- problems with confidence;
- difficulties with ideology, values and principles;
- professional detachment; and
- unusual approaches to decision-making (referring to the propensity of lawyers to attack any idea presented to locate and highlight its weaknesses, with the result that “in a short time, most ideas, no matter who initiates them, will be destroyed, discarded, or postponed for future review. “)
The David Maister strategy and the fat smoker
Website design By BotEap.comAs the title of David Maister’s next book Strategy and the fat smoker suggests, the problem isn’t that we don’t know what to do, it’s that we know and choose to ignore. Based on a series of articles written and published online, Maister’s latest offering promises a dose of “real” strategy: “The real strategy lies not in figuring out what to do, but in devising ways to ensure that, compared to others Let’s really do it. More than everyone knows to do. ” In other words, it’s about implementation, and that’s the focus of the book. Organized into sections related to how organizations should think about strategy, customers (including marketing and sales), and management, Strategy and the Fat Smoker speaks to those who understand that knowing without doing brings little value.
Website design By BotEap.comI started by reading the introductory chapters on strategy. Various gems leapt at me, including:
Website design By BotEap.comIf you really want to be successful (and a lot of people don’t want it enough for this to happen), then you should never settle, never give up, never drift, never just accept what is, even if you are currently performing at a high level. .
Website design By BotEap.comand
Website design By BotEap.com[T]The main result of strategic planning should not be an analytical vision or smart choices, but a superior determination to achieve something.
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Website design By BotEap.comThe best way to approach this reassessment [of the organization’s purpose, mission, vision and values] is to start with a very small inner circle of top management leaders, who can look each other in the eye and ask, “Are these really the decision rules that we as leaders are willing to stick to?”
Website design By BotEap.comMaister invites readers to dive into any chapter, and after I understood his approach to strategy, I dove into Chapter 17: The Problem with Lawyers. Maister’s preface to this chapter indicates that he originally wrote it to explain “why lawyers and law firms are different from other professions,” but that other consulting and financial services professionals identify with the culture and behavior that Maister attributes to the legal profession. Almost any attorney reading this chapter will recognize that Maister is speaking to us. It highlights four problems that prevent “lawyers from working effectively in a group”: