Notes on making strategy operational.
A working library on how organizations decide, coordinate, measure, and deliver. Operating notes, field briefs, executive guides, research, and tools you can apply to your own organization.
From strategy to owned work: a guide to line of sight
A strategic plan does not become operational on its own. This guide traces the ten links between enterprise strategy and outcomes, what breaks at each one, and the evidence that shows a link is holding.
- 01Enterprise strategy
- 02Strategic priorities
- 03Objectives / OKRs
- 04KPIs / KRs
- 05Drivers
- 06Initiatives
- 07Risks / dependencies
- 08Decisions
- 09Evidence
- 10Outcomes
Frameworks to apply in your own organization.
Measure Quality Scorecard
Eight tests for any KPI or key result before it goes in front of leadership. Score a measure in two minutes and see what it needs before it can support a decision.
Use the toolDecision ToolDecision Rights Map
A one-page instrument for naming who decides, who is consulted, who is informed, and when a decision moves up a level. Built for the fifteen to twenty recurring decisions that account for most delays.
Use the toolBrowse by format.
Structured resources for leaders evaluating or addressing a defined operating problem.
Instruments, templates, and scorecards you can apply to your own organization.
Practical analysis of operating problems, implementation lessons, and patterns seen in the work.
Short observations on recurring execution problems, governance breakdowns, and operating friction.
Evidence-based synthesis grounded in published sources.
A working library on how organizations decide, coordinate, measure, and deliver.
-
Executive Guide
Designing escalation thresholds
Escalation works when everyone knows in advance which conditions move an issue up a level and how quickly it must be answered. A practical method for setting thresholds, with a starting table.
Applies to: Governance & performance management, Program & portfolio management -
Field Brief
When a PMO becomes reporting overhead
A PMO earns its place by making work easier to start, run, and finish. When it mostly collects status, programs route around it. How to tell which one you have, and how to reset it.
Applies to: Program & portfolio management, Federal program management -
Field Brief
An operating model for AI adoption
Organizations that get value from AI run it like any other operating capability: an intake, clear rules, a forum that decides, owners, and reported value. The five components and how they fit together.
Applies to: AI adoption & automation, Technology implementation -
Operating Note
What executives should see in a portfolio review
Most portfolio reviews walk through every initiative in turn. A useful one answers four questions early and spends the rest of the time on the decisions that follow.
Applies to: Executive dashboards & reporting, Program & portfolio management -
Executive Guide
Writing a scope a contracting officer can accept
Federal policy now favors fixed-price, performance-based services. A practical guide for program offices and prime contractors on turning a need into a scope with measurable standards and clear acceptance.
Applies to: Federal, Operating Diagnostic -
Decision Tool
Decision Rights Map
A one-page instrument for naming who decides, who is consulted, who is informed, and when a decision moves up a level. Built for the fifteen to twenty recurring decisions that account for most delays.
Applies to: Governance & performance management, Operating Diagnostic -
Decision Tool
Measure Quality Scorecard
Eight tests for any KPI or key result before it goes in front of leadership. Score a measure in two minutes and see what it needs before it can support a decision.
Applies to: Governance & performance management, Operating Diagnostic -
Field Brief
Why AI pilots stall before production
Most AI pilots do not stall on the model. They stall on ownership, data access, controls, and the workflow the tool was meant to change. What to settle before the next pilot starts.
Applies to: Technology implementation, Fractional leadership -
Operating Note
Activity is not progress
Counts of completed work are easy to report and easy to mistake for results. A short note on the difference, and how to tell which one a status report is showing.
Applies to: Program & portfolio management, Governance & performance management -
Operating Note
The standing meeting that never decides anything
Leadership calendars fill with review meetings that inform and rarely decide. How to design an operating cadence where each forum has a job, a defined input, and a recorded output.
Applies to: Governance & performance management, Fractional leadership -
Research
What federal performance management already requires, and where execution still breaks
A synthesis of the federal performance framework and GAO findings. The structure for connecting goals to evidence already exists in law and policy. The recurring gap is in how it reaches the work.
Applies to: Federal, Governance & performance management -
Field Brief
Decision rights: the governance gap behind most delays
When work stalls, the cause is often not capacity or skill. It is that nobody is sure who is allowed to decide. How to find those gaps and close them.
Applies to: Governance & performance management, Operating Diagnostic -
Field Brief
Map the work before you buy the software
Most software projects that disappoint were decided before anyone mapped the process the tool was supposed to fix. A practical sequence for getting the order right.
Applies to: Technology implementation, Process improvement -
Operating Note
A leadership dashboard should show which decision is stuck
Most leadership dashboards report activity. The useful ones trace each objective to the measures beneath it, so a red number points to an owner and a decision.
Applies to: Governance & performance management -
Executive Guide
From strategy to owned work: a guide to line of sight
A strategic plan does not become operational on its own. This guide traces the ten links between enterprise strategy and outcomes, what breaks at each one, and the evidence that shows a link is holding.
Applies to: Governance & performance management, Operating Diagnostic
Not sure this is the right starting point?
The Operating Diagnostic is a three-week, fixed-fee look at how the work actually runs. It tells you whether the fix is a process, a decision, a system, or all three, and gives you an action plan either way.