Your Budget is a Translator – Not a Translation: A Rosetta Stone Approach to Budgets Can Make Strategic Thinking Easier
I love aha moments. As a learner and teacher, it is like a Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza in my head when suddenly an idea crystallizes, and things fall into place – sense-making at its best. After teaching financial leadership for a decade with a headstrong desire to find more ways to make people more confident, competent, and comfortable with the financial side of organizations, I recently had an aha present itself to me about organizational budgets and how we engage with them. (I know some out there will be aghast that it took 10 years) First, some context Few things create anxiety and stress as much as budgets. In my early years, budgets happened to me and I knew little about where the numbers came from. Later, as a senior director, I was expected to build budgets and come up with revenue and expense predictions to impose on myself and others. Even later, I was presented with budgets and asked to approve and monitor progress as a board member. Rarely, did I feel confident an