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By John Bourke
As we close in on the final hours of our facilitated strategic planning
process we often tell our clients: “The moment the ink dries on your
plan, it becomes numb and dumb!”
What’s our point? An integrated strategy remains strategic only as long
as it is worked, challenged, realigned with current realities and
calibrated in relation to new learning — every day. In addition to
keeping the plan updated it must also be coordinated and deployed by
stakeholders possessing the skills to conduct crucial conversations
around differences of opinion that arise over high stakes implementation
realities.
Participatory strategic planning processes have transformed the way in
which organizations develop long-range plans that strategically tap the
breadth of the organizational “brain trust” while dramatically
accelerating the translation of plan from paper to action. Bourke &
Associates has fortified this planning methodology to effectively
integrate global operations around a clarifying, inclusive and
compelling preferred organizational future.
By definition, this approach to strategic planning blends several types
of planning to achieve a fresh, insightful, and effective map for an
organization’s future. Aspects of long range planning are combined with
both operational and project planning to create a comprehensive plan that
reflects the group’s intentions and best thinking.
Key Stages
This action-oriented strategic planning process has five stages, with
Stage 5 occurring quarterly and annually.
1. Design meeting and discovery.
The decision to plan and work together in a new, consensus-driven way
has been made. Initial commitment to this process involves inviting
additional perspectives to be represented at the design meeting. A
thorough and efficient discovery process gathers relevant corporate
documents, plans, directives, catalogue of competing demands and
industry drivers and a calendar of existing commitments.
2. Off-site strategic planning meeting.
This meeting takes place over a two to three-day period with representation from the total organization
and related stakeholders. The planning group actively participates in
generating data in response to focused topics: inventory of national
trends, practical vision, underlying contradictions, action areas and
strategic directions, and a one-year implementation plan.
During these sessions, ideas are generated using individual and group
brainstorming processes. All ideas are visually displayed so that the
collective group can determine how to organize and title them in a way
that will unify and guide their future actions.
3. Leadership coaching.
Team leaders and plan coordinators receive
support on how to facilitate effective follow-up meetings through
modeling and coaching. Emphasis is placed on integration and inclusion.
Leaders and coordinators are offered performance coaching skills from
our award-winning training program: Crucial Confrontations. Facilitation
tips are reviewed that induce participant performance.
4. Plan implementation (client driven).
Strategic direction teams carry
out the first quarter projects that have been jointly identified in
Stage 2 by following the steps outlined in their respective team
implementation worksheets.
5. Quarterly progress
meetings and annual strategic plan update.
The
original planning team, along with added members, reconvene for
quarterly progress meetings and the annual strategic plan update. At
quarterly meetings the plan is reviewed to assess the progress that has
been made by all teams and to determine if any adjustments in direction
are called for based on new realities. At the full-day annual update
meeting, the vision is refreshed and a new one-year implementation plan
is developed to move closer to the vision.
This strategic planning approach offers a framework that invites new
thinking, taps the whole range of the group’s experience, and results in
a plan that represents authentic ownership and that people are eager to
implement.
A Closer Look at the Process
The purpose of the actual two- to three-day meeting is to guide
stakeholders through the formulation of a strategic plan. The format
includes brainstorming, organizing and naming data to discern the
consensus of the group. At times, work is done individually, in small
groups and as a whole group. The following sessions comprise the
strategic planning process. Inventory of trends.
The inventory of trends.
The inventory of trends sets a larger context for the group’s planning
efforts by capturing national industry trends and discussing their
relevance to the plan’s development.
The practical vision.
The vision of an organization is held, in part, by
all of its members. Consequently, the breadth of a group’s vision is
hidden from each member individually until it is articulated in a group
process. A practical vision is a dynamic and evolutionary expression of
hope and intention that needs to be constantly reviewed and, more
importantly, renewed. Founded on the learning that takes place while
actually living the mission, the vision changes and is remolded by both
accomplishment and failure. (Time orientation: Looking forward three to
five years.)
Underlying contradictions. The real issues facing an organization become
clear when placed under the light of a practical vision. Without a
vision, problems and challenges arise without benefit of a stabilizing
context. As a group considers the entire range of its issues together,
root causes can be uncovered and objectified for sober consideration and
action. (Time orientation: Current-day issues.)
Action areas and strategic directions.
In this session, time is
dedicated to thinking strategically. By taking into account an
organization’s vision along with its identified contradictions, actions
can now surface that will have a strong impact. After combining similar
actions into distinct areas, the group discerns the three or four
strategic directions through which future decisions may be screened.
(Time orientation: Possible actions for up to two years.)
Implementation plan.
Developing an implementation plan establishes a
sense of momentum that carries the group into purposeful action. The
success of any plan depends on specifying projects, aligning resources,
choosing roles and responsibilities, and building team commitment. In
this session, individuals and newly formed teams assess their role in
realizing the vision.
This anchors the strategic directions by creating calendars, forming
working teams, scheduling meeting times, and completing detailed
implementation worksheets. The outcome: a motivating, relevant
implementation calendar with measurable specifics that the entire group
can actively endorse. (Time orientation: One year.)
Amazingly enough, the reasons why corporate plans fail have less to do
with process, procedures and protocol than traditionally believed.
Albeit bad structure does tend to yield bad results, the most effective
organizations have learned that the differentiator has more to do with
the ability of formal leaders, informal leaders (influence stewards) and
the chain-of-command to consistently and effectively identify and hold
those isolated crucial conversations and confrontations that keep
progress and intelligence at bay.fm
John Bourke is founder of Bourke & Associates, an established force in
the arena of corporate Strategic Planning and Meeting Facilitation.. |
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