Author: Charles Schrock
-
I don’t believe in best practices
Consultants – if you want to sell a solution to internal auditors, don’t couch it as ‘best practices’. Serious and respected internal auditors deal in well-grounded recommendations. Their recommendations address a deficiency or opportunity that actually matters to management. And their proposed solutions are usually simple, practical, complete, and sustainable so that management can take… Read more
-
Fake it ’til you make it
We’ve all seen this advice. And it disturbs me when people use it to justify something shady. Here’s what it’s not … It’s not a (wink-wink) justification to fraudulently claim some skill, or some authority, even though you don’t really have it. Sure, you want it. You plan on having it someday. And, the justification… Read more
-
Responsibility, Commitment, and Accountability
If you’re trying to build an effective governance culture, it’s important that everyone knows what these words mean … and how they work in your culture. These ideas are often mashed together in ways that are real head-scratchers. And, to say it up front, I’m talking about ‘common usage’ for these terms. If they exist… Read more
-
Mission … Vision … and other stuff
I am mostly interested in personal and team productivity and effectiveness. Too many people try to make this complicated when it’s far better to keep it simple. For example … Mission, Vision, Purpose, Strategies, Tactics, Initiatives, Executions, Objectives, Goals, Targets, Metrics, KPIs, Results and so on. Lots of terminology for related (and sometimes the same)… Read more
-
Prioritize your focus
I tend to think about things that catch my eye. Today it’s the difference between Prioritizing and Focusing. This started with something I read in the book ‘The Laws of Subtraction’ by Matthew E. May. The author had interviewed John Maeda who, in turn, shared his thoughts about priority and focus. I often use these… Read more