Strategic Discipline Blog

2020 was a challenge. For many 2021 hasn’t been any easier.

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Topics: Goal Achievment, Adversity, Resilience

The contractor did remodels. He worked in the Chicago Suburbs and had a thriving business. The systems he’d developed built consistency and predictability. His team knew how to do their jobs, by following his precise systems. His firm had the area’s best reputation.

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Topics: Differentiation, One Phrase Strategy, Strategy Decision, Differentiation Strategy, Competitive Strategy, Key Attribution Framework, 3HAG WAY

"All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him/her, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy."

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Topics: People, Effective Leadership, Mastering Leadership, People Development, Leadership Core Behavior

The past year we’ve learned how to adapt and work remotely. How do you achieve learning in this new remote work environment? Guest blogger, Nicole Garrison, helps you discover how you can build an agile environment for learning from home.

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Topics: employee performance, Worker Performance, Employee Learning

With the world menaced by COVID19, why did many businesses finish 2020 as their best year ever?

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Topics: Culture of Discipline, Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage, Company Culture, Culture, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

As a leader/CEO, we can trip when we get too comfortable and fail to maintain our self-awareness.

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Topics: Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni, Effective Leadership, CEO Leadership Focus, Five Temptations of a CEO

When Positioning Systems started in 1998 my intention was to help businesses discover their unique and valuable position. For 20 years I helped business create messages to differentiate from their competition. Jack Trout and Al Ries’ classic marketing book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind provided this impetus. A classic positioning example was 7-Up’s, The Uncola!

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Topics: strategy, strategy decisions, Strategy - How, Low-Cost Strategy, Differentiation Strategy, Strategy Question, Competitive Strategy, Key Attribution Framework, 3HAG WAY

Michael Porter’s Definition of Strategy is: the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.

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Topics: strategy, market dynamics, Strategy - How, Differentiation Strategy, 3HAG WAY

Let’s take two quick surveys today.

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Topics: strategy, competitive advantage, Strategy - How, Differentiation Strategy, Competitive Strategy, 3HAG WAY

How did your annual planning work for 2020?

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Topics: Annual Plan, Annual Planning