Decisions: Four Key Roles Make for Quality Decision-Making

Various organizational maladies can be traced to a lack of clarity around decision roles. After-the-fact objections, confusion in implementation, micromanagement, scapegoating, and whipsawing all imply a need to define roles with greater clarity.

The Right Question

The first step in strategic decision-making is to focus on the right task. Early in my career I was lucky to have clients who taught me a lot. Here’s a recollection of one lesson. It was 1998 or so, and my firm was the agency of record for Wegmans Food Markets internet work. We were working […]

Five Books for Developing Systems Thinking

See horizontal connections across operations, and learn how human factors contribute to success or failure. Systems Thinking is critical for effective strategy, communications, and creative planning. But what makes a good systems thinker? Most talented systems thinkers I know are generalists — and I have long remarked that folks who spend meaningful time in personal hobbies seem to […]

The Importance of Brand/Visual Identity Standards

Brand standards build value at lower cost, nurture loyalty, deliver strategically—and prevent fraud. I’m sometimes asked why identity standards and consistent “branding” (in a very old fashioned, literal, logo sorta way) is important. While the answer to that query may be obvious to marketing types, it’s not so obvious to others, so I put together […]