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What does it cost you to be late?

What is the cost of delay? It grew out of our best-practice research, where we observed successful new product development teams using various methods to quantify the cost of schedule delay.

Being roughly right

Being roughly right is a key characteristic of the high performers we’ve worked with over the past 20 years. They’ve made the conscious trade-off between having all the information to reduce risk versus being roughly right with a decision which is made sooner, and then using the time gained to refine the decision through a continuous improvement process. Let me explain.

Decision modeling basics

 

Introduction to decision analysis is a basic discussion of the decision modeling framework we use to engage decision stakeholders and accelerate many different types of group decisions.

Using Lateral Thinking for Creating Breakthroughs

Creativity is not something someone is born with, though no doubt some people are more naturally gifted in this area than others. Creativity and lateral thinking are concerned with changing perceptions, concepts and viewpoints of the way one looks at something in order to generate new ideas...and it's a skill that can be learnt.

Take the example of team who have been charged with putting together a new strategy for a division. The team has identified four alternatives and are having trouble deciding which one to go with. Most people would accept this and try and solve the problem logically - and therein lies the problem. What this team needs are alternatives. What other alternatives are there that they haven't yet thought of? Identifying alternatives may lead to yet more alternatives and quite possibly, an alternative is arrived at that makes the decision easy.

Decision Modeling Methodology

 

Decision Modeling Methodology

In this presentation I’ll discuss our decision modeling methodology.

The core of any decision is the goal, or statement of the problem that you are trying to solve. A well articulated goal is rare and we often use the modeling process to refine it with the decision stakeholders.

There are two elements of the methodology; model and constraints.

Accelerate the Pain

Accelerate Threshold of Pain

In this screencast I’ll describe a practice we’ve observed, which is common to high-performers. Rather than delay “pain,” they accelerate the threshold and force issues out early, rather than avoid them, delaying their confrontation. They knew that when confronted early, they were afforded more time to fix the problems. This “early schedule” or before-the-fact behavior is a core characteristic of these high performers. We’ve also seen the concept extended to create corporate cultures that rewards before-the-fact action.

Introduction to Decision Modeling Concepts

Introduction to Decision Modeling Concepts

In this screencast I’ll introduce you to a way to make decisions faster and more effectively.

Managed Consensus

Managed Consensus Transcript

Wikipedia defines consensus decision-making as “a group decision making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also the resolution or mitigation of minority objections. Consensus is usually defined as meaning both general agreement, and the process of getting to such agreement.” More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_decision-making.

Consensus “...structure that moves a group towards unity” is the Quaker’s definition of consensus decision-making. I liked this definition the most.

Getting the Objectives Right

Getting the Objectives Right

In this screencast I’ll discuss the importance of getting the “Objectives” right in a decision model. The three core elements of a model are the Goal, the Objectives, and the Alternatives or choices. The Objectives in a model define what we want to achieve in order to reach the goal. I’ll show you an example in a minute.

Mapping a non-profit's strategic direction

 

Non-Profit Strategy Map

Introduction

The following is an example of mind mapping and prioritizing strategy.

I’ll use a real example to illustrate the process. Please note though that this is just an illustration, since the future direction of this project is still an active community discussion--no definite direction has been set for the project. But, I though it was a good illustration of how the process could be used on a non-profit project.