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Planning in a Wicked World

No, this is not a commentary on morality. It’s the beginning of a weekly series on structure and decision making in a world without precedent. If you want to receive the series via email please go to www.mindprep.com and signup for our newsletter. First, some simple explanations. Wicked! Now what? So, what do we know…

A Facilitative Manager – Part 5: Demonstrate what you can’t have too much of: Integrity

By Oliver W. Cummings May 22, 2020 To recap, in addition to a set of fundamental characteristics, (decision-making ability, assertiveness and motivation to achieve, social sensitivity, emotional stability, and appropriate self-reliance and courage levels, for example) the facilitative manager will: Believe, but not too much (covered in Part 1) Care, but not too much (covered…

A Dozen Realities – Updated

When Oliver Cummings and I created the Making Strategy Real workshop for MindPrep Resource Center (www.mindprep.com) we used a dozen “known truth” to guide our design. Now the question is whether these pre-pandemic truths will hold up in a post-pandemic world. Here are some initial thoughts: 2019 2021 The business environment is always evolving. Wow!…

A Middle Managers Guide to Finance

What is Financial Management? Today’s post for A Middle Managers Guide to Finance provides middle managers a quick outline of financial management.  And, hopefully, in a manner that is relatively painless.  Feel free to comment at the end of the post! I’m going to guess that as a middle manager, you probably await finance reports that signal to you…

12 Things for Middle Managers to Think About in Relation to the Pandemic

By Oliver W. Cummings 1 May 2020 Fundamentally, the act of being a leader involves followers and knowing what to do is not sufficient to inspire followers’ trust; knowing how to go about what you do is what makes for real leadership. And, the “how” is very much tied up in facilitative relationship building. This…

A Facilitative Manager and Covid19

By Oliver W. Cummings 29/04/2020 Bill asked a question in the previous post on the facilitative manager and trust. In essence the question was, “In relation to the pandemic, is trust ‘flipped’ in that we need the workers to trust us more than we need to trust them?”  It is an important question. In the…

What It Takes to Be A Facilitative Manager – Part 3: Feel, But Not Too Much

By Oliver W. Cummings, 4/3/2020 Feedback from my previous post: I’ve been using this space to provide a little continuity for this series of posts on facilitative management. This time, however, the pandemic has intervened, and I am foregoing comments on the prior post. Instead, I am going to provide some things I learned from…

A Middle Manager’s Guide to Finance – Cash

The phrase Cash is King is frequently used when educators begin imparting business management wisdom upon unsuspecting students or when owners of family businesses prepare others to assume owner responsibilities. Understanding how cash flows through your company will definitely enhance your strategic thinking skills. Cash is the vital fuel used to run the engines of…

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