

This 48% difference is a serious indictment of most senior executive teams.

In today’s economy, many companies have taken the perspective that “our employees are lucky to even have a job.” They have cut training, stopped communicating, and used the bad economy as an excuse for lots of misguided management actions.

In contrast, high-performance organizations do just the opposite. They recognize that employees are “running on empty,” and work extra hard to keep their tanks filled. Anxiety about the future can be paralyzing, so high-performers communicate clearly and often, both in word and deed.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

It Starts at the Top

In Leadership on July 8, 2009 at 9:20 am

High-performance organizations are led by high-performance teams.

Fast Lane CEOs must shift their priority from building the business to developing the leadership team.  Developing the #One Team in the industry will take an investment of both time and money, but it will yield an incredible return.

Jay Lorsch and Tom Tierney capture this thought well, “Outstanding firms are consistently able to identify, attract, and retain star performers; to get stars committed to the firm’s strategy; to manage stars across geographic distance, business lines, and generations; to govern and lead so that both the organization and the stars prosper and feel rewarded.  These capabilities are what give great firms their competitive advantage.”

In high-performance organizations, the CEO sets the bar for development.  The CEO’s unwavering commitment to developing the executives into the #One Team let’s everyone know that “we are in the people business.”  They invest a significant percentage of their time developing, coaching, and aligning their leaders.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Alignment 101

In Alignment on July 8, 2009 at 9:16 am

Alignment is the optimal state where all elements of an organization – vision, values, strategy, people, and processes are aligned with each other to achieve optimal results.  Executives walk the talk.  Customer commitments are met.  Nobody drops the ball.

Peter Drucker says, “The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths, making our weaknesses irrelevant.”

But the fact is, aligning an organization is really hard work.  It takes unbelievable management discipline and commitment.  It takes an unselfish team willing to put “we before me.”

Over thirty years of research has shown that, quite simply, aligned organizations out perform their competitors by every major financial measure.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Shifting Gears

In Strategy on July 8, 2009 at 9:13 am

Starting a company is a lot like starting a car. You need a lot of energy.  To get moving, you need to be in first gear.

In a car, you can go from zero to 20 mph in just a few seconds.

In business, you can go from zero to your first million in just a few years … or months. It can be exhilarating … making progress, closing sales, building a team … you did it!

Everyone is working at a frantic pace. The business is at redline. It is literally impossible to work harder and you wonder if you can even keep up the current pace.

You realize that taking your business to the next level requires a shift … in strategy, in operations, in sales and marketing … all at the same time. Fear sets in, because shifting gears is risky. What if we stall the business? What if people resist the change and the organization gets all herky-jerky?

Building a high-performance organization is really hard; especially when you are running at redline. Bringing in the right outside advisor is a great way to ensure that the shift is successful.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

The Dashboard Way

In Strategy on July 7, 2009 at 9:24 am

The Dashboard Way is our perspective on the best way to build a high-performance organization.

Fast Lane organizations run lean – no corporate staff, no HR department, no training department, no strategic planning department.  Their executives know a lot about building software, building advertising campaigns, or building buildings, but often have no training in building organizations.

To address this problem, the Dashboard Group spent more than ten years conducting best-practices research.  We interviewed dozens of Fast Lane CEOs.  We combined our findings with two decades of executive leadership experience working in a wide range of industries, organizations, and functional disciplines.

The result?  An integrated methodology designed specifically to help Fast Lane leaders build high-performance organizations.  We call it The Dashboard Way, and it involves four elements:

  • Decide One Thing. High-performance organizations apply the Discipline of Differentiation to decide which segment to target, and which “One Thing” will be their defining point of differentiation.  They are good at many things … but decide to become incredibly, fanatically great at One Thing.
  • Drive One Direction. High-performance organizations apply the Discipline of Alignment to optimize their organizations.  They systematically align every function – sales, marketing, service, development, finance, human resources, IT, etc. with their One Thing.
  • Develop the #One Team. High-performance organizations are led by high-performance teams.  They apply the Discipline of Investment to develop their leaders into the #One Team in the industry.  Developing the #One Team in the industry will take an investment of both time and money, but will yield an incredible return.
  • Deliver Every Time. High-performance organizations apply the Discipline of Execution to build an organization that delivers what they promise.  Not one time, but every time.

The Dashboard Way provides a clear roadmap for building a high-performance organization.  It uses a highly collaborative, fact-based methodology that helps leaders decide their defining point of differentiation, drive the organization in the one direction, develop high-performance leadership teams, and deliver exactly what they promised every time.

Speed Reading:  The Dashboard Way

Welcome!

In About on May 15, 2009 at 5:43 pm
The Dashboard Group provides strategy consulting and organization development services to help Fast Lane leaders build HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATIONS … organizations that inspire employees, win customers, and leave competitors in the dust.

Based on experience compiled from a wide range of industries, organizations, and functional disciplines, we developed The Dashboard Way of building a high-performance organization.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

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