Blog

IVOA Is Now Available as a ChatGPT Plugin

By Peter DiGiammarino

OpenAI has approved IntelliVen Operations Advisor (IVOA) for public availability as a ChatGPT plugin. Learn how to install and use IVOA to apply Manage to Lead methods, templates, tutorials, and rubrics directly in everyday leadership work.

Help Young People Choose Where to Grow

By Peter DiGiammarino

A simple visual exercise helps young people choose which skills to develop and gives parents, grandparents, mentors, and coaches a window into their thinking.

How Leadership Teams Build and Maintain Shared Clarity

By Peter DiGiammarino

Leadership teams perform better when they make individual thinking visible, work through different views, and develop shared clarity they can use.

Learning to Think Together

By Peter DiGiammarino

Leadership teams develop shared understanding by learning to think through important questions together. The progression is simple: What I think. What you think. What we think. What more we can discern. What we say. This progression describes a discipline that leadership teams can apply to virtually any consequential issue. Practiced repeatedly, the discipline becomes part … Continue reading Learning to Think Together →

Conversations Every Fast-Growing Leadership Team Needs

By Peter DiGiammarino

The people who work closely with leaders often know things about their strengths, contributions, and opportunities to grow that the leaders themselves cannot see. A simple, facilitated reflection process can turn that collective knowledge into meaningful leadership development.

Talk to Anyone. Direct No One.

By Peter DiGiammarino

Leaders need direct communication across organization levels to understand what is happening and test whether their messages are getting through. The key is to communicate freely without creating competing lines of authority.

How Manage to Lead Fits Together

By Peter DiGiammarino

Manage to Lead is an integrated leadership operating system that helps leadership teams develop shared understanding, improve organization performance, and create the conditions under which others can successfully lead.

The Meaning of Manage to Lead

By Peter DiGiammarino

Why Manage to Lead? The name reflects three complementary ideas: people manage in order to lead, the work of leadership must itself be managed, and leadership excellence requires the discipline to “manage” to lead. Together they form the philosophy behind the Manage to Lead leadership operating system.

Developing Shared Ways of Thinking and Working

By Peter DiGiammarino

Leadership teams develop shared ways of thinking and working by making thinking visible, strengthening it together, and cultivating leadership disciplines that shape organizational culture.

Making Thinking Visible

By Peter DiGiammarino

Leadership teams can only examine, improve, and build upon thinking that becomes visible. This essay explores why revealing observations, assumptions, reasoning, and questions enables leadership teams to develop stronger shared understanding, make better decisions, and improve organization performance.

University of Massachusetts 2012 Bateman Scholar in Residence Public Lecture

By Peter DiGiammarino | April 28, 2012

At University of Massachusetts 2012 Bateman Scholar Public Lecture, IntelliVen founder and CEO PeterD presented a 45 minute lecture that summarizes 35 years of insight gleaned from successfully helping dozens of organizations get on track to long-term growth and performance, generally in the role of leader or an adviser to the founder, owner, investor, and/or the CEO of … Continue reading University of Massachusetts 2012 Bateman Scholar in Residence Public Lecture →

Five Questions to Outline Organization Strategy

By Peter DiGiammarino | April 10, 2012

WHAT IS STRATEGY? There are many ways to use the word strategy and it conjures up different things for different people in different contexts. What for example is the difference between strategic thinking and a strategic initiative and strategic planning? (For an answer see this taxonomy of strategic terms.) Leaders who are asked: “What is your strategy?” … Continue reading Five Questions to Outline Organization Strategy →

How leaders should think about the importance of determining what is most important to change next.

By Peter DiGiammarino | April 4, 2012

Over time, organizations perform at some level.  After start-up things fall into place leading to a period of rapid growth. The rate of growth eventually slows and then plateaus perhaps due to new technology that spawns competition or maybe due to the organization slowing down in the face of its increased scope, scale, and complexity … Continue reading How leaders should think about the importance of determining what is most important to change next. →

How to build a “pizza-making” business.

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 30, 2012

Chief executive officers, managing directors, executive directors, and chief administrators subscribe to intelliven.com for content, cases, and tools to help organizations they lead perform and grow to their full potential. Leaders of any organization, no matter how large or small, those who aspire to be leaders, and those who help and support leaders all find the site full of … Continue reading How to build a “pizza-making” business. →

How to quit a job you love.

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 26, 2012

It is not easy to quit a job you love. Even with a new dream job in-hand, cutting the cord that connects you to a place you have become part of can be one of the most difficult challenges you ever face in your career. While there is no surefire method, the steps below reflect … Continue reading How to quit a job you love. →

Alternatives to a COO

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 23, 2012

Responsibilities shouldered by the Chief Executive Officer (aka: CEO, Managing Partner, Managing Director, or Executive Director) of a successful venture increase with growth in scale and complexity. The tension between the need to get things done, get others to do things, bridge the “white space” between organization units, and to represent the organization externally (e.g. … Continue reading Alternatives to a COO →

Three Steps to Selling a Work Plan

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 14, 2012

Follow the three steps below to prepare and present a professional services workplan for a prospective customer. Those who hire service providers should also study the steps to understand how the best providers think through what they propose to do for you. To calculate a price for a body of work, first prepare a plan … Continue reading Three Steps to Selling a Work Plan →

How to Increase the Odds of Leading a Fulfilled Life

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 11, 2012

Fulfillment grows through intentional effort across meaningful pursuits. Choose what deserves your attention now, pursue it with purpose, and shift your focus as life evolves.

An Action Plan for Executive Transition Into a Lead Role

By Peter DiGiammarino | March 1, 2012

Executive Transition into a Lead Role One of the hardest things for a senior executive to do is break into an existing system of operation. At first there is an exhilarating air of difference. Everything is new and there is so much to figure out and to absorb. The opportunity to have a major impact … Continue reading An Action Plan for Executive Transition Into a Lead Role →

Master the High-Stakes Interview: Essential Strategies for Success

By Peter DiGiammarino | February 29, 2012

Following these tips will increase the odds that a high-stakes job interview goes well: Be Yourself Be honest … be genuine … be sincere. It is not worth being someone other than yourself just to land the job because in the end it will not be possible for you to continue being the person who … Continue reading Master the High-Stakes Interview: Essential Strategies for Success →

A Plan to Eat Right for Life

By Peter DiGiammarino | February 29, 2012

“Nothing tastes as good as being fit feels” is a good mantra to run through in your mind over and over as you concentrate on taking in only enough calories to live as they say Eat Right for Life, in order to get and stay fit.  You should also exercise (see this post for details … Continue reading A Plan to Eat Right for Life →

Note on Letters of Recommendation

By Peter DiGiammarino | February 23, 2012

Students, parents, teachers, and those who write letters of recommendation for admission to a high school or college often underestimate how much of a difference the recommendation makes. Those who take recommendations seriously and who work to make them the best they can, find it a relatively easy way to get an edge on the … Continue reading Note on Letters of Recommendation →