01
Plans that never choose
"Grow 10% and be the best" sounds ambitious and commits you to nothing. Every line gets the same target, whether or not it makes money on the people and hours it uses.
Camderson Academy · CA-SO-001
Turn your strategy into a plan your people can carry out.
A practical, self-paced course for owners, executives and senior managers in any business. Diagnose the challenge that matters most, choose no more than three priorities, give each one owner and honest measures, and run a meeting rhythm that keeps the plan alive all year.
About 8 hours · 20 lessons with video · Intermediate · Self-paced · Certificate of completion · 30-day money-back guarantee
Most plans are a goal, a budget and a long list of projects. That is not a strategy.
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Too many priorities, no single owner
Eleven projects all labeled priority, most owned by a group. The same few people carry them all, and when one slips everyone assumed someone else was on it.
03
Strategies that fade by spring
The kickoff goes well. Then daily work takes over, nobody looks at the measures, review meetings stop and by summer nobody refers to the plan.
Learning outcomes
What you will be able to do
Eight practical outcomes, each practiced in an exercise and checked in the final assessment or the Strategy Plan.
- Distinguish a strategy from a goal, a budget or a list of activities, and explain the common reasons sound strategies fail in execution.
- Diagnose the critical challenge facing a business from its customers, economics, capabilities and market, and write it as a clear Challenge statement.
- Make and record strategic choices on one page with CHART: Challenge, Heading, Arena, Reason to choose us and Trade-offs.
- Select no more than three strategic priorities with the Priority Filter and free the capacity to deliver them with a Stop list.
- Pressure-test priorities and timelines before committing, using a premortem and past performance rather than optimism.
- Turn each priority into an Execution Card with one owner, a dated outcome, a Measure Trio (lag, lead and guardrail), milestones and resources, assembled into a 90-day plan.
- Run execution with the Execution Cadence (Weekly Pulse, Monthly Review, Quarterly Reset), communicate the strategy so people can repeat it, and coordinate across teams when work slips.
- Review results honestly, adjust the plan without abandoning the strategy, and assemble a one-page strategy and 90-day execution plan.
The Camderson method
Five teaching models for turning strategy into results
CHART
Challenge · Heading · Arena · Reason to choose us · Trade-offs
Your strategy on one page: the critical problem, the approach that answers it, who you serve and who you do not, why customers choose you and how that makes money, and what you will give up. If a frontline supervisor can explain the Heading in their own words, it is ready to test.
The Priority Filter
Attacks the Challenge · Fits the Heading · Has capacity · Shows evidence in 90 days
Four tests every initiative must pass before it becomes a priority, with a ceiling of three at the company level. Everything else goes to a Stop list, a Not-now list or back to operations, so the priorities get real people and hours.
The Execution Card and Measure Trio
Outcome · Owner · Measures · Milestones · Resources and risks
One card per priority, with one named owner, a dated outcome and three to five milestones. Every result gets a Measure Trio: a lag measure, a lead measure the owner can move weekly and a guardrail that must not get worse.
The Execution Cadence
Weekly Pulse · Monthly Review · Quarterly Reset
Three linked meetings that keep strategy alive after the kickoff, set for the whole year before the first priority launches. Each Quarterly Reset asks what you planned, what happened, why, and what you will keep, change or stop.
Choose. Focus. Plan. Review. Adjust.
Curriculum
Inside the course
Seven modules, 20 lessons with worked examples and video
01
What Strategy Is and Why It Fails
Telling a strategy from a goal, a budget or a project list, the five stall points that sink execution, and an introduction to CHART, the one-page strategy.
02
Diagnosing the Challenge
Reading your own numbers with the Business Line Snapshot, finding your binding constraint, reading the market with four signal questions and writing a Challenge statement that holds up.
03
Making Strategic Choices
Choosing your Heading and Arena, writing a Reason to choose us that improves margin, and making the trade-offs that give something up, including the hard ones.
04
Setting Strategic Priorities
Running every initiative through the Priority Filter, keeping no more than three priorities, freeing capacity with a Stop list and testing targets with a premortem and past results.
05
Building the Execution Plan
One Execution Card per priority with a single owner and a dated outcome, the Measure Trio of lag, lead and guardrail, and a sequenced 90-day plan with if-then commitments.
06
Running Execution
The Execution Cadence of Weekly Pulse, Monthly Review and Quarterly Reset, a strategy message people can repeat, and handling dependencies and slippage across teams.
07
Learning, Adjusting and Your Strategy Plan
Running a Quarterly Reset, telling execution problems from strategy problems, and assembling your one-page strategy and 90-day execution plan.
What is included
Everything you need to build and run your plan
- 20 lessons, each with a written lesson, worked examples and diagrams, and a captioned lesson video, at your own pace on any device
- A workbook with an exercise and reflection page for every lesson, including a CHART builder and a Quarterly Reset page
- The Strategy and Execution Toolkit, a spreadsheet with sheets for the Business Line Snapshot, Priority Filter, Execution Cards, Measure Trio Tracker, 90-Day Plan and Cadence Calendar
- Strategy templates ready to adapt: the One-Page Strategy (CHART), a Challenge statement worksheet, Stop list and Not-now list, a premortem worksheet, Weekly Pulse, Monthly Review and Quarterly Reset agendas, a strategy message one-pager and a slippage conversation plan
- Quick reference cards for CHART, the Priority Filter and rule of three, the Execution Card, the Measure Trio, the Execution Cadence and the four Quarterly Reset questions
- The Alderwood Practice Pack, from a fictional mechanical services company: business line and technician hours data, a commercial pipeline, competitor notes, 14 candidate initiatives to filter, a weak strategy to rewrite and scenario cards, so you can practice even if you cannot use your own figures
- An optional visual companion PDF
- Knowledge checks for every module and a final assessment
- The Strategy Plan, a capstone in which you build a one-page strategy and 90-day execution plan for your business or unit, reviewed by a person
- A Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion when you pass the final assessment and the Strategy Plan
- Access to the Camderson Academy community
Is this course right for you?
This course is for you if
- You own or run a business, or lead a business unit, and set direction for others
- You are an executive or senior manager who has run teams and can read a basic revenue and margin summary, but you have had no formal strategy training
- Your plans keep turning into long project lists that stall by spring, in any kind of business: services, trades, manufacturing, distribution, professional firms, software or retail
It is not the right fit if
- You are new to managing people and want the basics of one-on-ones, delegation and feedback (start with our course for new managers)
- You need legal, financial or tax advice on exiting a line, changing contracts, staffing changes or financing (this course teaches strategy and management practice and shows you when to bring in the right advisor)
- You want a full organization-wide goal-setting system or detailed dashboard design (later courses in our School of Strategy & Operations go further)
Your instructor
Meet your instructor
Ruben Tejada
MA, MS, PHR
Managing Partner · Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness
Ruben Tejada is a strategic advisor and organizational leader whose career spans healthcare, public service, human resources, operations, and learning and development. He has advised executives and leaders on leadership development, talent development, employee experience, culture and succession planning, and has led initiatives to strengthen leadership accountability and build workforce capability. That work gives him a practical view of how decisions about people, culture and performance connect. In this course he helps you set a clear direction for your business or unit and build the priorities, owners, measures and meeting rhythm that carry it through the year.
About
About Camderson Academy
Camderson Academy is the education division of Camderson Advisory Services. Camderson helps leaders build organizations that work without them in the room. Everything we teach has been used in a real organization first.
Training a leadership team?
We offer group enrollment for leadership teams that want to plan and run their strategy with one shared approach. Email connect@camderson.com to talk through your team.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to take this course?
No special tools. The workbook, the templates and the toolkit spreadsheet are included, and a basic revenue and margin summary for your business by line is the most useful thing to bring. If you cannot use your own figures, the fictional Alderwood practice files give you a full business to plan for, and you can complete every exercise and the Strategy Plan with them.
My business is not in heating and cooling. Will this still help?
Yes. The running example follows a fictional mechanical services company, but every lesson also shows how the same move looks in other kinds of business, such as a software company, an accounting firm, a specialty manufacturer, a multi-location retailer or a logistics company. The tools work wherever a leadership team has to choose a direction and carry it out.
How long do I have access?
Your access does not expire. We review the course regularly, and any updates are added for you at no extra cost.
How long does it take?
About 8 hours in total, including the written lessons and their videos, the exercises and planning work, the knowledge checks, the final assessment and the Strategy Plan. Everything is self-paced. At a lesson or two a day, plan on about three to four weeks. If you are planning for your own business, you can line the course up with your next planning cycle.
I lead a unit, not the whole company. Is this for me?
Yes. Leaders of a division, region or business unit are part of the audience. Lessons where your situation differs include a short "If you lead a unit, not the whole company" note, covering how to build a one-page strategy that fits inside the company's direction, choosing an Arena within a corporate mandate, recommending trade-offs you cannot make alone, negotiating a Stop list with your own leader and communicating a strategy you helped shape but did not decide.
Is the certificate accredited?
No. You receive a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion after passing the final assessment and the Strategy Plan, a capstone in which you build a one-page strategy and 90-day execution plan for your business, your unit or the practice case, and a person reviews your work. It is not accredited, carries no continuing education credits, and no SHRM or HRCI recertification credits are claimed or implied.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes. You are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If the course is not right for you, email connect@camderson.com within 30 days of purchase and we will refund you in full. No questions asked. Your course access ends when the refund is issued.
Does the course give legal, financial or tax advice?
No. This course teaches general strategy and management practice. Where a decision touches ending a business line, exiting or changing contracts, changes to roles, pay or hours, pricing terms, financing or tax, the lessons show you when to involve the right qualified advisor: HR or an employment attorney for people changes, a business attorney for contracts, and a CPA or financial advisor for financing and tax. In your Strategy Plan you may round, index or disguise figures and rename your company, and you never include real employees' names, pay or performance details.
Leave with a strategy on one page and a plan your team can run.
Self-paced, about 8 hours with hands-on planning, and every tool you need to build a one-page strategy and 90-day execution plan for your business or unit.
Backed by our 30-day money-back guarantee.