| Touchstone
News: Welcome
to the first edition of the Touchstone Consulting
Group’s Newsletter. We hope to publish
quarterly and to include articles and news
of relevance to both Human Resource Professionals,
and other managers with a special interest
in managing people. We welcome your feedback and sincerely hope that these emails will promote discussion about ideas and initiatives important to our industry. What to anticipate in our newsletters: Many of our articles will be based on opinions gleaned from the experiences of our consultants. These experiences have included both successes and “interesting learning experiences”. And we’ll report on both. We don’t know everything about HR Management, and you may disagree with our views. If this is the case drop us a line; tell us what you think, and we’ll publish your view in a future newsletter. One thing we have learned over the years is that there are no “right answers” to anything. As Sam Clements said, “No generalization is entirely true, including this one.” What IS Strategic Thinking? Advice for those who would like to improve their strategic thinking skills, or know someone who should.  In
today’s business world success depends
on gaining and maintaining a strategic advantage.
As a result, all managers are expected to
demonstrate an aptitude for strategic thinking.
But what is it? Ask a dozen managers and
you’ll likely get a dozen different
definitions. In this article we define the
concept of strategic thinking a little differently.
We also provide some valuable tips for any
manager who would like to develop strategic
thinking skills. . .
more
Case Study #1 - Have You Got the Horses? A great deal of organizational learning comes from experience; from trial and error. We learn from our successes and our setbacks. But learning can be much more cost-effective if we learn from the experiences of others. This case  study
will give you such an opportunity. In this
case, the first in a series, we describe
a senior leader who recognizes a great opportunity
for his company. All he needs are a few
good ideas about how to realize the opportunity.
But first he must deal with the question
that could provide an insurmountable barrier
to success. Does he have the horses?. .
.
more
• The Society For Human Resource Management Conference has received rave revues from those who have attended. The 2009 Conference is in New Orleans,June 28-July 1, 2009 • The HR Southwest Conference is an excellent local conference and is usually held somewhere warm. This year it is in Fort Worth Texas, from October 14-17, 2008. • The HR Technology Conference and exposition focuses on “what’s new” in HR. It is being held from October 15-17 in Chicago. • HR.com is a great Canadian based website, with lots of on-line training, career information and much more. Well worth becoming a member. |
The
Touchstone Consulting Group is a Vancouver, BC based company that for the past 20 years has worked with local and international clients in areas of organizational and management development. As part of the Silver Alliance we network with consultants in other North American locations to provide a full array of consulting services.
Visit the Touchstone Consulting website to learn more about what Touchstone can do for your organization. Bob Power seminar: Bob Power of Touchstone will be leading a seminar for HRMA on January 15, 2009. This one day workshop is designed to enable participants to experience a full immersion business simulation in order to learn about and experienced strategic thinking. The program is called “Become a Strategic Thinker”. A full description can be found on the HRMA website. The program is designed for HR professionals at or near the management level, and the participant number is capped at nine. We hope you find this newsletter useful but if you'd prefer not to receive it anymore you may use our safe |
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© Touchstone Consulting 2008