“If You Are Sure, You Are Wrong”
I presented a webinar on August 26, 2020, “If You Are Sure, You Are Wrong”, to the Council of CI Fellows. (I am a Fellow of CCIF.) You can watch the webinar on the CCIF YouTube channel or on the CI Fellows site.
You will see:
- Four reasons why businesses fail
- What we learn from the Top Pricer Tournament™
- Why “it depends” is CI’s friend (and confidence is not)
- Three ways to raise your odds of success.
The webinar shows how odd questions can lead us to understand strategy failures better. Here is an odd question from the webinar: “Imagine you are a 14th century European. Is it cognitive bias to believe the sun orbits the earth?”
ACS offers six new webinars on competitive strategy
Image: geralt on pixabay.com
I have spoken about competitive strategy on the six non-frozen continents. I have even spoken on no continent at all, at sea aboard the Queen Elizabeth II. These days, though, speaking in person is out. So let’s speak virtually.
Each of these webinars thoughtfully, merrily, and unconventionally skewers conventional thinking. Together, they offer a powerful, provocative vision of competitive strategy.
- Why Strategies Fail
- Frames, Games, and Inspiration
- Why War Games Work
- Cyborg Strategy™
- Executing a Strategy Does Not Mean Killing It
- How Strategies Succeed
The webinars are non-commercial. Attendees will not be put on email lists.
Each webinar lasts about one hour, and might go longer with questions and answers. All are presented by ACS Founder Mark Chussil (LinkedIn).
Do you have a corporate group, professional association, or business-school class? Contact us.
Brochure: Webinars to Stretch Your Strategy
Why Strategies Fail, Even Though Everyone Plans to Succeed
It is easy to post-mortem once-proud companies. Everyone knows the usual suspects: complacency, quarterly reports, giving disruptors time and space to disrupt. We take comfort in “I would never be so foolish.” But the leaders of those once-proud companies knew the usual suspects, too.
Frames, Games, and Inspiration: How To Boost Strategy Creativity
Inspiration is the offspring of serendipity (something goes boing! in our heads) and judgment (“good idea!”). Just remember: Every bad strategy started life as someone’s inspirational good idea.
Creativity is free, fast, fun, enlightening, and empowering. Its goal is not consensus, although that can be a bonus. Its goal is not even awareness, although that is necessary. Its goal is insight.
Why War Games Work: Serious Games to Solve Serious Problems
Business war games are fun! But fun does not move bottom lines. What does? Solving problems. In this webinar: case studies of how war games helped strategists solve problems.
“The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.” — Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Cyborg Strategy™: How Humans + Computers Transform Competitive Strategy
Cyborg Strategy is not about big data and smaller headcounts; it is about bigger thinking and greater creativity. Cyborg Strategy is about synergy, bringing humans and computers together to discover and stress-test strategies in ways that humans simply cannot do alone.
Executing a Strategy Does Not Mean Killing It: Assorted Wisdom from Four Decades of Strategy
What do you get if you freeze carbonated water? If you add water to coffee, do you have more coffee? Why do I ask such silly questions?
I ask because four decades pursuing wisdom in strategy has taught me a lesson: Silly questions, exercises, and puzzles can lead to serious, valuable insights.
How Strategies Succeed
Did Netflix win or did Blockbuster lose?
Many companies conflate happy outcomes with smart decisions: If we made our numbers we must have been smart, and if we missed our numbers we must have been not-smart. I respectfully but firmly suggest that that reasoning is wrong.