Adaptive Strategies Blog

I make my living facilitating workshops for businesses and every now and then I need to give away simple tools. In these days of economic uncertainty I want my clients to make sure that they are adapting their organization’s strategy fast enough to keep up with real change. Consider using the following tool at your next meeting.

RED LIGHT / YELLOW LIGHT / GREEN LIGHT

See if you can assign “stop-light” colors to the following five statements. Reds have to be addressed right away and Yellow needs attention. However, if something is Green you may be wasting your time trying to make it greener.

1. The vision, values, and goals of our organization are reasonable in light of today’s economy and are understood across the organization.
2. We regularly “reflect on reality” to uncover real issues and trends and to anticipate the future.
3. We think critically and strategically about the future, challenging our assumptions and considering multiple points of view.
4. We are capable of timely decision making and allow mid-level managers and those “closest to the action” to influence the decision process.
5. Once a decision has been made we act effectively and efficiently to carry it out.

These are my five basic questions. What does your color pallet look like?

What questions do you ask? Or do you think the future will be like the past?