4 Steps to Gain a Talent Advantage with Upskilling
Dr. Evans Baiya, Hr.com, May 2022
Talent development is key to building a competitive organization.
A common mistake is to think your organization’s competitive advantage only comes from products and services, but this is not true. A competitive advantage is a result of superior talent—who are then able to make more contextual products and services and deliver them to the right customer, in the right context, and at the right time. Your talented employees are truly the ones who drive the success of your business.Read More
A Different Approach to Strategy
Part Two of a two-part interview with the Authors of Optimizing Strategy for Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive
By the TCL Team
For authors Dr. Timothy Waema, Ron Price, and Dr. Evans Baiya, strategy is only one part of the work they do for clients across the globe. Together, they bring decades of knowledge on strategy, leadership, and innovation into cohesive teachings—which led them to collaborate on their latest book, Optimizing Strategy for Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive.
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12 Enemies of Successful Innovation
By Dr. Evans Baiya
In helping businesses and leaders build their innovation abilities, I see certain traits that stifle innovation again and again. Whether they surface in an individual leader or employee, or afflict the organization as a whole, these repeating issues become a hindrance to future success. Here are 12 enemies of successful innovation to avoid on your innovation journey.
Lack of Clarity
It’s not easy to follow someone who does not know what problems they are solving and why. As a leader—especially if you are attempting change—you need a clear vision of the what, the when, the why, the who, and the how to create momentum for those who follow you.
All of this can be clarified in your strategy to reduce noise and inaction. Without clarity, the noise will overwhelm both internal and external stakeholders. They won’t know what to pay attention to, believe, or act upon. Practice clarifying your strategy.
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Collaborating Across the Globe
Part One of a two-part interview with the Authors of Optimizing Strategy for Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive
By The TCL Team
We all did a little something different during our extended time at home during the early days of the pandemic. With Zoom as our new neighborhood hangout, we worked, exercised, and socialized. For authors Dr. Timothy Waema, Ron Price, and Dr. Evans Baiya, it was the perfect time to collaborate on a book they had been dreaming of for years.
From their homes across the world in Boise, ID, and Nairobi, Kenya, the authors pooled together their collective knowledge on strategy, leadership, and innovation to write Optimizing Strategy for Results: A Structured Approach to Make Your Business Come Alive. This step-by-step model is meant to help leaders prepare, create, and optimize great strategy—making those elusive “how’s” and “what’s” of successful strategic planning clear.
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Evans Baiya of The Innovators Advantage: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company
Dr. Evans Baiya, Authority Magazine, April 2022
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I am a trained scientist, engineer, and I worked in Silicon Valley. My background is in engineering and chemistry, so I didn’t know much about strategy until I started moving up the ranks. When you’re in management you’re responsible for the execution of strategy. I was constantly asking myself, “What is strategy?” This was one of the reasons I decided to get an MBA because I really wanted to understand this language of business. Read More
How to Strategize for Disruption
What we can learn from Peloton about creating a resilient strategy
By Dr. Evans Baiya
The idea of creating a resilient strategy seems to come up in conversation again and again these days. It’s certainly a sign of the times that Optimizing Strategy for Results, my latest book co-authored with Ron Price and Professor Timothy Waema, is launching two years after COVID-19 lockdowns began in the U.S. People and organizations are now looking for ways to move forward and prepare for the next disruption.
The Bedrock Of Successful Strategy: Purpose
Dr. Evans Baiya, HR.com, February 2022
Creating a long-lasting strategic foundation for your organization is not easy. Many leaders struggle in creating a successful strategy—often because the organization’s purpose is not clear.
A good strategy offers clarity to stakeholders, both on what the company is doing and where it plans to go in the future. If the path is clear, measuring and monitoring the execution is far easier. A clear purpose statement summarizes why a company exists. It answers the questions: why is the organization needed, who are its customers, and what do they value? Without these answers, a strategy isn’t specific or actionable enough to show the what and the where.Read More
Is Communication Sabotaging Your Ability to Innovate?
Dr. Evans Baiya InnovationManagement.se, February 2022
Avoid these four communications landmines as you navigate the stages of innovation.
Innovation can sometimes feel like a winding journey that includes steps forward, backward and sideways. There are even landmines along the way that can stall or derail the process. These landmines are often communication points that, if not properly structured, will cause dysfunction, disengagement, lack of ownership, and lack of creativity within a team or an organization.
When this happens, what could be a groundbreaking idea is as good as dead. You need successful communication during each of the Six Stages of Innovation, or your team will fail to complete the innovation journey. Avoid communication sabotage by being aware of these four landmines.Read More
5 Ways People Managers Can Become Innovation Champions
Dr. Evans Baiya, Hr.com, November 2021
How to help everyone find their role in creating innovation
Does this innovation challenge sound familiar? Your team leaders and managers acknowledge the importance of innovation and even sing its praises—but if you ask them how they routinely champion innovation within their teams, you might get crickets.
The problem is that most people managers, while they recognize the need for innovation initiatives, don’t engage in these initiatives themselves. Innovation isn’t their job; their main concern is ensuring employees get the necessary day-to-day work done. People managers are good at directing and growing what already exists but often struggle to guide their teams to new ways of thinking and creating.Read More