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Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Human Connection

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StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy“The sweetest sound to anyone’s ears is the sounds of his own name.”

Robert C. Lee (1888 – 1971)
Rear Admiral, United States Navy

From their first days as Plebes (freshman) at the United States Naval Academy, midshipman are taught that all people are social creatures who need to connect with others; to be valued and respected. They learn that unstoppable teams are first created through knowledge, value, and respect for each other.

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About the Author

is a StrategyDriven Principal and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Practices for Professionals – Meetings Best Practice 4: Scheduling

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals - Meetings Best PracticeScheduling meetings becomes particularly difficult when they involve numerous or senior level attendees. That said, there are several rules of thumb when scheduling meetings that can help ensure on-time attendance by those individuals needed to achieve the meetings objectives.
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Practices for Professionals – Meetings Best Practice 3: Setting Durations

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals - Meetings Best PracticeIn the age of electronic calendars, we too often allow meeting durations to be established by our software’s preprogrammed defaults, typically 30 minutes to one hour. By settling for software defaults, we risk holding meetings that are too short to arrive at quality decisions or enabling inefficiency such that the meeting expands to meet the excessive amount of time allotted.
Hi there! This article is available to StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Remote Access and Dedicated Advisor clients and those who subscribe to one of the article's related categories. If you're already a Remote Access or Dedicated Advisor client or a related category subscriber, please log in to read this article. Not a client? We'd love to have you on board. Check out our StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor service options.

Can Your Company’s Operations Cause a Black Swan Event?

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According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Black Swan events are rare, catastrophic events that many retrospectively assert could have been predicted and thus prevented. But can they? Could your company’s operational performance cause the next Black Swan tragedy?

Before we answer the question of whether or not your company’s operations could cause a Black Swan event, I need you to consider your organization’s risk tolerance as we’ll be defining the Black Swan event in those terms.

You see, Black Swan events reported by the media are defined by a much higher impact and scope than what most organization’s can tolerate. So with your organizations unique tolerance in mind, consider the following question sets regardless of how the event might be initiated:

Set 1

  • Does your company’s operations involve significant amounts of hazardous or potentially hazardous materials?
  • Does your company’s operations involve high energy systems or materials?
  • Does your company operate in an inhospitable environment such that inappropriate operations could result in harm to a large number of people or result in significant damage to assets or the environment?
  • Does your company provide a commodity without which a vital service would be impaired?
  • Does your company’s operations integrate with others such that a mishap could bring down a network supporting the provision of vital services?

Set 2

  • Could a relatively large number of people be impacted by an operational mishap at your company?
  • Could a significant asset loss be incurred by an operational mishap at your company?
  • Could a significant environmental impact result from an operational mishap at your company?

If you answered yes to any of the Set 1 and any of the Set 2 questions, your organization’s operations could cause what is for you a Black Swan event.

As a leader of a susceptible organization, your next questions become:

  • How can we recognize the rising risk of a Black Swan event?
  • How do we minimize our risk of causing a Black Swan event? and
  • How can we prepare for a Black Swan event now in an efficient, financially responsible way that balances cost and risk mitigation?

To help you answer these questions, we’ve prepared a FREE video training series: Preparing for the Black Swan. During this online training course, you’ll learn:

  • the warning flags of rising Black Swan risk
  • how to develop a healthy safety culture to minimize the risk of a Black Swan event
  • how to responsibly prepare for a Black Swan event through the implementation of protocols for responding to a Black Swan event should one occur, and
  • how to effectively monitor for rising Black Swan event risk
Access the Training Course Now!

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Four Phases of High-Quality Business Performance Assessments

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Business performance assessments are conducted in a series of phases: Identify, Plan & Schedule, Execute, and Close-out. Associated with each phase is a collection of principles, best practices, and warning flags aiding the identification, communication, and acceptance of value-adding, self-critical performance improvement opportunities.

Assessment Phases

  • Identify Phase: The Identify Phase starts the business performance assessment process by defining the broad parameters within and by which the assessment
    will be performed.
  • Plan and Schedule Phase: The business performance assessment process continues with the Plan and Schedule Phase during which the specific assessment activities – document reviews, personnel surveys, activity observations, and individual interviews – to be performed are identified and scheduled.
  • Execute Phase: The Execute Phase is at the center of the business performance assessment process. During this phase, assessors gather and analyze data from a number of sources to identify performance improvement opportunities.
  • Close-out Phase: The Close-out Phase marks the end of the business performance assessment process. Performance improvement opportunities are captured within the corrective action program and assessment documentation is properly cataloged.

As illustrated by StrategyDriven’s Information Development Model, business performance assessments belong to the third tier of performance data refinement. Performance reports at this level benefit from human intelligence added to supporting data during: initial data synthesis, basic trend identification and analysis, multi-trend synthesis, and basic model application. It is the infusion of human knowledge and experience at these points that makes these assessments broadly integrated and highly insightful.

To learn how to maximize the value of your business performance assessment efforts:

Register for StrategyDriven’s FREE Maximizing the Value of Business Performance Assessments online training series

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.