I forgot to mention I was trying to convey these concepts to a Spanish speaking audience. And whereas acronimitis is all pervasive in English, I have found it a real challenge to translate SMART objectives and the like without losing their powerful mnemonic associations.
This was my challenge: My companys raison d’être slogan is From Vision to Results. After years of frustration being hired by customers to run a strategic planning retreat, an opportunity detection exercise, a leadership training program or a team building event only to see everyone go back to business as usual within a few weeks; I decided to focus on specific execution related skills such as Strategic Selling, Negotiating Presentations, Time management, Business Writing, Effective Meetings etc..
Here the problem was that, usually, the companies that hired me, expected a quick fix to a problem whose root causes lay in flawed strategies, poor leadership, outdated products and processes, and top management teams that spent more time merchandising their successes or covering their backs (and other parts of their anatomy), than focusing on desired outcomes for their companies, their teams or even themselves.
I needed a unifying concept to integrate the front line – those who actually deal with customers which where the execution of the business takes place with what the senior management team thought it was doing.
