The ‘view from the balcony’ was recently offered as a perspective that could assist with the resolution of conflicted positions during negotiations. Further reflections on this theme are offered here. Types of Conflict Illustrating the diversity of matters we may find ourselves conflicted about, the partial typology below offers just five conflict types for each… Continue reading Combating Conflict: Negotiating Interests
Tag: decision-making
Elevating perspectives
The view from a high (or higher) vantage point has long been linked with strategic thinking and action. While often used in a military context, there is also a long tradition of symbolically linking elevated positions with elevated thinking about much broader concerns. A selection of symbolic references to various ‘elevated perspectives’ is offered in… Continue reading Elevating perspectives
Stacking and Chunking in Everything We Do
My previous post ‘Singing from the same song sheet‘, suggested that service blueprints and strategy execution plans could be likened to musical scores. In commenting on the structural similarities, the ‘stacking’ of singing parts in a choral arrangement was compared with the ‘stacking’ of strategic goals in a coordinated organisational strategy. In the broadest sense,… Continue reading Stacking and Chunking in Everything We Do
Good Change: Bad Change
Selected change propositions Not all change is good.Whether a change is good or bad is both a moral and a practical judgment.Not all good change overcomes resistance.Successful change requires more than a good idea. Reflections related to these propositions are offered below as a catalyst for your own reflection on how change decisions are taken… Continue reading Good Change: Bad Change
Making the seconds count – rather than counting the seconds
We sometimes speak of our need for split-second timing, where a decision or action must be taken very rapidly, and at precisely the right moment. We also occasionally refer to something happening in an instant, usually unexpectedly. Few nonprofit organisations, however, would see themselves depending on super-fast timing such as might be required for emergency… Continue reading Making the seconds count – rather than counting the seconds
Hurry Up and Slow Down
Tempo – yet another dimension of temporality Many years ago my piano teacher introduced me to the metronome, and its use as an aid to practicing. I started slowly at first, and then sped up as I grew more confident with either my sight reading or my familiarity with the particular piece of music I… Continue reading Hurry Up and Slow Down
Temporal Sensemaking and Reflective Governance
Upon launching this blog a few years ago, I suggested that the purpose of these reflections was to help not-for-profit professionals ‘take care of the present’. See the header image above. Many thought leaders have drawn attention to the central importance of the present moment. These observations have emphasised that the present moment is the… Continue reading Temporal Sensemaking and Reflective Governance
Temperament and Temporality
I became ‘a morning person’ (a lark) when I was juggling an executive role, family commitments, and post-grad study. For me, the best time to concentrate on complex thinking and writing was before the household stirred. Others find that they are night owls, and their best thinking is after 8.00 pm. Whether we identify as… Continue reading Temperament and Temporality
‘Time is of the essence’: temporal factors in NFP productivity & efficiency
The phrase ‘time is of the essence‘ is usually employed to indicate that timely performance is an essential obligation under a contract. In the context of our thinking about temporal factors in nonprofit governance and management though, we can apply the phrase more broadly to productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness concerns. Temporal language pervades our discourse.… Continue reading ‘Time is of the essence’: temporal factors in NFP productivity & efficiency
Fusing experience and expectation in decision-making
Time and timing considerations are central to most decisions we make as nonprofit leaders. Planning involves using past and present data to adopt targets for future work. It also involves scheduling tasks and activities, monitoring and reporting cycles, deadlines, and time-sequencing of processes (including coordination of serial and parallel processes e.g., using Gantt Charts). Time… Continue reading Fusing experience and expectation in decision-making