What does cultural change really mean to you?

Me? I've seen too many businesses struggle to move beyond well-meaning lip service. But one thing works …

Ambitious leaders take control of their learning by recognizing their weaknesses.

When you're solving a problem, it's all too easy to obsess on the issue at hand and ignore the overall context.

The answer's simple - keep in mind the distinction between fixing a problem and simply moving it some place else. In the long run, out of sight is rarely out of mind.

Are you looking at this from the right angle? 

How do you know when you are a good collaborator? And how can you get better?

You're only as good as your weakest link, however much you excel elsewhere.

If you ask all your customers why they care about you—why they bought, and why they continue to pay you—they’re likely to say one of three things…

Agile vs waterfall? It's one of the most common questions I get from business leaders. Building software WITH the customer seems so obvious. It's a wonder it took the industry decades to figure that out. So Agile is sexy as the way to Lean.

Yet Waterfall still has its place. Why?

Catch errors early or be prepared for the consequences.

My rule of thumb—the cost of fixing a problem increases by 10x for each step in the process that the problem goes undetected or overlooked. It applies in so many circumstances. Check it out if you don’t believe me.

It's a shame how many projects approach a crisis point when the timing of critical outcomes is at risk. Too late to point out that this could always have been avoided—impending crisis has to be recognized and handled with stout hearts and brave decisions.

We all make mistakes, and we all pray they don't get noticed like the false nuclear alarm in Hawaii. When it happens, the system is a false scapegoat.

Very simply, computers aren't smart enough to make mistakes

Every day, billions of people use a tool that was invented to be slowest in its class. It's been bettered since, yet few people are aware of this innovation.

Want a clue? Look down.

Two types of activity occur in the course of any initiative. Decisions are made and Actions are taken. Make the right decisions and you’ll take the right actions. Actions give rise to new questions which require decisions.

The pace of the work is dictated by the Decisions/ Action loop. But decisions take time. Too long, usually. The good news is that this is under your control.

Process improvement lies at the heart of change-making—any job that your customers or your business repeat is an opportunity for efficiency. The gold dust lies in finding the next best opportunity.

Take, for example, this experience familiar to many.

Isn’t Design great? Who doesn’t enjoy an opportunity to test ideas to overcome daily challenges and create a better way. But how do we get a chance to innovate like this?

Let me save you the trouble of reading Google’s 27 million results for ‘how to innovate’.

Earlier in my career, I spent some time helping a number of Wall Street firms with their first forays into big data. Fast forward 10 years, and the larger financial institutions have figured out the value.

But this does not mean that big data is ready for widespread success. There’s still much more to be gained by mastering your small data.

There’s a common belief that the world is changing faster than ever before. Look a little deeper and it turns out that’s always been the belief. What we have more of today is options. Alternative ways to get something done. That means we all have to make more decisions every day.

I decided to dig a small garden once. Nothing too big, just enough to plant a few vegetables.

I had two options—rent a power tiller or get out my shovel.

Big deadlines and complex endeavours are not good bedfellows. Conflict exists between doing the right thing and doing SOME thing by the Big Date.

Small deadlines are the answer.

A large client once asked me to assess why “everything took so long” and, more importantly, what to do about it.

The problem – too many decisions. The answer? Constraints.