What is Strategic Agility? There’s ample evidence that, no matter how much analysis and planning is done, strategic planning is inherently flawed, quickly out of date, and rendered ineffective due to slow and incomplete execution. This post gives examples as well as an overview of three consultant perspectives highlighting principles of strategic agility and execution including tactical choices for competitive advantage.

There’s comfort in friendship and community. There can also be blind spots and status quo problems inherent in comfort-based systems, sometimes tragically so, when the blind spots are very large.

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, And human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect… –E.M. Forster, Howards End Forster characters illustrate the tensions and challenge of making connections among different social classes [...]

For this post, I’m featuring a leadership focus tool from Mike Jay. Mike suggests that any leader can focus on 5 things and be successful in trying circumstances, no matter what the situation. His Big Five use acronym IMULL. Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let’s love turbulence and use it for change. — Ramsay Clark

Budget decisions define organizations, sometimes in new ways. Peter Drucker once stated, “Only three things happen naturally in organizations – friction, confusion and underperformance. Everything else requires leaderhip.” Questions that may arise during budget reductions are compared to the classic 7S structure model along with examples. Paul Harvey’s passing is also noted with a quote. –DN

Two UM examples of Tribes and Community are cited, while referencing higher education culture and the new book, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization.

Competency programs and models seem to be picking up speed in higher education – which may be connected with the impact of social media and the career development aspects of competencies.

“My current thinking on competency models is to consider them more as an ‘intermediate stage’ in the evolution (of capability building efforts) rather than as the final stage.” — Prasad Kurian’s blog post, and Alltop HR blog on HR, OD and Personal Effectiveness

An original longer article citing two approaches: Talent Management Choices: Who is the Star, the Individual or the Organization? Used to launch my first blog at the University of Michigan. Still relevant in helping you build an appropriate talent management choice today. Also see my October 2010 post entitled: The Pervasive Talent and Blank Slate Myths Meet Potential and Capacity Coaching.

Considerations in hiring a facilitator: the benefits of having someone assist you. Choices of facilitation approaches include “pair of hands,” “collaborator” and “expert.” These approaches also apply to consulting. Collaboration is the process consultation approach used most often by Reveln Consulting, assisted by highly experienced facilitation techniques and tools. (See the clients and tools page.) For other approaches, ask Deb about her consulting network of colleagues.