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Thinking Like a CEO

By Roger Allen

By Roger K. Allen, Ph.D.

Welcome to “Thinking Like a CEO.” The course will enable you to use whole system thinking and strategic thinking to make you a smarter and more informed leader or member of your organization. I organize this program around the Transformation Model which reduces the complexity of an organization to the seven key variables that need to be understood and aligned in order for your organization (large or small) to achieve peak success.

  The Transformation Model-Thinking WholisticallyThe model will help you step back from the day-to-day operation and look at your business or organization from a wholistic and systems point of view. Seeing the big picture is learning to think like a CEO. Most people, on learning the model, have a much better grasp and understanding on what goes on in their organization. You'll see your company, business, or organization in a more enlightened way as you also learn .

The model is based on two premises:

1. All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get. The results you’re getting in your organization are not haphazard. They’re a function of how you’ve designed your organization and by design I’m talking about a lot more than structure or reporting relationships. Design has to do with understanding and aligning each of the seven elements of the Transformation Model. 2. The most important work of leaders is “on” systems and not “in” systems. Working in a system is being caught up in the sequential events or most urgent problems of the day. Although the day-to-day flow of work is important, this isn't where you add the most value as a leader. You add the most value when you’re working “on” systems which means that you see the interdependencies suggested by the Transformation Model and are able to diagnose and resolve problems or improve performance by maintaining this high-level view of things. You’ll see what’s going on in your organization in a more enlightened way. You'll use the skill of systems thinking to understand the model and how the various elements of the model impact your results. You'll make a tremendous contribution by speaking from the framework of the model as well as identifying opportunities for making improvements to your organization.

Take-Aways from the Course:

By going through the course, you’ll:
  • Apply systems thinking and strategic thinking skills to your organization
  • Learn to think like a CEO
  • Step back and gain a wholistic view of your organization
  • Do an assessment of each of the seven elements of the Transformation Model
  • Become more more enlightened about how your organization actually works
  • Deepen your understanding of your leadership role (whether as a formal or informal leader)
  • Spend more time in value-added activities (and reduce fire-fighting)
  • Build a stronger and more effective team or organization.
  • Develop concrete ideas for improving your organization

Organization of the Course

This is not a long course. I avoid theory and fluff and jump right into the content. I’ve organized the course into three sections: Section One: Introduction in which I frame the course and offer you tips for getting the most value out of it. Notice that I’m giving you a number of tools and resources, up front, to help you understand the content. Section Two: You'll do a comprehensive and high-level assessment of your organization. This is roll-up your sleeves time. I’m not just teaching you about the model but want you to apply it to your organization. This is how you’ll get the content from theory to practice. Section Three: You'll take a step back and take a look at the key learnings from the application of the model to your organization. I’ll take you through a process to identify strengths, weaknesses, areas of alignment and misalignment as well as key leverage points or the greatest opportunities to make improvement to your business.

Reviews

As my organization is going through a rather large Transformation in 2024, this training was timely. The exercises helped me to think how my team is positioned to weather the upcoming changes.

Helen L.

Good practical course to understand your organization’s current status, make decisions and take actions in the right direction.

Varun S.

Very informative course with practical tips of how you can use the transformation model.

Douglas M.

A proven framework made relevant in today’s fast changing world. It’s clear the lecturer has a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Ilya

This was very useful information in standing back and looking at where, how and what we could change for better performance moving forward.

Shaun Michael C.

I really appreciate the concise and succinct points made through this course. It really puts things into perspective and the assessments and framework are very helpful.

Jeremy Matthew K

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    Write Your Story

      Once you submit your story, I'll review it and get back to you. This may take a few days. I'll let you know when it will be published and invite you to then share your post with your friends and family.