xBlog
In 1999, XPLANE created one of the first business blogs. We have been adding great insights ever since. Check out our latest posts, filled with ideas for designing, facilitating, and creating lasting change for people and organizations.
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Without Vision, Your Strategy—and Much Else—is Hopeless
Without Vision, Your Strategy—and Much Else—is Hopeless
A compelling vision of the future can inform much more than just your next strategic plan. In fact, it’s cri...
A Card Game to Identify Reasons People Resist Change
A Card Game to Identify Reasons People Resist Change
In 25+ years of leading organizations through change, XPLANE has encountered more than 35 distinct barriers to...
A Card Game to Uncover the Issues of Growth, Crisis, or Change
A Card Game to Uncover the Issues of Growth, Crisis, or Change
Faced with a torrent of high-priority needs jostling for your attention? Calm the sea of demands with a card g...
Four Steps to Drive Positive Organizational Change
Four Steps to Drive Positive Organizational Change
When it comes to change, does your organization have a fairly good grip on things or does it feel more like yo...
Finally, a Tool That Can Help Improve Employee Experience
Finally, a Tool That Can Help Improve Employee Experience
As talent pools evaporate and employees leave jobs in droves for greener pastures each year, employers are kee...
How to Design a Strategy Execution Plan
How to Design a Strategy Execution Plan
Q: I’ve invested a lot of time and resources to create an exciting new strategy for my organization. How do ...
Quickly Diagnose Your Organization’s Starting Point for Change
Quickly Diagnose Your Organization’s Starting Point for Change
Crafting an incisive business strategy is only the beginning of organizational change. To really get your stra...
Five Tools to Create a Solid Strategic Plan
Five Tools to Create a Solid Strategic Plan
Strategic planning is a bit like climbing a mountain. You can’t always see where you’re going, it’s toug...
Five Steps to Resilient Strategic Planning
Five Steps to Resilient Strategic Planning
Feeling worn down from constantly adapting your plans to rapidly changing conditions these days? You're not al...
Three Ways to Banish Initiative Fatigue and Lead Change
Three Ways to Banish Initiative Fatigue and Lead Change
Feeling like you just can’t get a new idea off the ground or are talking in circles about a great new initia...
8 Tips for Leading Into the Unknown (When You’re Not in Charge)
8 Tips for Leading Into the Unknown (When You’re Not in Charge)
Feeling called (or getting a call) to be a leader at work but not sure you’re qualified? Don’t be afraid t...
Augment Your Long-Term Strategy with a Near-Term Resilience Plan
Augment Your Long-Term Strategy with a Near-Term Resilience Plan
In times of crisis, a resilience plan can help your organization quickly pivot existing strategies and navigat...
Responding Effectively to Rapid and Unexpected Change
Responding Effectively to Rapid and Unexpected Change
With the advent of COVID-19, we’re all in the midst of sudden change right now, responding as quickly as we ...
Navigating the Post-Hierarchical Organization
Navigating the Post-Hierarchical Organization
Organizational structure is experiencing a radical change. Horizontal relationships are overtaking the hierarc...
Two Fun Ways to Get Your Strategy Off the Ground (Part 2 of 2)
Two Fun Ways to Get Your Strategy Off the Ground (Part 2 of 2)
We share why so many strategies fail and how you can avoid strategy failure using a few tricks XPLANE has fine...
What Is Strategy? (Part 1 of 2)
What Is Strategy? (Part 1 of 2)
What does the word strategy mean to you? Here, we define what strategy is and what differentiates a good strat...
The Three Elements Needed to Craft an Effective Visual Strategy
The Three Elements Needed to Craft an Effective Visual Strategy
When you’re a designer faced with synthesizing mountains of disparate information into a concise visual, you...
The Power of the Playbook
The Power of the Playbook
Playbooks are a powerful tool to help business teams not only to act as one but also to adapt as one. They sha...
The Secret to Bringing Your Strategy to Life
The Secret to Bringing Your Strategy to Life
The biggest mistake leaders make in executing strategy is “throwing it over the wall” and expecting their ...
A Real Game Changer: Ways to Prepare Your Business for the Future
A Real Game Changer: Ways to Prepare Your Business for the Future
Customized board games can replicate a vast array of workplace dynamics and concepts, and they give teams a ne...
Design Thinking for Transformational Change
Design Thinking for Transformational Change
An interview with XPLANE client partner and Portland State University thought leader Sukhwant Jhaj about using...
Confusion is Expensive: Find Clarity and Drive Success with Visual Thinking
Confusion is Expensive: Find Clarity and Drive Success with Visual Thinking
Organizational confusion happens when you lose track of what, why, & how you work together. Visual Thinking he...
Implementation is Where Good Process Improvement Plans Go to Die
Implementation is Where Good Process Improvement Plans Go to Die
Six steps to save your process improvement plan from dying out....
When Your Strategy is No Longer Doing Its Job
When Your Strategy is No Longer Doing Its Job
See how the executive team kept their organization’s strategy alive and relevant by using a Kanban board to ...