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Some problems are seemingly intractable. One for you right now might be: “How do I plan for August when the current easing of social distancing and isolation restrictions may get reversed in a week, in a month or in the last week of July?”

One answer is to use Design Thinking, to work smart in addition to remaining agile. Design Thinking is a way of identifying new and innovative ideas. Sometimes to develop new products or services. And just as often to identify solutions to problems, especially

Laid out in front of you are a range of scenarios as to how the coming months might play out. You have already been shocked and surprised since our world got turned on its head. How many more surprises are coming your way? What might you do about them?

The answer is assumption busting. Identifying and clearly articulating the assumptions underlying each scenario and asking how you can test those assumptions to reduce uncertainty. Let me give you an example of how assumption busting works in pract

“Never Mistake Motion for Action” is a quote attributed to novelist Ernest Hemingway. This is poignant in the current environment because motion affects results while action effects results. Said another way, if you create motion, something will happen. If you take action, you plan something to happen.

A few weeks ago I wrote about tooling for Adaptive Leadership. I was asking you to consider the analysis tools you have available to you to help you be adaptive through a time of much greater uncer

Listening is important in any conversation. However, listening to the voices that you don’t normally hear from is critical at this time. Those from outside your normal circle of trusted advisers.

My blog a few weeks back encouraging you to slide back down the maturity curve and grasp Adaptive Leadership with both hands, has lead me to consider the analysis tools we have available and which would be most useful when looking to be adaptive.

There are a bunch of tools I use regularly. They include Stakeholder Analysis, PESTLE Analysis, Porter’s Industry Five Forces, Unique Value Proposition, Value Chain Analysis and my very own Capability Analysis (templates for most of these are available w

Being courageous with your decision making is key to adaptative leadership which I have been writing about for the last couple of weeks. Easy to say, yet you and I both know that courageous decisions are full of risk and opportunity. Will it work? What will it cost me? What unforeseen problems am I creating? Yet, the need requires the risk, or the opportunity is simply too significant to pass up.

Take the manufacturers turning to supply plastic face masks with 3D printers or the ones now producin

S-curves are beautiful things. They are wonderful for helping to decide where we are and where we want to be. From what I have heard and observed this week, it is time to slide back down the curve a bit. Let me explain.

The figure below is the one I show to boards and executives when I describe for them the value of a strong approach to risk management. You move from feeling or being vulnerable and exposed, to adaptive, to resilient. And if you are very, very good, you become agile – making rapid