FOCUS : Strategy Development
Strategy is often seen as a complex process of negotiation and planning dependent on external analysis; that when done well, will illuminate a perfect path to the future. An alternative view is that strategy is a set of executive conversations and decisive strategic choices about the organization's Purpose and Ambition; Stakeholders, Strategic Assets, and the critical assumptions on which we're betting everything.
The extent to which leadership teams are aligned around these conversations and decisions informs choices large and small being made throughout the organization every day. These strategy conversations produce organizational focus or blurring; alignment or discord; cohesion of identity or an identity crisis. Strategy is a conversation, not a permanent set of answers, nor a document.
Recent Case
Engaged by the CEO of an established, innovative organization that creates and implements social responsibility programs in over forty countries. Having been recognized nationally for their innovation and having achieved tremendous growth and success, they found themselves at a cross roads. Originally seeking a traditional long-range plan; the CEO soon saw that this would not sufficiently address the inevitable tradeoffs and choices that would come with continued growth and expansion. We instead engaged the executive leadership and Board of Trustees in creating a set of strategic boundaries that would organize planning conversations and guide decision-making as they pursue the next era of the organization. Thirty-five additional staff members participated in the process through a separate half-day exercise designed to engage them in the process and gather perspective. One month after creating this strategic framework, the CEO easily wrote the long-range plan himself. Further, this framework has guided resource allocation and brand strategy. Six months later, he reported that thanks to this process he'd gone "from having fourteen different conversations [with fourteen different board members] to having one.”