Author's articles
X-Gap: Using Strategic Planning to Close the Project Execution "Gap"
By James D. Murphy · 11 years ago
Teams and organizations are constantly plagued by project execution errors and failures. These failures create an execution gap -- a gap between what an individual and/or team plans to do and what they actually do ...
Collaborative Leadership: A Process for Success in a Turbulent World
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
Do you know how to provide collaborative leadership in a disciplined fashion? And how does one define disciplined collaboration? The current business and leadership literature touts the importance of collaborating in our turbulent world. Large ...
Simplicity and Elegance: Expressing Your Core Competencies
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
Do you know what your business's core competencies are? Is there just one or are there many organizational attributes? If you answered that there are many, how would you describe them succinctly? Core competencies are ...
Organizational Gravity: Three Steps to Foster Continuous Improvement, Defy Obsolescence and Take Flight
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
Gravity can be a wonderful thing. It is an irresistible force that keeps us grounded on this big, beautiful, floating blue marble. It is even applicable to organizations in the form of organizational gravity. For ...
Executive Coaching and Debriefing for Corporate Leadership Development Programs
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
In today's management environment, new forms of and tools for corporate leadership development programs have emerged. One of the most popular development tools is executive coaching. The number of executive coaches has more than doubled ...
The Red Team: A Simple But Effective Method to Improve Mission Planning
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
The May 1, 2011 mission to find Osama Bin Laden has become one of the most celebrated military mission planning successes in recent memory due to the utilization of a little-known and seldom-used practice called ...
Thirteen Elements of Effective Planning
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
All plans are not good plans. In fact, even good plans can fail. We cannot predict the future – we can only imagine it imperfectly. In our companies and organizations, effective planning is a social ...
Effects-Based Thinking Part III
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
In Part I of this series, I introduced the concept that, from the perspective of complexity, everything exists within a system. In Part II, I outlined a three-tiered framework of effects-based thinking (EBT) and planning ...
Effects-Based Thinking: Part II
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
In 'Effects-Based Thinking - Part I', the definition of effects-based thinking, or EBT, was established as an approach to strategic planning which contributes to long-lasting organizational impacts. Expanding on this concept, let's look at what ...
Strategic Planning and Effects-Based Thinking: Part 1
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
As the name implies, effects-based thinking (EBT) is an approach to strategic planning and decision making where the effects of specific actions are assessed, not in a narrowly defined and time-limited way, but through a ...
Complexity: The Execution Challenge You Don't See
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
When you think of the word 'complex', do you ever think about what it has to do with project execution? Ask a management consulting firm to define 'complex' and you'll get a response like "well, ...
The Benefit of Safety Debriefing - Developing a Culture of Learning through Lessons Learned
By James D. Murphy · 12 years ago
Organizations must possess both formal and informal learning structures to adapt and thrive, and safety debriefing skills learned from a qualified consulting firm is just such a structure that is a necessity in any rapidly ...
Project Execution through Successful Leadership: How to Lead Like a Fighter Pilot
By James D. Murphy · 13 years ago
Practicing successful leadership seems fairly simple - one acquires the positional authority to lead, and does so by influencing or guiding others. But too often, "leaders" assume that just because they've achieved total project execution ...
Recruiting America's Military Elite to Lead Your Organization
By James Murphy · 13 years ago
America's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan's unconventional conflicts has resulted in an unintended consequence - elite military professionals that are experienced in independent and adaptive thinking and leadership. In a recent article, Time magazine ...
Execute Rhythm in Six Steps with an Easy-to-Implement Strategic Planning Process
By James D. Murphy · 14 years ago
Many businesses have a strategic planning process that leads to objectives and goals that hopefully, in turn, lead to flawless execution. This process usually equates to some sort of far-off ideal and loose timeline for ...