EVERYDAY LEADERSHIP

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EVERYDAY LEADERSHIP
Strategic Business Acumen Discussion Session

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Strategic Business Acumen

1. Definitions of Strategic Business Acumen
2. Strategic Planning
3. Systems Thinking
4. Scenario Planning
5. Group Techniques for Consensus

If you can dream it, you can do it. Walt
Disney
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What is Leadership?
Self-Understanding Resiliency
Self-Alignment
Customer Orientation Business Acumen Project
Leadership Managing Change
Relationship Skills Communication Coaching/Mentori
ng Actualizing Vision
LEADERSHIP IN THE MIDDLE
Working with others
Integration
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Strategic Business Acumen
ALIGNMENT Strategic Business Acumen

• Demonstrate ability to ethically build support
  for a perspective about which you feel strongly.
• Holistic view - think in terms of the entire
  system and the effects and consequences of
  actions and decisions.
• Operate with an awareness of marketplace
  competition and general landscape of related
  business arenas.
• General business acumen - functions of strategic
  planning, finance, marketing, manufacturing, RD,
  etc.

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What is Systems Thinking?
WHY CANT WE SELL MORE?

• A system is a perceived whole whose elements
  hang together because they continually affect
  each other over time and operate toward a common
  purpose.
• -The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
• Focus on cause and effect, not symptoms, not
  quick fixes
• Study of systems is over 40 years old

delay
Sales People
S
S
variable
Portion of Revenue Spent on Sales
Bookings
links
S
S
Revenue
Ssame
Delay a passage of time that provokes flawed
perceptions of cause and effect
Theres no sense being exact about something if
you dont even know what youre talking about.
John Von Neumann
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What is Systems Thinking (continued)
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Scenario Planning
Using history and guesses to anticipate multiple
futures
FOR THOSE BORN BEFORE 1945
We were born before television, before
penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods,
Xerox, plastic, the contact lens, Frisbees, and
the PILL. We were around before radar, credit
cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ball-point
pens. Before pantyhose, dishwashers, clothes
dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners,
drip-dry clothes, and before we walked on the
moon.
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What is Scenario Planning?

• BENEFITS
• Creates shared vision
• Lessens Group Think
• Reveals Mental Models
• Lessens denial
• Diffuses emotions
• Accelerates reaction
• Clarifies estimates

The Learning is in the Dialogue
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Creating The Story
? REVENUE ? STAFF
? REVENUE ? STAFF

• CHOOSE
• 2
• DRIVERS

? REVENUE ? STAFF
?REVENUE ? STAFF
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Group Techniques for Consensus
Group Creativity Group Think Brainstorming Delph
i Technique Nominal Group Technique
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Group Creativity and Group Think

• GROUP CREATIVITY
• When compared to individuals,
• groups make accurate decisions.

However...
GROUP THINK An individual may feel social
pressure to conform to a popular solution that he
or she would not have chosen individually.
None of us is as smart as all of us. Satchel
Paige
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Brainstorming
Blue Sky
GENERATE DONT EVALUATE
Isolated
Positive
Wild
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Brainstorming (continued)
SET THE STAGE
We will be spending ____ minutes brainstorming
ideas about our new system. There will be
absolutely no interruptions during this session.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss things
that the system can do for us, with the emphasis
on quantity not quality. Therefore, please be
prepared to suggest several ideas and to refrain
from offering any criticism of the ideas of
others. Advance preparation is unnecessary. If
you have any questions, please contact me.

• Moderator first ideas, one crazy
• Record ideas visually

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The Delphi Technique

• Keep membership anonymous
• Keep specific communications anonymous
• Allow only written communications

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The Nominal Group Technique

• Membership is NOT anonymous
• Participation controlled by procedures
• Everyone must participate verbally

EACH STATES IDEA IN TURN
IDEAS RANKED SECRETLY
EACH STATES DISCUSSION IN TURN
PROBLEM STATED
TOP RANKED IDEAS
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What is Leadership?
Self-Understanding Resiliency
Self-Alignment
Customer Orientation Business Acumen Project
Leadership Managing Change
Relationship Skills Communication Coaching/Mentori
ng Actualizing Vision
LEADERSHIP IN THE MIDDLE
Working with others
Integration
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Evaluation Questions

• Use
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree
• Dont know
• I found the presentation of material easy to
  understand.
• This Advantage session increased my knowledge on
  the subject presented.
• I will be able to use some of the information
  from this Advantage session in the future.
• The presenter was well prepared for this
  Advantage session.
• This presentation should be repeated in future
  semesters.