CMI (Other exams) cheat sheet

Tuckman's stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning - teams regress to earlier stages when membership or goals change.

Situational leadership (Hersey-Blanchard) matches style to follower readiness: Telling (low readiness), Selling, Participating, Delegating (high readiness).

Blake-Mouton grid axes are concern for people and concern for production; Team Management (9,9) is the target position.

Maslow's hierarchy: physiological, safety, social, esteem, self-actualisation - lower needs must be substantially met before higher ones motivate.

Herzberg: hygiene factors (pay, policy, conditions) prevent dissatisfaction but do not motivate; motivators (achievement, recognition, responsibility) drive engagement.

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

Transactional leadership uses contingent reward and management-by-exception; transformational leadership uses idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration.

Trait, behavioural and contingency theories differ in whether leadership effectiveness is attributed to the person, the behaviour, or the situation.

SMART objectives: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound - a criterion for judging whether an objective is well formed.

Performance management cycle: set objectives, monitor and give feedback, appraise, reward or develop, then reset.

360-degree feedback collects ratings from manager, peers, direct reports and self; it increases breadth but can suffer rater bias and collusion.

Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation: reaction, learning, behaviour, results - level 4 (results) is the hardest to attribute to training.

The 70:20:10 model attributes learning roughly to 70% experience, 20% social/coaching, 10% formal courses.

Kolb's experiential learning cycle: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation.

Appraisal errors include halo/horns effect, central tendency, recency bias, and similar-to-me bias; awareness of each is the first control.

Goal-setting theory (Locke): specific, difficult but accepted goals produce higher performance than vague 'do your best' goals, given feedback and commitment.

PESTLE scans macro-environment: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental factors.

Porter's Five Forces: rivalry among existing competitors, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers.

Porter's generic strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus (cost focus or differentiation focus); being 'stuck in the middle' is a strategic failure.

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

SWOT is a synthesis tool: strengths and weaknesses are internal, opportunities and threats are external; it should feed strategy, not replace it.

Vision states the desired future; mission states present purpose and scope; values state behavioural principles - the three are distinct statements.

The strategy hierarchy runs corporate strategy, business-unit strategy, functional/operational strategy; each level must align with the one above.

Balanced Scorecard perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, learning and growth - measures are chosen across all four to avoid short-termism.

Critical path is the longest sequence of dependent tasks and determines minimum project duration; critical-path tasks have zero float.

Earned value formulas: CV = EV − AC; SV = EV − PV; CPI = EV/AC; SPI = EV/PV. CPI or SPI below 1.0 signals cost or schedule underperformance.

Estimate at completion: EAC = BAC/CPI when current cost performance is expected to continue.

Project scope triangle (iron triangle): scope, time, cost - changing one constrains the other two; quality sits at the centre.

PDCA cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act - the basis of continuous improvement in operations.

Lean's seven wastes are often remembered as TIMWOOD: Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing, Defects.

Six Sigma targets 3.4 defects per million opportunities; DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) is its improvement cycle.

Risk management sequence: identify, assess (probability × impact), plan response (avoid, mitigate, transfer, accept), monitor and review.

Gross profit = revenue − cost of sales; operating profit = gross profit − operating expenses; net profit deducts interest and tax as well.

Gross margin % = gross profit / revenue × 100; net margin % = net profit / revenue × 100.

Current ratio = current assets / current liabilities; quick (acid-test) ratio excludes inventory from current assets.

Break-even output (units) = fixed costs / (selling price per unit − variable cost per unit); contribution per unit is price minus variable cost.

Return on investment = net gain from investment / cost of investment × 100; payback period is the time to recover the initial outlay.

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

Sensitivity analysis tests how much one variable can change before the decision reverses; scenario analysis tests combinations of variables.

Working capital = current assets − current liabilities; the cash conversion cycle measures days inventory + days receivable − days payable.

Mendelow's matrix plots stakeholders by power and interest: high power/high interest = manage closely; high power/low interest = keep satisfied; low power/high interest = keep informed; low/low = monitor.

Stakeholder salience model (Mitchell, Agle, Wood) uses three attributes - power, legitimacy, urgency - to rank stakeholder claims.

Customer lifetime value ≈ average purchase value × purchase frequency × customer lifespan, less acquisition and retention costs.

Net Promoter Score = % promoters (9–10) − % detractors (0–6); passives (7–8) are excluded from the calculation.

Service quality (SERVQUAL) dimensions: reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness - reliability is consistently rated most important.

Churn rate = customers lost during period / customers at start of period × 100.

Complaint handling that resolves at first contact raises satisfaction more than escalation; escalation adds cost and delay.

Segmentation criteria should be measurable, accessible, substantial and actionable to be commercially useful.

Lewin's model: unfreeze, change (transition), refreeze - refreezing embeds the new behaviour so old habits do not return.

Kotter's eight steps: urgency, guiding coalition, vision, communicate, empower action, short-term wins, consolidate, anchor in culture.

Kübler-Ross change curve: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance - describes individual response, not project phases.

Resistance to change is reduced by participation, clear communication of the 'why', and visible senior sponsorship.

Bridges' transition model: ending, neutral zone, new beginning - the psychological transition lags the structural change.

Incremental innovation improves existing products; radical innovation creates new markets; disruptive innovation starts low-end or new-market and moves up.

Diffusion of innovation adopter categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards - the early-majority gap is the 'chasm'.

Force-field analysis weighs driving forces against restraining forces; change is more durable when restraining forces are removed rather than driving forces increased.

Corporate governance separates direction (board) from execution (management); the chair leads the board, the CEO leads the executive.

UK Corporate Governance Code principles: board leadership and purpose, division of responsibilities, composition and succession, audit/risk/internal control, remuneration, and stakeholder engagement.

Independence criteria for non-executive directors typically exclude former employees, material suppliers or advisers, and close family of executives within a stated period.

A conflict of interest is managed by declare, recuse, or divest - not by silence; declarations are recorded in a register.

Whistleblowing protection generally requires a reasonable belief of wrongdoing, a qualifying disclosure, and disclosure to a prescribed person or regulator.

Ethical tests: consequences (utilitarian), duties and rights (deontological), fairness (justice), and character (virtue) - a decision should survive more than one test.

Bribery risk is highest in gifts, hospitality, facilitation payments and agent commissions; most regimes prohibit facilitation payments outright.

Data protection principles typically require lawful and fair processing, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, security and accountability.

Eisenhower matrix: urgent/important = do now; important/not urgent = schedule; urgent/not important = delegate; neither = delete.

Time management estimates: allow contingency of roughly 10–20% on complex tasks; Parkinson's law states work expands to fill the time available.

SMART personal goals and written plans raise follow-through because they externalise commitment and make progress measurable.

Emotional intelligence (Goleman) has five components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skill.

Johari window quadrants: open, blind, hidden, unknown - feedback shrinks the blind area, disclosure shrinks the hidden area.

Assertiveness differs from aggression: it states the issue, the impact and the request without attacking the person.

Delegation succeeds when authority, responsibility and accountability are matched; accountability cannot be delegated away.

Continuous professional development should be recorded against a competence framework, with reflection on what changed in practice.