Suppose you’re down to your last cent and decide to take a walk. While walking, you find two N$100 notes on the ground. You happily pick up the notes, put them in your pocket and quickly walk to the shop…

Elicitation techniques are strategic communication methods used to extract information during a conversation without making the other person feel interrogated. They are very useful tools when facilitating strategic discussions because formal and professional settings often put people in a closed…

Any leader, strategist or even parent should develop the skill of elicitation. Elicitation is a strategic communication technique used to gather information, needs, or requirements from individuals or groups who may be hesitant, unaware of specific details, or unable to…

IT is said that the average person makes about 35 000 conscious decisions every day. Some are small, automatic decisions, such as which lane to drive in, while others are monumental, life-changing decisions which do not come about as often. One…

Before the printing of paper currency evolved to become the sophisticated process it is today, banks would struggle with widespread counterfeit notes that were difficult for bank tellers to spot. In response, they started training their tellers to study the…

When you successfully standardise something, particularly valuable action, it becomes your new norm. Over time, what was scary and difficult at first becomes something that you can do on any given day of the week. What used to seem extraordinary,…

Have you noticed that Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk have a habit of dressing the same way each and every day? There is a reason for it. Standardising parts of your day means that you purposefully decide to…

WHEN faced with a large, complex set of goals, we can easily become stuck in inaction. We take mental note of all the things we need to do and we understandably become overwhelmed to the point where we don’t know…

PICTURE this: You’re settling into your seat on an airplane, preparing for a long flight. As you settle in, a woman with two small children approaches you and takes the seats next to you. The children are crying and uncontrollable.…

Who do you work for?Before you answer that question, please note that I have not asked “who pays your salary?”. Who you work for and who employs you are two separate questions. Some answer the question of who they work…

I’m sure we’ve all heard of ‘Smart’ (‘Specific’, ‘Measurable’, ‘Attainable’, ‘Realistic’ and ‘Time-bound’) goals and understand them to be a good way of reaching strategic goals. However, even Smart goals have their limitations in the sense that they are known…

STRATEGIC management has four main elements that should follow a specific order. Firstly, you must decide on the direction you wish to take. That is strategy development. Then you must decide on the correct actions to take.That is strategic planning.…