BI Blogs

When I attend a conference as a participant, one constructive practice I have acquired is to, immediately after completing the post-conference evaluation form, create my own personal “take away” worksheet. Nothing complicated, just two columns which can be labeled left/right, debit/credit, sooner/later, or plain/peanut. Don’t attempt to create this worksheet until after you’ve seen all the presentations and participated in all the discussions, workshops and roundtables - there is too much of a tendency to get overly excited about what you are immersed in at the moment; wait until you have gained some perspective.

The left hand column consists of those things that you’ve learned you are doing wrong and need to stop doing, or need to replace with an easy to implement change/alternative, and those things you feel you need to change or improve that can be accomplished without a project plan.

The right hand column consists of those areas where you want to improve, enhance or make major process or cultural changes that might, and probably will, require a project plan. Three to five items in each column, and once completed, circle ONE, and only one, from each column, for immediate action. This circled item is the one to which you will commit yourself to accomplishing no matter what; even if most or many of the others turn out to be impractical or inapplicable, you WILL commit to one short term and one medium term result. Lastly, write the words “WATCH IT!” underneath the list (to be explained).

In my participant ‘role’ as head of finance at the CFO Corporate Performance Management Conference held earlier this week in New York, this is what my final list looked like:

Continue reading “Pick one from each column: A CFO’s post-conference to-do list”