You Need a Better Where-to-Play/How-to-Win — People inform me they are busy as if it is a badge of honor. For me, it is a signal that they have a weak personal Playing to Win strategy. To explain why, my 7th Year III Playing to Win Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) piece discusses Being ‘Too Busy’ Means Your…

How to Hold on to Give it a Chance — I was reflecting (happily) the other day on Canada’s first ever Davis Cup win in November 2022, an accomplishment would have been considered utterly inconceivable a decade and a half ago. But it was a specific goal of the strategy put in place in 2005. It does beg the question…

One Entity, One Strategy — I had a recent client conversation about the Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Measurements tool — typically referred to as OGSM. It harkened back to a reader question (Lars) about my antipathy toward the plural of the word strategy. So, I decided to combine these thoughts into my 5th Year III…

Don’t Let it Crowd-Out Strategy — OK, this will be one of my rant-y pieces. I am totally exhausted with talk about benchmarking. So many executives believe that it is the key to success and make it a core part of their strategy work. It is time to be clear on what benchmarking really is —…

How to Leverage WWHTBT to make Bolder Choices — A terrific protégé suggested a topic in the wake of a recent online discussion in which we both participated. I met her originally when I served as her alumni interviewer for the Harvard College admissions process and was so impressed that four years later, I encouraged her to join Monitor…

The Only Route to Sustainable Strategy — In the business world these days, corporate purpose, social responsibility, and ethics are pressing topics. I have been watching, thinking, and writing about this nexus of subjects for twenty years, and have come to believe that a very ancient concept, the Golden Rule, can play a helpful role in guiding…

It is Logically Indefensible AND Bad for You — Over the past couple of months, I have had one conversation after another about the central importance of execution in business. Argh! I have an increasingly deep sense that I am fighting a losing battle on this front and have the voice of my late and magnificent mother in my…

Stop Letting OKRs Masquerade as Strategy: Desire is not a Strategy — Three weeks into the second year of the Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) series, I tackled OKRs (I.e., Objectives & Key Results) in a piece called Stop Letting OKRs Masquerade as Strategy: Desire is not a Strategy (November 15, 2021). I had no idea how popular it would be! …

It’s Time to Toss SWOT Analysis into the Ashbin of Strategy History — It’s Time to Toss SWOT Analysis into the Ashbin of Strategy History: SWOT is a Dreadful Way to Start a Strategy Process (April 12, 2021) comes in at #2 (of 104) in popularity. This was my first truly controversial Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights piece. The previous 27 pieces contained non-intuitive…