Subject: Re: acevo conference strategic planning tools
Simon Blake of Brook, Joanna Elson of the Money Advice Trust and I ran a workshop at the acevo conference on 11 November 2010 on 'Successful strategic planning: creating analysis tools that will make a difference'. A summary of the slides are attached, but our basic premise was:
- in this rapidly changing world, full of complex converging forces, uncertainties, and drivers sometimes outside of our control, strategic thinking and planning will enable organisations to focus on the right things for their beneficiaries, anticpiate likely future events and be better prepared for them
- given that strategic planning tools were (mainly!) developed in 60's and 70's corporate America, we felt that we needed to add new thinking to the strategy toolbox - to help people think differently, focus on the important and necessary
- strategic planning tools are intended to help us ask new questions...stimulate thinking that perhaps we might not have had...distilling all of them down, what are the most important questions?
- we offered a four question model which can be found in the slides but comprises: What do you want the future to hold?; Which other organisations could you work with?; Where will you focus your attention?; How do you take staff and trustees with you?
The participants attending the workshop then spent some time thinking about two of these questions and have developed new strategic analysis frameworks to explore decision making about which other organisations you could work with, and how to take staff and trustees with you. These frameworks will be attached to another message (I can only upload 100 kb to a message).
What have we missed? What other big strategic questions are there that third sector organisations should be asking? Do add your thoughts...
Here are the notes from the group work:
Group work creating a ‘steps tool’ addressing the big strategy questions:
How to take staff and trustees with you…as you implement your strategy?
Group one:
Steps:
Ø Focus on beneficiaries and the Mission, Vision, Values
Ø Get staff input
Ø Communicate – be open minded and behave with integrity
Ø Carry out research
Ø Give decision making priorities to empower
Ø Do some scenario building
Ø Set boundaries
Group two:
Steps:
Ø Need clarity on the issues
Ø Allow people to have a view and express their thoughts and feelings
Ø Involve staff from the beginning
Ø Review the public/customer benefit/need
Ø Trustees are key – can be more difficult to convince
Ø Volunteers can be the most difficult:
o Revisit purpose and values of the organisation
o Know the outcome you want to have
o Build awareness; allow people to contribute and be listened to and recognised
o Manage expectations
o What resources do we need to make it happen?
o Gain commitment to act
Ø End goal: understanding and ownership and commitment to thje future state of the organisation
Which other organisations could you work with?
Group three:
Questions:
Ø Who else is in the market providing similar services?
Ø How good are these services?
Ø How much does it overlap/diverge?
Ø What benefits does each party stand to gain?
Ø What problems might arise?
Ø How/who will problems be managed?
Ø Current funding situation – financial implications?
Ø Organisational culture synergy/dissonance?
Ø Who haven’t we considered as potential partners but who may bring assets? Opportunity to extend boundaries…..
Ø Merger/collaboration leads to whole greater than sum of parts…
Ø Establish shared vision for this work – what are we trying to achieve?
Ø Understand strategic imperatives for each partner: can we achieve something together?
Ø Structure of project – important to set objectives and outcomes
