D Foster Associates

Last week I attended a Greater Boston chapter ASTD meeting about Leadership Maturity Model by 7th Wave , and I thought I would share a couple interesting points that I took away from the meeting.

1. I you are interested in competency models, 360 assessments or leadership training, you should really look at their stuff. They have a neat model that separates a person’s ability (what they know how to do), from their capability (what they can get done due to environmental issues, external limits/influences, etc). Their work is based on SEI’s Capability Maturity Model. But I don’t want to butcher their work, so you can read about it more on their own site.
2. The #1 predictor of performance on the job (based on a Gallup survey) is the employee’s understanding of management expectations.
3. According to Henry Mintzberg’s “Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning” 90% of strategic plans fail to be implemented. Note that the focus is on the fact that they are never fully implemented, typically due to the process (or lack thereof) used to implement the plan. I’ve added this to my future reading list.

I found the meeting very interesting and thought provoking. I highly encourage any of you to attend and particpate with your local ASTD chapters.