So you think you can plan?

So you think you can plan?Strategic Planning: what it is and how to do it Webinar: 17 September 2010 Maree Conway

….using futures approaches tointegrate strategic thinking intostrategy development and planning

Today…• Planning in a strategy context• Understanding your plan‟s context• Elements of a good strategic plan• Implementing the plan

Checkpoints• Throughout the webinar are a series of checkpoints.• Questions to help your review your current strategy and planning processes.• Won‟t spend time on them today, but I‟ll send you a document with them when I email you about the webinar download.

Strategy: Why Bother?• Many organisations cant consistently describe their strategy – strategy needs to be translated into operational terms.• 60% of typical organisations do not link their strategic priorities to their budget (how do key strategic initiatives get funded?)• Two-thirds of HR and IT units develop plans that are not linked to the organisations strategy. This is extraordinary.• 70% of middle managers and more than 90% of front-line employees have compensation that is not linked to the strategy.• 95% of employees in most organisations do not understand their organisations strategy. Robert Kaplan and David Norton, The Office of Strategy Management, Harvard Business Review, October 2005

• Strategy is developed to move an organisation into the future while…• …planning is about agreeing on action to be taken now to implement that strategy.

So…• Planning is one step in the broader process of strategy development and implementation.

What is “Strategy”?an entity confronting its environment soas to ensure its continuing development Adapted from: several sources

Organisation and Environment Social Environment Driving Forces Industry Environment Factors / Trends Issues / Forces Stakeholders Suppliers Social Organisation Technological Economic Customers Ecological Clients Political … Members of Competitors Wider Society Driving Forces Adapted from K. van der Heijden

Foresight and StrategyRecall that…• Strategy includes “confronting” the environment with both cognitive and active processes.Well …• Foresight is part of the cognitive aspect of “confronting” the environment.• Planning is the “acting” part.

So…• An organisational foresight capacity is required to build robust strategy.

Foresight is the capacity to understand future uncertainty and use that understanding in organisationally useful ways today

Checkpoint 1• How future focused is your strategy?• Do you use futures approaches to develop alternative futures for your organisation?• Does your current strategy assume that the future will be business-as-usual?

• Current strategy processes tend to focus on the plan as the major outcome, rather than a shared understanding of your organisation‟s preferred future to inform action today.

Making VU 2016: Current until A Statement of 2016 Purpose Internal & External Planning Strategic vision Inputs and objectives Ongoing environmental scanning •Educational & societal trends •Government policy drivers University •Legislation Priorities •University cross-sectoral Reviewed each 2008-2010 Outcomes & strategies year in first half Strategies to •Other University Plans (eg of year implement OHS, Disability, Staff Equity etc) Unit Strategic Plans University Budget Process 2008-2010 Iterative process to align Reviewed and Faculties, Schools budgets and plans updated in & Service areas Budget sign-off at endAugust/September; Implementation of University September finalised following Priority strategies Quarterly Budget ReviewsQIRs in November Department Plans Improvement action identified/changes to plans identified SPDP: individual Staff Plans QIR Inputs Organisational Unit QIR Quality Improvement Reviews Portfolios Held in (QIRs) Approval of operational plans Faculty Review Outcomes November each Review of current year’s Annual Course Reporting year performance Course Review Subject Evaluation Outcomes AQTF outcomes AUQA Follow up

Think tomorrowis going to bemore of today

Can’t copewith theunexpected

Usually don’t explorelong term alternative futures

Prefer quantitativeover qualitativeinformation

Don’tchallengeassumptions

Downplay or dismiss staff beliefs,hopes and fears about the future

When you are involved in a strategic planning exercise…• Do you jump for joy?• Sigh?• Groan?• Wipe the dust of last year‟s plan and read it for the first time?• Just do it…as quickly as possible?

What is a strategic plan?• A strategic plan is a document that records the action you have agreed to take to implement a strategy.• It allows you to clarify, assign accountabilities, monitor implementation and report on the achievement of that action.

• Writing and implementing the plan comes at the end of the strategy development process, not the beginning.

• You can‟t write a strategic plan unless you have first explored the shape and form of your future operating environment.

• Because…decisions about your strategic direction must be based on an assessment of plausible future alternative strategies for your organisation…

• …not strategies based on an assumed linear extrapolation of the present and past.

• If you assume that tomorrow‟s business environment is going to be more of today, then you are „betting the farm‟.

Checkpoint 2• Think about the way you write your strategic plans – what‟s good, what could improve?• Are the plans informed by an agreed view of the future, or by what you know today?

Before you pick up the pen… what informs your plan? Scanning

ES is the art of systematically exploring and interpretingthe external environment to better understand thenature of trends and drivers of change and their likelyfuture impact on your organisation.

• What will be the shape of the future?• What will be important?• What will be peripheral?• What does it mean for us?

Why scan?• Beyond the short-term• Beyond busy• “We want to be proactive…”• But how can you be proactive if you have little idea about what‟s coming?

• Unless you scan, you WILL always be reacting/in crisis management modes/putting out bushfires.

Aim of ES• The aim of scanning work is to provide robust information (trends and emerging issues) to inform your strategic thinking,• to enable you to build a long term context for your strategic planning today.

So how do weget started withenvironmentalscanning?

Ourassumptionsencase us inthe past.

Your Worldview• The network of ideas, beliefs, biases, prejudices, social and cultural embedded-ness, and taken- for-granted assumptions through which you interpret and interact with the world, other people and yourself. – Constrains what you see in the world, and the way the world is organised and operates. – Shapes the way in which you see the world and what you notice, and the way the world is organised and operates. Erhard and Jenson, Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership, Harvard Business School, Research Paper 09-022, April 2010.

UNCERTAINTY High Usual Planning Timeframe (3-5 years) The linear future is the one we believe to be true, usually based on untested assumptions Trend Linear Future Low Today TIME Future

UNCERTAINTY High Usual Planning Timeframe (3-5 years) Possible Futures Trend Linear Future Low Today TIME Future

Shaping Tomorrow• Store your scanning hits• Develop trend reports• Scan the database being build daily by people around the globe• Test your organisation‟s future readinesshttp://www.shapingtomorrow.com

Checkpoint 3: Looking Out• What trends are relevant to your organisation? Why?• Think about some alternative outcomes for those trends – in 3, 5, 10 years.• What do you need to know to be able to respond to those possible outcomes?• Scan for that.

Checkpoint 3: Looking Out • Spend time thinking about what you are finding means for your strategy – how would you respond? • This is what goes into your plan.

Before you pick up the pen… what informs your plan?Crowdsourcing Stakeholders

• Empower• Ownership • Buy-in• Meaningful • Useful

Activity Stakeholders HowPossible Futures Wide range of stakeholders Workshops, discussion,THINKING within & external to conversations, resource material organisationStrategic Options Board, CEO and senior Workshops to review and assessANALYSING managers possible strategy and associated risksDecisions Board and CEO Board meetingsSETTING GOALSPlanning All staff Opportunity to have input intoVISION & MISSION drafting of the vision & missionPlanning All staff Unit level activities to set actionsACTION to respond to goals

Questions to Ask• Who will be involved • Who will add value to – staff and the process? stakeholders? • Who has open minds?• How will you involve • Who will bring new them? perspectives to the• How will you manage process? expectations? • Who is our biggest• How will you report critic? on how their input has been used?

• Opening the planning process to your staff and stakeholders requires: – CEOs who are comfortable with listening to a diversity of alternative views to inform their thinking – before they decide, – the absence of a command and control management approach, – resources to commit to the process, and – time to commit to the process.

Staff as Stakeholders• Staff ultimately implement your strategy on the ground.• They can do this successfully if they are involved in the process from the beginning…• …or they can resist implementation – either consciously or unconsciously.

Gathering Views• Workshops• Focus Groups• Online networks and social media• Surveys• Delphi• …

Checkpoint 4: Open and Inclusive• What stakeholder groups do you need to involve in your planning? Why?• At what stage?• How will you involve them?• What will you do with their input (manage expectations)?

Writing the Plan 2…okay pick up the pen now

• Basic rule is to keep it simple -don‟t over- complicate it.• It‟s a myth that strategy needs to be „big‟.• Focus on the 3-5 things that will help you achieve your preferred future.

Types of Planning Documents• Organisational strategy – short and sweet, sets the future direction, 10-15 years out.• Functional plans – organisational wide approaches to core business, 5 years out.• Unit plans – how individual units will contribute to achievement of goals – annual, within 5 year cycle.• Staff plans – how individual staff will contribute to achievement of goals – annual.

Planning and the Budget• The budget follows the plan?• In reality, the plan needs to recognise budgetary limitations.• Planning and budgeting are a connected, interdependent, iterative process.• Published plans should be funded plans.

Vision• Vision – what do we want to be? – A coherent description of a preferred future.

Mission• Mission – What do we do today? – Defines the organisational role – Describes the activities it takes to achieve your vision

Values• What drives our behaviour?

Goals• What 3-5 changes will make a difference?• Link the present with the future, and establish desired outcomes.

Actions• Who will do what, by when?• Limit the number of actions associated with a goal.

Measures and KPIs• Measures: how we will know when the action has been completed.

• The organisation has a vision and mission.• The organisation defines the values.• The goals and KPIs apply across the organisation.• Actions and measures are set by units.

• Not everything that is done goes into a strategic plan.• Operational plans can be developed to help plan and manage day-to-day activities.

Plan Element ExampleStrategy To move to the top 10% of research universitiesGoal Increase publications by 10% by 2020Actions 1. Implement a publications reward scheme 2. Develop workshops for new researchersMeasure Publication RateTarget 1% increase in publications each year to 2020

Checkpoint 5: Review your Plan• Think about your current strategic plans. – Are they too complex or just right? – Do you have too many levels (ie more than goals and actions)? – Are your vision, mission, values and goals clearly articulated? How do you know? – Are actions in your unit plans linked to the organisational strategic plan? – Do you have the right measures?

It’s only a plan…• Avoid investing too much in the written document.• If it‟s a „living document‟ then it can be changed, tossed out, and re-written.• Unplanning…

Trust your staff…• Nordstrom – Trust your own best judgement• Trust your staff to add value to the strategy by deciding how they can implement it – each unit will be different.

Implementation• Communicating the plan and accountabilities• Aligning action – and the budget• Reviewing and reporting• Adapting the plan• …and give it time.

Communicating• A single message• A common resource package• Translate the strategy into operational terms for staff so they can answer the question – how do I contribute?• Role of CEO and senior managers is critical to ensure consistent message.

Aligning• Actions at unit level all respond to organisational strategy – an external focus. – Not all units will have actions for every strategy.• Action from each unit can then be consolidated under each organisational goal.

Review and Report• Regular reviews – at board meetings, staff meetings…• Use the review to identify changes needed.• Make it regular.• Feed reviews into annual reporting process.

Review and Report: The Annual Report• Measures• Success stories• What did we do this year to contribute to the achievement of organisational goals?• Needs ability to synthesise and connect the reports at the organisational level. – Not as easy as it sounds.

Adapting• Plans are actions an organisation has agreed to take to respond to the external environment.• The external environment changes often, so the plan may need to change often as well.

Adapting• Strategic agility: – the capacity to be flexible in the face of ever changing conditions and to respond to those conditions in a resilient and productive manner when change is required.

Adapting• Testing of ideas early (design thinking)• Accepting failure• Learning from experience• Remember unplanning…

Implementation Challenges• Implementation can mean change, and change is hard – expect resistance.• Internal focus – silo operations.• Lack of awareness of external environment and how to respond.• Urgent versus important work.• Mismatch between strategy and organisational capability.

Checkpoint 6: Execution• Think about how you communicate, align, review and adapt your plans now.• Can you improve anything?• Does your plan drive decision making?• Are you afraid to change your plan when the environment changes?

Back at Work

• Scan often, scan well

• Invest more time in doing this…

• …before you do this.

Think long term, act today …and act often

Need Help?• Training can be tailored to meet your needs: scanning, planning, strategic thinking.• Workshops, presentations, mentoring.

• Download Building Strategic Futures Guides: – Getting Started with Futures – Environmental Scanning http://www.thinkingfutures.net/guides1

Contact Details Maree Conway http://www.thinkingfutures.netmaree.conway@thinkingfutures.net Tel: 03 9016 9506 Mobile: 0425 770 181 Skype: mkconway1

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So you think you can plan?

by Maree Conway on Jul 11, 2012

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