The six thinking hats technique, proposed Edward de Bono in 1999, encourages a group to approach the issue at hand from a number of different perspectives. This forces the team to move outside their habitual thinking style, and helps them to get a more rounded view of a situation. It is an important and powerful technique to debate an issue, solve a problem or to arrive at an important decision.
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A Comprehensive Guide to Lewin’s Change Model
Organizational Change is a common thread that runs through all businesses regardless of size, industry and age. It is about the process of changing an organization’s strategies, processes, procedures, technologies, and culture, as well as the effect of such changes on the organization. Kurt Lewin developed a change model involving three steps: unfreezing, changing and refreezing.
Continue readingA Comprehensive Guide to Kotter’s 8 Step Model of Change
Kotter suggests that for change to be successful, 75% of the practice team needs to “buy into” the change. In other words, you have to really work hard on Step One, and spend significant time and energy building urgency, before moving onto the next steps. Don’t panic and jump in too fast because you don’t want to risk further short-term losses — if you act without proper preparation, you could be in for a very bumpy ride.
Continue readingA Comprehensive Guide to 5 Why Analysis
The 5 Whys is a simple tool used to help you understand what’s causing a problem by using an iterative interrogative technique to explore the root cause underlying a particular problem. As the name suggested, 5 Whys takes five iterations of asking “Why” to drill down from one symptom to another until you reached the root cause (Sometimes asking “Why?” five times is too many, and sometimes you need to ask it more than five times).
Continue readingStrategic Planning to Actionable Items: From SWOT to TOWS Analysis
SWOT matrix is a planning tool, whereas TOWS matrix is an action tool. In SWOT analysis you identify all the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in point form. After that you think of each point as a singular perspective. Whereas, TOWS matrix identifies the relationships between these factors and selecting strategies on their bases. Strengths and weaknesses are abstract concepts that can be hard to think about without any sort of context.
Continue readingStrategic Planning with Strategy Map & Balanced Score Card
A strategy map developed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton as part of their Balanced Scorecard framework for strategic planning and management. A strategy map is a visual representation of a company’s overall objectives and how they relate to one another on a single page.
Continue readingIntegrate PERT Chart with RACI Roles to Task Manager
Today I would like to use Visual Paradigm to demonstrate how to perform task planning for team members who will take up the RACI roles and these tasks in the Enhanced PERT Chart can automatically be assigned to the automated task manager called “Tasifier” for project management. A traditional PERT chart is a project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project. The enhanced PERT Chart tool adds four additional features for integrating with different Visual Paradigm building blocks. You can do all these within an enhanced PERT Chart modeler.
Continue readingDecision Table: Clearer Logic and Better Decision
A decision table is an excellent tool to use in both testing and requirements management. Essentially it is a structured exercise to formulate requirements when dealing with complex business rules. In a decision table, business logic is well divided into conditions, actions (decisions) and rules for representing the various components that form the business logic.
Continue readingVisualize Data with Online Charts
Choose from over 50 chart types to find the perfect representation of your data. Both common and advanced chart types are supported, including bar, line, area, pie, doughnut, radar, and rose charts. Visualize your data and statistics quickly and easily with Visual Paradigm’s online chart maker.
Continue reading7 Powerful Strategic Analysis Toolset for your business
Strategic Analysis is a core step in the Strategic Learning Cycle. Every strategist should have a toolset of analytical models at his or her disposal. However, there are many techniques and tools available for strategy analysis. If you google around the web, you will find a long list of options available. The challenge is to acquire the right techniques and tools for a given business problem. This article give you a brief introduction for you to jumpstart the strategic analysis learning process.
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