A strategy project integrates scanning, strategic thinking and strategic planning. The ability to connect the thinking with the doing is what sets Thinking Futures apart from the crowd.
The aim of a strategy project is to build futures ready strategy by collaborating with your staff to generate outcomes that are practical and useful ‘on the ground’. All my work starts with understanding the organisational imperative.
Understanding the Organisational Imperative
No matter what the project or engagement, the first step is to spend time working with relevant staff to understand the imperatives facing the organisation. This is a critical step in learning about how the organisation works, agreeing expectations and determining the output required at the end of our engagement with the organisation.
Once organisational imperatives are understood, projects are designed using a five step approach. Each of these five steps can be combined to form a single strategy project, or they can be undertaken as stand-alone activities. Typically, a full strategy project with all five steps will take around 12 weeks, although the exact time commitment is always negotiated to suit your organisation.
Step 1: Understanding Staff and Culture
All staff as have the potential to be strategic thinkers, since most staff in an organisation care about its future, and most would like to contribute to creating that future. Since it is these staff who will, ultimately, be implementing strategy, tapping into their views about the organisation’s future at the beginning of a strategy project identifies how they see the future of the organisation, as well as issues that will need to be addressed during the project and beyond to implementation.
Step 2: Scanning the Environment
Input from staff is then combined with rich knowledge about relevant trends in the external operating environment now and into the future. Working with your staff if that is appropriate, a tailored environmental scan is produced to identify those key trends and drivers of change likely to affect your organisation’s future. Scanning outcomes are consolidated into a detailed report that provides input into the next step.
Step 3: Plausible Futures
Facilitated scenario thinking approaches enable your organisation to transform scanning information into insights to use to identify and flesh out your preferred future and strategic options for your strategy today. The outcome of this step is futures ready strategy that will help you achieve that preferred future and that is documented in a one page strategy document that captures vision, mission, values and strategic objectives.
Step 4: Planning and Action
Writing useful strategic plans is a major challenge today. The stage involves working with staff (either individually or in group workshops) to write plans that align with the top level strategy statement, and that identify how individual units will contribute to achieving that strategy. Understanding the difference between strategic and operational plans is critical at this stage. The aim is to give life to stategy in day-to-day operations. This step can involve a review of existing plans and planning frameworks if required.
Step 5: Supporting Implementation
Unlike many planning consultants, writing the plan doesn’t have to be the end. We can provide provide expert support and advice as you move to implement plans, for the period agreed as part of the project plan. This ensures that you achieve alignment between the plan and day-to-day action.
Contact Maree to talk about how your strategy development and implementation can be strengthened to ensure you are developing futures ready strategy.
Follow Maree Conway