HBR guide to managing strategic initiatives

Section 1. From idea to pitch: A guide to winning support for your new idea or project

persistence is key / Rebecca Knight

How to keep support for your project from evaporating: don't rely on personal relationships alone / Allison Rimm

You've pitched your initiative-what's next?: whether you're full-speed ahead or back to the drawing board / Ray Sheen

Section 2. Evaluating and prioritizing a strategic portfolio: Which initiatives should you implement?: projects should be evaluated rigorously and rationally / Sam Bodley Scott and Alan P. Brache

A better way to set strategic priorities: it doesn't involve rank ordering them / Derek Lidow

Too many projects: root out the causes of initiative overload / Rose Hollister and Michael D. Watkins

The initiative portfolio review process: maximize your "return on initiatives." / Keith Katz and Travis Manzione

Rebalance your initiative portfolio: think like an investment manager to manage risk and maximize performance / Peter Lacasse

Section 3. Launching and implementing initiatives: New project? Don't analyze-act: act, learn, and build your way into the future / Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, Paul B. Brown

Monitoring and controlling your project: a 5-step refresher on the most critical aspects of managing projects / Ray Sheen

Building a transformative team: assemble the right players to thrive in uncertainty / Nathan Furr, Kyle Nell, Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy

Teamwork on the fly: execute and learn at the same time / Amy C. Edmondson

Why good projects fail anyway: break huge initiatives into manageable pieces / Nadim F. Matta and Ron Ashkenas

Section 4. Maintaining momentum and overcoming challenges: 4 ways to be more effective at execution: the most important skill to keep an initiative on track / Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman

Learning in the thick of it: use AARs to aid future success / Marilyn Darling, Charles Parry, and Joseph Moore

How to hand off an innovation project from one team to another: don't let great ideas die in the execution phase / Joe Brown

Making process improvements stick: why some initiatives endure and some others don't / research from Matthias Holweg, Bradley Staats, and David M. Upton

Your initiative needs an "exit champion": prevent struggling projects from becoming money pits / Isabell E. Royer

Section 5. Keeping strategy and execution aligned: Good strategy execution requires balancing 4 tensions: begin with creativity versus discipline / Simon Horan and Michael Connerty

5 Ways the best companies close the strategy-execution gap: test and learn, then test some more / Michael Mankins

Your strategy has to be flexible-but so does your execution: strategy and execution should never be separate / Martin Reeves and Rodolphe Charme di Carlo.