The aim of the Beyond Default Roundtable discussions is to give practitioners in strategy and change an opportunity to share their experiences, challenge conventional wisdom, brainstorm ideas and network with peers who share the same interests and challenges. The discussion was led by David Trafford, co-author of Beyond Default and moderated by Chris Hallam, founder of CH Coaching Solutions. As the Roundtable followed …
The Essence of Strategy
Much has been written about strategy, and no doubt more will be written in the future. However, the many thousands of articles, academic papers and books that have been written on the subject have done little to increase the chances of organisations finding the key to sustained success, particularly in today’s increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. While …
Strategy Execution – Establishing the Conditions for Success
The purpose of strategy execution is to turn strategic intent into operational reality. It’s the series of decisions and actions aimed at changing an organisation’s trajectory, from one taking it to its default future to one that takes it to an improved future. These decisions and actions are usually undertaken within some form of transformation programme. However, all the evidence …
Core ideas behind the Beyond Default approach to developing strategy and delivering change
Beyond Default offers a different and innovative approach to developing strategy and delivering change. The approach is based upon a set of core ideas that collectively present a point of view on this important topic. These 20 core ideas are: The context within which an organisation operates is often more powerful than the strategies and resources that its leaders deploy …
Insight into how effective organisations are at developing strategy and delivering change
During a recent webinar participants were asked to give their assessment on how effective they thought their organisations were at developing strategy and delivering change. They were asked six questions to which they responded in a live poll. The results were both interesting and concerning. Interesting as they concurred with the answers I’d got many times before when asking similar …
Should Strategies be Implemented or Operationalised, and what’s the Difference?
While there are many approaches to executing strategy they are all based upon two fundamentally different philosophies. One is where an organisation is ‘pushed’ to its target future. The other is where it is ‘pulled’. Which approach an organisation applies can determine how successful it is in turning strategic intent into operational reality. The ‘push’ approach is usually called implementation. …
How Organisational Capabilities Anchor You to Your Current Trajectory
Ironically, the very capabilities that your organisation has developed over time, and that have made it successful in the past, can be the same ones that are anchoring it to its current trajectory. If the purpose of strategy is to change an organisation’s trajectory – to one that leads to an improved future – then the influence of these potentially …
Project Portfolio Management – An Organisational Capability for Changing Your Trajectory
If an organisation is serious about changing its trajectory, to one that takes it to its target – as opposed to its default – future, then it needs to execute a portfolio of change initiatives. These initiatives – whether they are programmes, projects or operational changes – need to be selected, prioritised, scheduled, reshaped, rescheduled and culled as the journey …
What Can Leaders of Change Learn from World-Class Performers?
It’s often quoted that some 70% of major change initiatives fail to deliver their intended objectives. If this is true, and the risk of failure so high, what can be done to increase the chances of success? In this post David Trafford and Peter Boggis suggest that much can be learned from world-class performers – particularly from ballet where the …
The Purpose of Strategy: To Change an Organisation’s Trajectory
If the purpose of strategy is to change an organisation’s trajectory, from one that is taking it to its default future to one that is not only better but achievable, how are the strategic choices best made and how can the chosen strategy best be implemented? In this post, David Trafford and Peter Boggis present a framework for developing strategy …