Thoughts & News

Learn to crawl before we walk; pause before we react; and, most importantly, think before we speak. These wholesome cliches may seem like obvious markers and guides for getting through life unscathed. But, in reality, we often forget why it matters to slow down. The...

The high-risk stakes of decision-making concentrated at the top. The most effective corporate leaders are rightly praised for their track record of rewarding and profitable decisions. Years of experience builds confidence in their ability to gauge the market and make...

Applying active stakeholder engagement to the thorny question of daylight-saving time in Queensland. Every October, seventeen million Australians send their clocks forward one hour. For those living across New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and South...

In the last 5 parts of this series, I have walked through the Portfolio Definition Cycle and how Decision Thinking – a blend of Decision Science and practical experience, can be applied in accordance with best practice Management of Portfolios (MoP®). In this last...

Businesses pay the price for words without action Almost every company has a document describing its mission, vision, or overall purpose. These carefully written statements attempt to describe the agreed collective sense of what employees and management hold dear. In...

Most of our work at Catalyze is helping large organisations make complex decisions and have them stick, but I find people are increasingly asking me "is anything about that relevant to me as an individual making my personal...

This is Part 5 of a 6-part series on Portfolio Management. In previous articles, we covered various steps from the Management of Portfolio’s handbook and made a case for applying Decision Science to the Portfolio Definition cycle. In the table below, we have...

This is Part 4 of a 6-part series. In this Insight, we cover the MoP Portfolio Definition process steps, Balance and Plan, through the lens of Decision Science. Balance using MCDA Analysis Analysis of the MCDA model creates a deeper understanding of how the...

In Part 2 of this 6-part series, I made the case for applying Decision Science to Portfolio Definition cycle overall. Now, I will delve into the first three MoP Portfolio Definition process steps - Understand, Categorise and Prioritise - in more detail through the...

As concluded in the first part of this series, defining the organisation’s portfolio, and the allocation of resources across it, is one of the most important strategic decisions senior executives make. A rich set of portfolio initiatives must be considered, and...