Strategies help organisations think through what they want to achieve and how they will achieve it. Although the time spent developing strategies can feel a luxury when there are many day to day management pressures to address they can make a substantial difference to the effectiveness of an organisation. In particular they can help to provide a focus on the things that really matter, co-ordinate effort around a common agenda, ensure that medium-term issues are resolved before turning into major problems, and prevent organisational drift resulting from short-term distractions or being buffeted by events.
There are many ways of undertaking strategic and business planning but keeping it clear and focused is the trick. It is also critical that the process in itself builds a shared view across the organisation of what needs to be done and why so that it shapes the day to day conduct of business. The thinking also needs to be informed by a cogent analysis of the current and future situation facing the organisation and be subject to a reality check using feedback from staff, stakeholders and customers.
Getting strategic planning right is difficult despite its central importance to organisations. External assistance can provide expertise on how best to conduct the process and free up the organisation to focus on the thinking and content and not worry about the managing the process. An independent and impartial external presence can also be helpful in overcoming any differences of opinion or tensions and to build consensus on the way forward or to gather candid feedback from stakeholders, staff and customers.
We have worked successfully on strategy and planning with many boards and management teams tailoring our approach closely to their specific challenges and needs. One of the most popular events we run is a workshop that enables management teams to work together to develop an outline strategic plan from scratch in a single day. We set out below a recent case-study of our work.