This is from a short workshop session to introduce some of my colleagues to the OpenStrategies PRUB-Thinking approach.

1. OpenStrategies
A simple system for Strategic Planning
and Benefits Realisation

2. The (confusing) language of strategies
 Objective
 Goal
 Outcome
 Output
 Target
 Framework
 High-level strategy
 Operational strategy, outturns, mission, vision, KPI,
milestones, task, project, theme, strand, action plan,
structure, tactics, direction, issues, priorities,
underpinning principles, benefit, impact, strategic
capacity, result purpose, roles, responsibilities,
authority… (and occasionally, implementation)

3. The old Strategy Paradigm

4. OpenStrategies definition:
A STRATEGY IS AN ACTION
PLAN WITH A RATIONALE

5. Why most strategies make no difference
 3 levels of strategies
• Aspirational – high-level, not implementable
• Guidance
• Operational – action plans, implementable
 Human cognitive limits
• In the mind 5 +/- 2
• On paper 15 +/- 5?
It’s essential to be
crystal clear about
what level of
strategy you are
creating
Strategies need to
be written in a
simple format, with
information
‘chunked’ into units
of 15-20 pieces of
information

6. The core OpenStrategies principle
The smallest amount of information…
that has the highest value…
to the most people

7. The core OpenStrategies principle
The smallest amount of information…
that has the highest value…
to the most people
Organisations run Projects
which produce Results (outputs/assets)
which people Use
to create Benefits (outcomes)

8. PRUB / BURP
Planning (BURP)
Create assets Use assets
Implementation (PRUB)

9. Projects Results Uses Benefits
Assess customer’s
needs based on what
they want to do and
achieve with our
company’s potential
new product
Information available
on what customers
want to do and achieve
with our company’s
potential new product
Use this information to
design, build and test
market new products
to enable customers to
do and achieve what
they want to do and
achieve
Accurate product and
customer-use data is
available relating to
our company’s
potential new product
Happy customers
because they have
done and achieved
what they wanted to do
and achieve
Sustainably
manufacture,
distribute and market
our company’s new
product
Our company’s new
product available to
customers together
with relevant product
marketing information
Customers buy and use
our company’s new
product to do &
achieve what they
want
Our company is
sustainably profitable

11. Projects
 Actions undertaken by organisations or
groups of organisations
 Usually contain verbs, e.g. ‘build’, ‘develop’,
‘train’
 Can be existing activity, planned activity, or
just an idea

12. Results
 The results of actions undertaken by
organisations or groups of organisations
 Typically contain nouns and are focused on
the output produced by a project, e.g. a
report, a piece of infrastructure, trained staff
 Can be an existing result, a desired result, or
simply an idea

13. Uses
 How members of the community use the
results created by organisations, e.g. cycling
to work, attending workshops, receiving
benefit payments
 Typically contain verbs e.g. ‘attend’,
‘participate’, ‘receive’
 Done by individuals, groups of individuals or
private companies for their own benefit

14. Benefits
 How members of the community benefit
through using results e.g. ‘healthier people’,
‘improved standard of living’, ‘fewer teenage
pregnancies’
 Typically contain nouns
 The objective of all the previous work – the
reason for doing it

15. DEVELOPING
IMPLEMENTABLE
STRATEGIES

16. To enable Benefits, a strategy must…
1. Define what ideally needs to be done
2. Provide cause-and-effect Evidence that it
will actually work
3. Demonstrate that it is worth it

17. Create and Validate a SubStrategy
1. High level SubStrategy (Aspirational)
2. Detailed SubStrategy (Guidance – Operational)
3. Evidence (Proof of cause and effect)
4. Value (Σ£VB > Σ£CP + Σ£CU)

18. Training Strategy – Guidance level
Develop
Clinics &
Workshops
for CEOs
Clinics &
Workshops
on xyz are
available
CEOs attend
Clinics &
Workshops
The CEOs’
organisations
improve xyz
performance

19. Example Sub-strategy - Operational

20. PRUB AND BENEFITS
REALISATION

21. There are no short-cuts to Benefits…
To be effective…
Projects must lead to Results
which must lead to Uses
which must lead to Benefits

22. Example

23. Ian Seath
Improvement Skills Consulting Ltd.
• ian.seath@improvement-skills.co.uk
• 07850 728506
• @ianjseath
• www.improvement-skills.co.uk

24. Addendum
SUPPORTING SLIDES

25. From Strategy to Benefit
 Good strategies can improve alignment, focus on productive
activities and improve effectiveness and efficiency.
 Most strategies have minimal impact. Why?
 They have minimal impact because they simply can’t be
implemented effectively. Why?
 There are many links in the chain from a generic strategy (e.g. a
“high level” national strategy) to specific plans and
implementation.
 If any one of these links is broken, the strategy probably won’t be
implemented.
 The OpenStrategy Diagnostic consists of a rigorous series of
questions based on a simple flow-chart of steps from the generic
or high-level strategy through actions, to the ultimate creation of
real Benefits.

26. PRUB Diagnostic Flowchart
Aspirational
Guidance
Operational
e = “Evidence”

27. In almost every Strategy process..
 There are one or more generic strategic planning steps which create
generic, non-implementable strategies such as national strategies
(boxes 1 and 2: Generic Strategic Planning leading to Generic
Strategies)
 There are one or more specific planning steps which create specific,
implementable plans such as local action plans (boxes 3 and 4:
Specific Planning leading to Specific Plans)
 There is a specific doing step during which products/services get
built or created and organisational stakeholders get trained (boxes 5
and 6: Specific Projects leading to Specific Results)
 There is a specific using step in which end-users use whatever has
been built in order to create Benefits for themselves and others
(boxes 7-13: Specific Uses leading to Specific Benefits)

28. PRUB Diagnostic identifies…
 The PRUB Diagnostic will determine, explicitly,
which of many different reasons why a Project
should be stopped:
 it's producing a non-adoptable Orphan Result
 it's producing a potentially adoptable Orphan Result
 it's producing a potentially Useful Result that isn't
being Used, again for various reasons
 it's producing a Useful Result that is being Used but
the value of the Benefits is less than the cost of the
associated Project(s)

29. Diagnostic Questions (1)
 Is every organisational planning and project activity unequivocally linked
through boxes 1-6 to genuinely enable the Uses (box 7) to create one or
more Benefits (boxes 8-13)?
 Who exactly is undertaking the Planning in boxes 1 and 3, the Projects in
box 5 and the Uses in box 7?
 What is the evidence that each link between boxes will actually happen?
Specifically, what is the evidence that:
 the stakeholders in box 3 will actually adopt the generic plans/strategies (Orphan
Results) from box 2 assuming that the plans in box 2 are perfect?
 the stakeholders in box 5 will actually adopt, resource and implement the specific
plans (Orphan Results) from box 4 assuming that the plans in box 4 are perfect?
 the Users in box 7 will actually Use the Results in box 6?
 these Uses in box 7 will actually create the Benefits in boxes 8-13?
 the cost of a specific Project in box 5 is less than the value of all the Benefits
arising via Results and Uses from that Project?

30. Diagnostic Questions (2)
 Are the Projects (box 5), Results (box 6) , Uses
(box 7) and Benefits (boxes 8-13) sufficiently
specific that they will actually happen:
 geographically specific?
 thematically specific?
 organisationally (including partnerships) specific?
 demographically specific?
 process specific?

31. Pass / Fail?
 In order to pass the OpenStrategy Diagnostic
and hence have an implementable strategy that
will actually make a difference:
 The answer to question 1 must be “yes”
 The answers to question 2 must be “precise and
explicit”
 The answers to questions 3 must be “convincing”
 The answers to questions 4 must be “yes, they are
sufficiently specific to attach budgets, Project
Managers and stakeholders to”