Posts Tagged ‘lessons learned’
Halfway There: The Honest Mid-Year Business Review
You start the year with plans and goals; don’t wait until December to see how it all turned out. Along the way, you need to check in, see what’s working, and decide what needs to change. June is the perfect time to do that. The challenge What you examine can be improved or fixed. What…
Read MoreThe Way Visionary Thinking Forgets About Operational Action
It is easy to think big in business. Setting a big goal is exciting and energising. Until reality sets in. Because the hard part isn’t thinking big: it’s acting small, every single day. The challenge Setting goals is easy. Achieving them is hard. Not because we lack dedication or effort, but because too often we…
Read MoreHow to Turn This Year’s Lessons Into Next Year’s Success
Every year a business writes its own story—full of wins, surprises, and lessons. The secret to a stronger sequel? Knowing exactly what worked well and what to improve. Lessons Learned This is the time to capture the lessons that will set you up for a stronger new year. Perform an after action review on the…
Read MoreWhat Happened and Why? A Simple Guide to After Action Reviews
Our focus this month is on lessons learned.The first step in learning a lesson is studying the material. Enter: After Action Reviews. After action reviews An after action review is like a “what just happened?” replay button. It allows you to review a project by reliving the victories and freeze-framing the oops moments. An AAR…
Read MoreWhy Small Businesses Must Embrace The Art Of Lessons Learned Analysis
It’s November! And that means… spending the whole month not believing it’s November. That, and starting to review your business year. It’s time to look at what happened in your business and what it means for next year. This important exercise is a Lessons Learned analysis. What is “Lessons Learned” The lesson learned concept is…
Read MoreDream Big, Act Real: How Bold Goals Need Solid Ground
Goals are not a wish list. They must push boundaries. While starting from where you are now. Goals start with reality A goal does not sprout fully formed from a blank page. It develops out of your current situation. Such as your recent: Goals build on foundations To ensure consistency of purpose, you must also…
Read MoreMistakes Are Not Failures: Why Solving Your Own Errors Matters. (The Worksheet)
Managing people is never more important than when managing mistakes. How do you react when an employee makes an error? Do you want them to feel bad and repent? Or do you want them to learn, grow, and do better next time? Who has responsibility Last week, we talked about taking responsibility for mistakes with…
Read MoreThe SWOT Paradox: Turn Your Strategy Upside Down And Find Opportunities. (The Worksheet)
SWOT is probably familiar to anyone who works in business. A SWOT analysis is one of the most fundamental tools in business strategy. But what if we flipped it? What if we challenged the way we see our strengths and our threats? What might we learn about our business? SWOT Analysis explained A SWOT maps…
Read MoreWhat You Can Control: Three Steps to Effective Risk Planning. (The Worksheet)
Seen recently on a social media platform: “We don’t have a Plan B, to write a plan b would be to accept failure before we even begin.” If that sentence inspires you, please read on. Let me share why this is not a sound approach to business. Accepting failure Managing risk is not about accepting…
Read MoreFrom Goals to Gratitude: Better Goals For Devoted Clients. (The Worksheet)
“The secret to setting up the correct goals is to always tie your goals to your customers,” writes Pooja Agnihotri in her insightful book, 17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail. I agree. As regular readers will know: your business goals should address your 3 core pillars of Business Goals, Happy Employees, and Loyal Customers. The question…
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