Practical advice for how to improve your business as an owner and/or leader
The book 60 Minute Operational Risk Management is a reference guide for leaders who want a practical framework for recognizing and responding to risk. It breaks down complicated, abstract concepts in easy-to-understand and visual concepts.
Continue reading “Book Review of “60 Minute Operational Risk Management” by Stewart Lancaster”
A Year In Review is an evaluation of what has occurred in the past year, what you’ve learned, where things went wrong, and how you will make changes for the coming year.
To learn how to create your own, read How to Do a Year In Review.
This type of evaluation will stretch you. You may find information about your company that is embarrassing. And you might decide to keep it private—known only to you or your leadership team. Or you could share the results with staff or customers. There’s nothing wrong with editing the content to fit the audience (especially if you’re an introvert like me).
But if you’re willing to be totally transparent, sharing a Year In Review with the entire world is extremely effective.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Share a “Year In Review” of Your Business. Continue reading “31 “Year In Review” Examples to Inspire You”
Today, I’m going to explain how to look for hidden opportunities and risks in your organization using a weighted SWOT analysis. This strategic management tool allows you to calculate your options, which leads to decisions that are risk intelligent.
Continue reading “How Do I Make a Weighted SWOT Diagram? [Video]”
Facing the good and bad of the past year takes courage, especially in re-living painful experiences. But self-evaluating the highs and lows in your past year is just the first step.
Sharing your findings with the entire world takes it to a whole new level.
In this post, I’ll talk about the benefits and downsides of making your Year In Review public, and why we’re afraid to fail.
Continue reading “5 Reasons to Share a “Year In Review” of Your Business”
It’s that time of year… to review whether you have reached your goals!
As a business owner, you may feel ready to leave last year behind and move forward—especially if you’ve experienced failure: Disappointing sales, high staff turnover, unpaid invoices, frustrating delays, or negative outcomes.
But we shouldn’t avoid talking about failure. It may be easier to talk about happy things, but there are just as many (if not more) reasons to review the unpleasant ones.
In this post, I’ll explain the benefits of using a Year In Review, and how to start.
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool to identify and fix vulnerabilities in your organization. It allows you to review your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Read How Do I Make a SWOT Diagram? to get an overview.
When used properly, the SWOT provides insights about root causes that might be causing negative outcomes. However, it is often treated like a once-and-done process, without any further analysis.
You can get the most out of a basic SWOT Diagram by going deeper, using what I call the Super SWOT.
Watch the video, or read more below:
Continue reading “How Do I Make a Super SWOT Diagram? Using Real Examples [Video]”
The SWOT analysis is a simple tool to identify and fix vulnerabilities in an organization.
When used properly, it provides insights about root causes that might be causing negative outcomes. However, the SWOT is often used as a once-and-done tool without additional analysis and follow-up.
Watch the video, or read more below.
Are your staff afraid to share what is going wrong in your company? Do problems keep happening, and you don’t know why?
A great solution is to step into the roles of your staff and see the situation first-hand.
One fantastic technique is what I call “Employee For a Day.” It is a simple, hands-on activity where an executive leader leaves their role, and she or he sits in the seat of employees to see the organization from their point of view.
In my previous post, I describe what happened when I entered the day-to-day world of my staff. It humbled me, challenged me, and ultimately led to several changes in the organization.
There were a few drawbacks as well. Here are all the dirty details of how to get started.
Don’t you hate it when you’re having a conversation with someone, and suddenly you realize that you’re on totally different wavelengths? Let’s say we’re discussing your upcoming change management project, and you have been explaining the framework that will be needed to increase your warehouse’s production output. How would you feel if I respond with a completely unrelated topic: “Frameworks are incredibly useful! Which method do you prefer: the ADKAR, SWOT, or PESTEL?” Continue reading “The Two Precursors to Meaning”
Strategic risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and controlling uncertainties that keep an organization from achieving its objectives. Of the many tools available to increase your strategic risk intelligence—such as a root-cause analysis or a workflow diagram—one is especially useful. It’s simple but often overlooked: the humble dictionary.
Continue reading “Are You Using This Essential Risk Management Tool?”
