I was watching two members of one of my client’s team arguing over where the end point of the handover was. This seemed to be a good point to raise; unfortunately the end date had been and gone by two months. How you agree the end point has more to do with than just how the business works – how do the people work within the business? As handovers usually have a people element to them it is important to ensure that the capability of the individuals is also present. When you define the end point of a project it is worth describing this as a scene – what will the people be doing (behaving) once you walk away? And where are they now – can they do these activities? This is the gap that needs to be closed. Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' www.smartspeed.co.uk

One of the challenges that we need to consider when developing strategies is: - can it take the bumps that we might see on the way? There are some very good ways to create and design strategies for businesses, but the acid test question is the one mentioned above. How do you use this approach? Very simple - work out what kinds of factors could adversely affect your business (but aren't on the current horizon) and then consider whether your strategy could withstand the bump that this would cause. Depending on the result, reflect against this 'scenario' and decide whether you want to take the risk. Otherwise alter the strategy or come up with a plan 'B' should the situation arise. Considering the weird and the wonderful when it comes to strategic design is a valuable approach. Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' www.smartspeed.co.uk

Do you ever have those moments when you catch yourself going through the motions? Do you ever realise that sometimes you have done a days work and you don't quite know where the time has gone to? One of the hardest habits to form is the ability to stop what you are doing, before you are doing it, to work out the best use of your efforts. When we get a plan we have done the hard thinking work - haven't we? From observation and personal experience it is obvious how strong the pull to get on and do the work is compared to stopping and spending just a few minutes to ask questions like:  - what are the objectives that I need to achieve?  - what is the best approach to achieving the objectives? Just stopping and thinking about the work at hand can have a significant impact on the performance. It's worth a try. Doing it consistently however is another challenge! Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' www.smartspeed.co.uk

Have you ever spent your time concerned about how many things that you have to do and not knowing where to start? This is a concern that many of my colleagues and clients have experienced either recently or in the past few years. It is not a new problem. I remember reading a quote that stated 'it is better to have a short pencil than a long memory'. This is such a useful thing to remember when your head is buzzing with ideas. Write them down and then deal with them - one at a time. Of course, please make sure that the item with the highest payback is done first (payback against your values of course). So, in short, get it out of your head so that you can do something with it. Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' www.smartspeed.co.uk

Projects sometimes need to be reviewed in terms of their purpose. It is sometimes needed that we take a step back and see if we're going in the right direction. This is one of those terms that is often used - 'from 50,000ft'. However often it is used, it is still a really good way to look at the bigger picture, to step away from the day to day activity on the project and ask 'are we really doing the right things?' Projects do change. There are many things that can change; people, goals, resources, motivation. Regularly stepping back to check that these variables have not knocked the project off course is highly recommended. Have you stepped back recently? Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' www.smartspeed.co.uk

When working with organisations of all different sizes, working in different sectors to instigate change it is quite often noticeable that many of them only start making changes when they absolutely have to. This then runs the risk of not doing the best work possible as time becomes severely restricted. On the other hand there are organisations that take the view that improvement needs to be done in a more continuous fashion. Continuous improvement is a term that relates to the smaller activities that build upon the current working structures that are in place. Periodic improvement in this context refers to organisations that schedule in time to look at working on the step changes that need to take place in order for the business to keep ahead of its competition and remain strong in the marketplace. Quite often the periodic improvement is based on the insights gained from the continuous improvement activity and therefore begs the question - "when is your periodic impr

The concept of personal agendas is often described in terms of motivation - what are people really trying to do whilst at work? How will their actions benefit them? However - there is another way to look at the world of personal agendas. You can use them for the benefit of the organisation by getting really focussed on what you need to get achieved in a short period of time. I'm not suggesting that people don't know what they should be doing, but rather this is an opportunity to re-focus your efforts so that you can get the most work done with the least amount of time and effort. Just affirming the right things that need to be done can help increase the productivity of a meeting (or a half morning on a project). Those next steps, once recognised, might help shorten the amount of time required to complete a task. Try it over the next few days and see what happens. Smartspeed Consulting Limited 'For When Results Matter' www.smartspeed.co.uk