Thursday, May 7, 2026

When the Key Change is not The Key Change.

Strategic Simplicity® is all about identifying the key change or priority to get the most important result for your business or personal goals.

But, sometimes, the Key Change is NOT the key change for right now. If the Key Change generates resistance or has a low chance of success, then there may be a First Key Change. Doing this first might prove the concept, and/or increase the odds of the Key Change.

For example, developing a new software system may be a key change that speeds up your manufacturing process. But, if you feel that you'll only have 45% of success because of the state of your project management organization, and fixing that would raise the changes to perhaps 75%, then fixing your project management is the key change for right now.

Strategic Simplicity® #28

You don’t have a prioritization problem. You have too many priorities because no one is willing to eliminate the wrong ones.

Dad jokes:

1. Someone ripped the fifth month out of my new calendar. I’m dismayed.

2. A woman fainted and fell onto the baggage carousel at the airport. But she’s slowly coming around now.

3. I saw a CraigsList ad that said, “Radio for sale, volume stuck at 10.” I said to myself, “Man, that’s a deal I can’t turn down.”

4. I’m sorry to hear your uncle was run over by a boat in Venice. My gondolences.

5. Today I gave my dead batteries away. They were free of charge.

6. It’s inappropriate to make a ‘dad joke’ if you’re not a dad. It’s a faux pa.

7. I’m going to have to return the camouflage jacket I bought last week. I just can’t see myself wearing it.

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Strategic Simplicity® #27

If your roadmap keeps expanding, it’s not a planning problem. It’s a signal that the real priority hasn’t been identified yet.

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Strategic Simplicity® #26

Most transformation initiatives don’t stall from lack of effort—they stall because no one has identified the constraint everyone is working around.

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Shades of Roger Bannister

Until this past Sunday, nobody had run an official marathon in under 2 hours (someone did this in 2019, but it wasn't following official marathon rules). But, in Sunday's London Marathon, both the first and second place men's winners did it. Besides talent, part of it was incremental advances in training, nutrition, and technology (they both wore the new Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, which are very light weight, cost $500, and are designed to last only 1 race). Also, they were lucky with the weather.

But, now, we are probably going to see more people run sub-2 hour marathons.

Fun fact: the first modern marathon record was set in 1908 by American Johnny Hayes. If he had run on Sunday, his record-setting time of 2h 55m 18s would have meant that he would have finished outside the top 2000 finishers.

I guess this is another example of how Alan Weiss says you can't coast because plateaus erode.

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Warriors on the Battlefield

Warriors meeting on the battlefield. Don't worry- they become friends once the get to know each other!