CMI cheat sheet

SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound - each element must be verifiable in the written objective.

Tuckman's stages of group development occur in order: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing (Adjourning added later).

Belbin's nine team roles include Plant, Resource Investigator, Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor Evaluator, Teamworker, Implementer, Completer Finisher, Specialist.

Situational leadership pairs directive and supportive behaviour: Telling (high task/low relationship), Selling, Participating, Delegating.

A task brief is complete when it states what, why, by when, by whom, and to what standard.

Feedback that is specific and behavioural (observed action, not assumed intent) is more actionable than trait-based praise or criticism.

Delegation requires matching authority to responsibility; accountability for the outcome remains with the delegator.

A simple priority rule: urgent-and-important tasks are done now; important-but-not-urgent tasks are scheduled; the rest are delegated, deferred, or dropped.

Span of control: the number of direct reports a manager supervises; wider spans reduce management layers but raise coordination load.

The control cycle is Plan–Do–Check–Act (Deming/Shewhart); corrective action feeds back into the next planning stage.

A KPI must be specific, measurable, and owned by a named individual; a KPI without an owner is a metric, not a control.

Root cause analysis distinguishes symptom (what happened) from cause (why); the 'five whys' iterates until a systemic cause is reached.

Disciplinary process principles: inform the employee of the allegation, allow representation, hear evidence, decide, allow appeal.

Induction reduces early attrition; its core content is role expectations, policies, health and safety, and key contacts.

Standard operating procedures convert tacit knowledge into documented steps, enabling consistent output and easier training.

A risk assessment scores likelihood × impact; controls are applied highest-score first (hierarchy: eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, PPE).

Budget variance = actual spend − budgeted spend; a negative variance on costs is favourable, on income it is adverse.

Break-even volume = fixed costs ÷ (unit price − unit variable cost).

A business case states problem, options considered, costs, benefits, risks, and a recommendation with an appraisal method (e.g., payback, NPV).

Stakeholder mapping uses power and interest to set engagement: high power/high interest = manage closely; low/low = monitor.

Gantt charts sequence tasks against time and expose dependencies; the critical path is the longest dependent chain and sets minimum duration.

Team motivation levers: autonomy, mastery, purpose (intrinsic) versus pay and reward (extrinsic); intrinsic levers cost less and sustain longer.

A performance improvement plan sets measurable targets, review dates, and named support - it is not a disciplinary sanction.

Conflict handling modes (Thomas–Kilmann): competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating - chosen by stakes and relationship value.

Operational capacity = available hours × utilisation; effective capacity subtracts planned downtime and changeover time.

Little's Law: average work-in-progress = throughput × average flow time.

Lean's seven wastes: transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, defects.

Change curve (Kübler-Ross adapted to organisations): shock, denial, frustration, depression, experiment, decision, integration - resistance peaks before acceptance.

Kotter's eight steps begin with creating urgency and end with anchoring change in culture.

Cost of quality = prevention + appraisal + internal failure + external failure; external failure is usually the most expensive per defect.

A RACI matrix assigns each task one Accountable, plus Responsible, Consulted, Informed - multiple Accountables cause decision paralysis.

Service level agreement metrics typically include availability, response time, resolution time, and first-time-fix rate.

Higher technical qualifications are level 4–5 vocational programmes approved against employer-developed occupational standards.

Technical report structure: purpose, method, results, analysis, conclusion, recommendations - each section traceable to the brief.

Measurement error = accuracy (closeness to true value) and precision (repeatability); both must be stated for technical evidence.

A specification defines mandatory requirements; a tolerance defines the permitted deviation from nominal value.

Health and safety risk control follows the hierarchy: eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, administrative controls, PPE last.

Competence evidence should be authentic, current, sufficient, and mapped to each standard criterion.

Testing validity requires a control or baseline; without a comparator, a result cannot be attributed to the intervention.

Digital literacy at level 5 includes data protection principles: lawful basis, minimisation, retention limits, and subject access rights.

AI is a probabilistic system: outputs are predictions, not certainties, so human verification is required for consequential decisions.

Supervised learning uses labelled data; unsupervised learning finds structure in unlabelled data; reinforcement learning optimises via reward signals.

Training data bias propagates to model outputs; fairness testing compares outcomes across protected groups.

Algorithmic accountability requires a named human owner for each deployed model and a documented decision boundary.

Explainability versus performance trade-off: complex models often outperform but resist explanation; regulated contexts may require interpretable models.

Data protection by design: purpose limitation, data minimisation, and storage limitation apply to model training data as to any personal data.

A model's performance degrades when live data drifts from training data; monitoring for drift is a continuous control, not a one-off test.

Human-in-the-loop means a person reviews and can override AI output before the decision takes effect; human-on-the-loop means oversight with exception escalation.

The three pillars of sustainability are environmental, social, and economic; a decision is sustainable only if it does not deplete any pillar.

Scope 1 emissions are direct (owned sources); Scope 2 are purchased energy; Scope 3 are value-chain emissions, usually the largest share.

Net zero means residual emissions are balanced by removals; it differs from carbon neutral, which permits offsetting without deep reduction.

Materiality assessment ranks ESG issues by impact on the business and on stakeholders; double materiality adds both directions.

Circular economy principles: design out waste, keep materials in use, regenerate natural systems.

Science-based targets align reduction pathways with limiting warming to 1.5°C, typically requiring absolute reduction rather than intensity-only metrics.

Social value measurement includes employment quality, community impact, and supply-chain labour standards, not only environmental metrics.

Greenwashing risk arises when claims are unsubstantiated; credible claims are specific, quantified, and independently verified.

Strategic drift occurs when incremental change lags environmental change; it is detected by comparing realised strategy with market shifts.

Porter's generic strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus - a firm without a clear one is 'stuck in the middle'.

Ansoff matrix: market penetration, product development, market development, diversification - risk rises along that order.

NPV discounts future cash flows at the cost of capital; a positive NPV adds value; IRR is the discount rate giving zero NPV.

A business case should include a do-nothing option as the baseline against which benefits are measured.

Talent management uses a 9-box grid of performance versus potential to plan succession and development.

Governance separation: the board sets strategy and oversees; management executes - conflating them weakens accountability.

Risk register entries record likelihood, impact, owner, mitigation, and residual risk after controls.

Fiduciary duty requires directors to act in the company's best interest, with care, skill, and independent judgement.

Board effectiveness depends on independence, diversity of perspective, and separation of chair and chief executive roles.

Enterprise risk appetite is set by the board; risk tolerance defines the acceptable variation around that appetite.

VUCA describes volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity - each demands a different leadership response (e.g., ambiguity needs sense-making).

Scenario planning tests strategy against multiple plausible futures rather than a single forecast.

Mergers and acquisitions value creation depends on synergy realisation; overpayment of premium is the most common destroyer of value.

Executive remuneration design should align pay with long-term value; short-term-only metrics encourage risk-taking.

Crisis leadership sequence: stabilise, communicate, decide, learn - communication precedes full information.

Consulting engagement lifecycle: scope, proposal, contract, diagnose, design, deliver, hand over, evaluate.

A statement of work fixes deliverables, acceptance criteria, timeline, and fee basis - it prevents scope creep.

Diagnosis precedes prescription: data gathering and stakeholder interviews must precede recommendations.

The MECE principle (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) structures issue trees without overlap or gaps.

Consultant independence is compromised by contingent fees tied to recommendations; disclose conflicts.

Change readiness assessment covers leadership sponsorship, capability, and capacity to absorb change.

Knowledge transfer is a contractual deliverable; without it, the client remains dependent on the consultant.

Confidentiality obligations survive engagement end; client data handling must comply with data protection law.

Mission command delegates freedom of action within commander's intent, enabling initiative when communications fail.

The estimate process: understand the problem, analyse factors, develop options, decide, plan, execute.

OODA loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act - speed of cycling relative to the adversary confers advantage.

Logistics sustainment determines operational reach; the tooth-to-tail ratio expresses fighting versus supporting elements.

Risk in operations is managed by likelihood and consequence, with residual risk accepted at the appropriate command level.

After-action review is structured: what was planned, what happened, why the difference, what to change.

Morale and cohesion are force multipliers; they are sustained by clarity of purpose, welfare, and fair treatment.

Rules of engagement set the boundaries for the use of force within legal and policy constraints.

The National Decision Model: Code of Ethics, gather information, assess threat and risk, consider powers and policy, identify options, act, review.

The PLAN principle for policing: Proportionate, Legal, Accountable, Necessary.

Reasonable grounds for suspicion must be objective and based on specific facts, not intuition alone.

The Peelian principle: police legitimacy depends on public consent and policing by consent rather than force.

Use of force must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate; it is recorded and reviewed.

Safeguarding thresholds distinguish need, risk, and harm; early intervention reduces escalation.

Evidence continuity (chain of custody) requires documented, unbroken handling from seizure to court.

Community policing rests on problem-solving (e.g., SARA: Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment) rather than incident response alone.