The Focus Optimization Blog
What are you focused on?
Barriers to Effective Goal Achievement
SWOTt and Often Disastrous Consequences
SWOTt and Often Disastrous Consequences
Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 5:20am

The objective of a planning process, in marketing or elsewhere is typically  to pick the optimal most worthwhile goals and figure out how to get there in the most efficient way possible.  Typically,  the most significant barrier to effective  planning for many is  oversimplification and basing decisions on assumptions and "feel-good" information that has no or little relation to reality. This leads to really bad decisions and I believe is the reason most businesses and plans fail.    An effective planning process needs to be based on inter-relating significant amounts of accurate, timely and appropriate  information together from within (company competencies, culture...) to the main outside focus(the customer) to the key influences from the external environments.  

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Goal Achievement Critical Success Factors
Thursday, March 18, 2010 - 2:50am

 

** Reposted from January 2006

AGILEdge  recently sponsored a study looking at goal achievement programs and processes around the world as well as our own to determine the critical successful factors for successfully achieving goals in organizations.  Many, but not all of these factors are like weak links in the chain - if you have all but that one satisfied, you still will more than likely fall short.   These critical success factors are divided between up-front activities and implementation activities as follows:

  •  Clear statement of Purpose with specifics so that participants (those who benefit) can visualize success.
  • Clear...
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Barriers to Effective Goal Achievement
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - 5:32am

 

Barriers (and myths) to Effective Focus and Goal Achievement

There are many reasons given for NOT being focused, for not having an understanding of the three dimensional (Looking in, out and all around) environment in which you operate.  If you want to hear them with your own ears, go find a group of business owners whose business has recently failed - it certainly is not the only reason but these are very common with them, I can assure you.

• There is not enough time to work through process

• We can't get buy-in from….???

• Belief that informal understandings of values, vision, mission and goals from some "exercise" are enough.

• We have no major conflicts and...

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Why Focus on the What?
Sunday, February 28, 2010 - 12:41pm

 

By focusing on what you are trying to accomplish in the long term to develop a vision you can share, key goals and key strategies for achieve those goals, you will see the following benefits:

  • When you have a honest accurate and thorough understanding of the market environment in which you operate, you have the ability to achieve great things through focus.  With effectiveplanning and execution you will have the ability to sustain advantages and pursue rewarding opportunties.  
  • To get people on the same page greatly  increasing productivity.
  • To get better response to change and get a greater ability to take advantage and prosper with it.
  • To enable purposeful growth  - it is a necessary pre-condition.
  • When people are focused and know where they are going and how they can contribute, they get a lot more done versus talking about it.
    • ...
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