1. If your organization's performance (operating income) = 100%, roughly what percentage is accounted for by the quality of the organization's strategy (clients we target; products, services and results we offer; the way we organize and compensate people, etc.) vs. the quality of the organization's execution of its strategy (the quality of our people, work, processes, decisions, etc.)?
2. If your organization's strategy = 100%, roughly what proportion of its effectiveness is dependent upon and accounted for by the organization's culture (widely-shared values, beliefs, behaviors, rites and rituals, etc.)?
3. If the execution of your organization's strategy = 100%, roughly what proportion of its effectiveness is dependent upon and accounted for by the organization's culture?

His columns inspire a spirited and educational set of responses join in and share your perspectives.

1. Who's in charge and serves as the overall executive leader of the program?
2. Is she 100% dedicated fully to the program?  Anything less is a recipe for disaster.
3. Does the leader have full responsibility and authority to deliver the desired results of the program?
4. Who is the sponsor? Who has the money and provides a clear escalation path for the program executive?
5. Are the boundaries (scope) of the program well-developed and understood by ALL on the team?
6. Are key program parameters in writing and actually known by all team members?
7. Are meetings designed and managed to reflect differences in culture, time zones, and work styles across the globe?
8. Do schedules and timelines reflect reality of what is achievable given available resources and market conditions?
9. Do you routinely assess the risks to successfully delivering the program and make adjustments for prevention and contingency measures as needed?
10. Are you learning--do you conduct pre-mortems, lessons learned sessions, or after-action reviews periodically rather than only at the end of the program?

Few things in the airline business are more daunting than upgrading to a new reservations system. Do it well and customers are none the wiser; mess it up and a carrier risks losing customers and tarnishing its brand. Discount carriers JetBlue Airways Corp. and WestJet Airlines Ltd. both switched reservations systems in the past few months. The differing outcomes are a reminder of how the implementation of new technology can be just as crucial as the technology itself. Despite months of planning, when WestJet flipped the switch on its new system its Web site crashed repeatedly and its call center was overwhelmed. It took months to resolve all the issues. JetBlue, which later upgraded to the same software, smoothed its transition by building a backup Web site and hiring 500 temporary call-center workers....

Make sure the right people are involved

• Ensure diversity.
• Invite contributions based on expertise, not rank..

Assign homework

• Make sure predecision due diligence is based on accurate, sufficient, and independent facts and on appropriate analytical techniques.
• Request alternatives and “out of the box” plans—for instance, by soliciting input from outsiders to the decision-making process.

Create the right atmosphere

• As the final decision maker, ask others to speak up (starting with the most junior person); show you can change your mind based on their input; strive to create a “peerlike” atmosphere.
• Encourage admissions of individual experiences and interests that create possible biases.

Manage the debate

• Before you get going, make sure everyone knows the meeting’s purpose (making a decision) and the criteria you will be using to make that decision.
• Take the pulse of the room: ask participants to write down their initial positions, use voting devices, or ask participants for their “balance sheets” of pros and cons.

Follow up

• Commit yourself to the decision. Debate should stop when the decision is made. Connect individually with initial dissenters and make sure implementation plans address their concerns to the extent possible.

Monitor pre–agreed upon criteria and milestones to correct your course or move on to backup plans.

The newly released app-design guide reveals a lot more about Microsoft than they probably intended.

Done, All, Never, Not, No, Yes, Support, System, Systems, Deliverable, Management, Project Manager, Program Manager, Product Manager, Project Leader, Core Team Leader, PMO, Project Office, Metrics, Horizontal, Lateral, Training, Vendor, Contractor, Consultant, Change Management, Never, Always, Sort of, Maybe, Okay, Behavior change, Services, Internal, "They", External, Communications, Sponsor, Stakeholder, Customer, Owner, Complete, Process, "That’s interesting", I get it (i.e. no need to repeat it), Requirements

...very few corporate strategists making important decisions consciously take into account the cognitive biases—systematic tendencies to deviate from rational calculations—revealed by behavioral economics. It’s easy to see why: unlike in fields such as finance and marketing, where executives can use psychology to make the most of the biases residing in others, in strategic decision making leaders need to recognize their own biases. So despite growing awareness of behavioral economics and numerous efforts by management writers, including ourselves, to make the case for its application, most executives have a justifiably difficult time knowing how to harness its power.

• Decide which decisions warrant the effort

• Identify the biases most likely to affect critical decisions

• Select practices and tools to counter the most relevant biases

• Embed practices in formal processes