I found the article in the April 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, "Best Practices Only Get You So Far", an interesting read. As HR consultants and practitioners we tend to reference best practices and benchmarking stats quite frequently. However C.K. Prahalad, the Paul and Ruth McCracken Disringuished University Professor of Strategy at University of Michigan's Ross Scholl of Business, believes companies become winners by spotting big opportunities and inventing 'next' practices.

Today my 17-year-old daughter returned from Senegal, Africa with her French class. I admire the tenacity of the 11 students and 2 teachers who visited the third world country to experience a culture unlike their own. Having participated in a teacher exchange program, the students at Oakton High School visited their former exchange teacher, Mr. Jobe, who returned to his native country in June of 2009. The group was in Senegal for a period of 10 days.

What Got You Here, Won't Get You There, written by executive coaching guru Marshall Goldsmith, helps us discover the 20 workplace habits you need to break if you have an interest in becoming even more successful.

The recession of 2007 has leaders realizing that they must set a broad strategic direction while remaining open to unexpected opportunities that appear along the way. History has proven that volatile markets do produce opportunities. You see shifting regulations generate unexpected sources of funding; changing consumer preferences create demand for new products or services; and distressed competitors selling off assets cheaply. More than ever, companies need the capability to consistently spot and execute on unexpected opportunities before competitors do. Donald Sull conducted research over the last 10 years, studying firms hat excelled at execution in some of the world’s fastest-changing markets, and most unforgiving industries. Through his research he identified common obstacles that undermine an organization’s ability to execute on their established strategies and take advantage of unexpected opportunities. According to Sull, by asking themselves seven questions, manager can quickly assess their companies’ readiness to rebound.

I don’t pretend to know the future, but I do know that having a goal, stating it, writing it down, and visualizing it, helps you get closer to achieving it. An early mentor of mine, Bill Walton, CEO of ITC Learning, always told me, “if you can visualize it, you can achieve it.” He was a firm believer in the power of visualization.