Just over a week to go in 2016!

What are you celebrating as your big accomplishments this year?
Personally, my 2016 exceeded my expectations. I have such a deep sense of satisfaction when I review this year.

So, as 2017 comes into focus, what’s on your mind?

Taking a little time near the end of the old year can be a terrific way to ramp up your new year. That’s what I am doing today, in preparation for my next year. Care to join me?

Here’s a recommended format, which takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. You’ll need three pieces of paper….

Click the link here to continue reading…

Happy Christmas.

Check out the link –

“The evidence shows that the things that matter most for our happiness and for our misery are our social relationships and our mental and physical health. This demands a new role for the state – not ‘wealth creation’ but ‘wellbeing creation’.’

– Lord Layard

Link on my FB page – http://www.facebook.com/AndrewStaggsConsulting

What’s the Cost of Loss?

Countless research studies suggest that the cost of replacing key people runs between 70 percent and 200 percent of their annual salary. Hard costs can include advertising, search firms, interviewing and relocation expenses, and sign-on bonuses. And the softer, harder-to-measure costs can include time spent on interviewing, orienting, and training (and the work put on hold to do it), lost customers (due to their loyalty to the former employees), and declining morale and productivity on the part of remaining coworkers.

You can read the rest here…

http://www.facebook.com/notes/andrew-staggs-consulting-and-coaching/love-em-or-lose-em-getting-good-people-to-stay-from-a-to-z/719396931538524

The model is based on the theory that, for an organization to perform well, these seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. The model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment (and performance) during other types of change.

The 7S are structure, strategy, systems, skills, style, staff and shared values & vision.

The model is most often used as a tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization.

Whatever the type of change – restructuring, new processes, organisational merger, new systems, change of leadership, and so on – the model can be used to understand how the organisational elements are interrelated, and so ensure that the wider impact of changes made in one area is taken into consideration.

Usage

1. To analyse how well an organization is positioned to achieve its intended objective
2. Improve the performance of a company
3. Examine the likely effects of future changes within a company
4. Align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition
5. Determine how best to implement a proposed strategy

The Seven Interdependent Elements

The basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned if it is to be successful

Hard Elements – Strategy, Structure, Systems

Soft Elements – Shared Values, Skills, Staff, Style

The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model developed by well-known business consultants Robert H. Waterman, Jr. and Tom Peters (who also developed the MBWA– “Management By Walking Around” motif, and authored In Search of Excellence) in the 1980s. This was a strategic vision for groups, to include businesses, business units, and teams.

I laughed when I saw these consultant’s shirts.  You can order them here.

The Not for Profit sector has been warned that a review of competition policy in Australia could have a significant effect on the future uniqueness of the social economy – but few organisations are engaging in the review process.

Sector leader and Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Tony Nicholson, said the implications of the current Harper Review into Competition Policy was drawing little attention from the Not for Profit sector despite its implications being far reaching.

You can read the article here.

I really enjoyed this recent article from Buffer boy Kevan Lee.

And then they had this neat section about “When should you be posting?” as follows”

There are many neat tools to show you the best time of day to post to Facebook, Twitter, and more. These tools look at your followers and your history of posts to see when your audience is online and when historically have been your best times to share.

So what’s someone to do who’s just starting out on these social networks, with no audience and no history?

Again, this is where best practices come in. Perhaps the most helpful (and adorable) infographic I’ve seen about timing comes from SumAll, whichcompiled timing research from sites like Visual.ly, Search Engine Watch, and Social Media Today to create its awesome visual. Here’s an overview of what they found in terms of timing (all times are Eastern Time).

• Twitter – 1-3pm weekdays
• Facebook – 1-4pm and 2-5pm weekdays
• LinkedIn – 7-8:30am and 5-6pm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
• Tumblr – 7-10pm weekdays and 4pm on Fridays
• Instagram – 5-6pm weekdays and 8pm on Mondays with a sweetspot at 6pm
• Pinterest – 2-4pm and 8-11pm weekdays with weekends being the best
• Google+ – 9-11am weekdays

Read the full article here.

I was travelling in the USA in March this year and visited a large educational institution. They have recently revamped a range of courses to improve the “agility” of leaders that they are training.   They see agility as a “must-have” for leaders in the coming decades.  

I was also reading some thoughts from Lee Colan in relation to “agility.”  He says “your agility is a primary competitive advantage.”