I have spent my career fixated on three questions. 1. What is management? 2. How can we manage X? 3. How can we manage Y better? Included in this envelope is the SPARK Framework, through which I provide my answer to those questions. SPARK is comprehensive in that it encompasses the entirety of planning and execution within one visual process, is scalable in its usability at any level of an organization, and is universal in its applicability across all industries and professions. The framework will benefit managers by providing them with an actionable process, an understanding of the right questions to ask and the sequence in which to ask them, as well as a means of identifying organizational performance issues. I would encourage you to review the included process in the context of your role and experience. In doing so, I am confident that you will see the value in SPARK. I now seek to introduce this framework to those who share my passion and zeal for the subject. Such collaboration will greatly benefit me as I continue to refine the framework and develop additional synergistic tools. I believe that the questions I posed above will grow increasingly important as the economy continues its dramatic transformation in the pandemic's wake. Decentralized workforces will increasingly replace the traditional office, and new approaches to management will be needed. The SPARK Framework provides such an approach.

1. Strategic Planning Responsive Tracking
Objectives &
Targets
Course of
Action
Activities
Capabilities
Resources
Monitoring
Diagnostics
Response
Relevant
Environment

2. How can we manage X?
How can we manage Y better?
Strategic Planning Responsive Tracking
What are our
objectives?
What course
of action will
allow us to
achieve those
objectives?
What activities need to
be conducted to
execute that course of
action?
What capabilities are
required to conduct
those activities?
What resources are
required to provide
capabilities and support
activities?
Regularly
monitor
performance
during
execution to
identify any
problems or
opportunities.
Determine the
causes of those
problems or
opportunities
identified
during
monitoring.
Respond to
those
problems or
opportunities
to maintain
balanced
execution.
What
environmental
factors should be
considered during
planning and
tracked during
execution?
Strategic Planning Responsive Tracking
What are the
current
objectives of Y?
Is the current
course of
action
sufficient to
accomplish
those
objectives?
Are the activities being
conducted sufficient to
execute the chosen
course of action?
Are the identified
capabilities sufficient to
conduct those
activities?
Are the resources
committed sufficient to
provide required
capabilities and support
activities?
What were
the latest
performance
values as
compared to
the planned
targets?
What were the
causes of any
problems or
opportunities?
How were
those
problems and
opportunities
addressed?
What are the
environmental
factors that have
impacted
execution?

3. (E) CLEARS provides the options for addressing problems, opportunities, and
changes in the relevant environment.
Change: We can change something in the plan.
Limit: We can limit something in the plan.
Enhance: We can enhance something in the plan.
Add: We can add something to the plan.
Remove: We can remove something from the plan.
Status Quo: We can leave the plan as is.
(A) Objectives and targets consist of a factor, metric, and timeline.
“Reach sales of two million dollars within three years”
Seven Metric Types with Examples
Cumulative: Reach sales of two million dollars within three years
Measurement: Maintain a production quantity of exactly thirty units per month.
Range: Maintain a headcount of between 50 and 75 staff in region.
Binary: Ensure machine is operational within 2 weeks.
Rating: Achieve a rating of fully compliant this year.
Min: Ensure at least 80% of trainees pass the examination.
Max: Ensure that we have no more then a 5% annual attrition rate.
Targets represent progress towards an objective.
Target 1 Target 2 Target 3 Target 4 Objective
(B) FELOS is a tool that will help you brainstorm potential courses of action.
Fast: Is there a course that will allow you to quickly accomplish the objectives?
Easy: Is there an easy course?
Low Cost: Is there a low cost or less resource intensive course?
Organic: Is there a course that can be done without external resources?
Safe: What is the safest course in terms of minimizing risk and disruption?
(C) Monitor for performance that exceeds or falls short of target values. In
addition, you should be monitoring for changes in the relevant environment.
Scarcity (Problems) exist when performance falls short of objective or target
values. This represents a problem in that the committed resources are not
sufficient to execute the strategic plan.
Waste (Opportunities) exist when performance exceeds objective or target
values. This represents an opportunity as there may be a surplus of resources
committed which can be reallocated to other areas of the organization.
(D) Review for the causes of problems and opportunities in the order below.
Extraordinary Factor Change in Environment Imbalanced Strategic Plan
Strategic Planning Responsive Tracking
Objectives
and Targets
Course of
Action
Activities
Capabilities
Resources
Monitoring
Diagnostics
Relevant
Environment
1 2 3
4
5
7
8
6
Response
9
SPARK Process*
Strategic Planning
1. Set objectives and targets (A)
2. Choose a course of action (B)
3. Organize activities
4. Identify required capabilities
5. Allocate human and operational resources
• Human resources provide capabilities
• Operational resources support activities
6. Review plan for balance and alignment
Responsive Tracking (Cycle until Complete)
7. Monitor performance and environment (C)
8. Diagnose cause of problems or opportunities (D)
9. Respond to problems and opportunities (E)
*Examine environment through process. (Opposite)

4. Examining the Relevant Environment
Compatible
Impact
/
Influence
Yes
No
High
Low
Utilize
Fix
Watch Leverage
Internal Stakeholders
• Executive Level Management
• Departmental Management
• Relevant Employees
• Internal Customers
• Shareholders
External Stakeholders
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Partners
Resource Availability
• Operational Resources
• Space
• Time
• Money
• Technology
• Material
• Human Resources
• Management and Leadership
• Intellectual
• General (Provides Capabilities)
Organization
• Culture
• Management Vision and Priority
• Policies and Accepted Practices
Other
• Competition
• Regulatory
• Market
• “What else is relevant to the strategic plan?” List Factors
Examine as Applicable
Compatibility
Compatibility is determined based on whether an environmental factor
negates or potentially negates that which is under examination.
Potential Objective – Raise sales by 20% within 3 years.
Executive VP – “I think we are going to need to see faster growth than that.”
The position is not compatible because the stakeholder’s position is not aligned
with the potential objective.
Impact / Influence
The level of impact or influence is determined by the immediate relevance of
an environmental factor to your purpose or agenda.
Potential Objective – Raise sales by 20% within 3 years.
Executive VP – “I think we are going to need to see faster growth than that.”
Given that the VP is responsible for the division for which this objective is
being proposed, his influence on the program is high.
Exec. VP

5. Ryan’s SPARK Program: Strategic Planning
Ryan Gibson received a promotion to oversee a group that manages appliance
deliveries in the Midwest. When he was assigned to this position, his boss
explained to him that the group was struggling because of a shortage of delivery
staff. Deliveries were late about ten percent of the time, and customer satisfaction
with delivery service personnel has been declining. This last holiday season was a
disaster with numerous complaints and returns, not to mention the cost of the
discounts that were provided to appease angry customers.
The Vice President has made it clear that improving on-time deliveries and
increasing customer satisfaction should be Ryan’s priorities. She further stated
that the company should see significant improvement in these areas before the
next holiday season. She also explained that the staff shortage was not expected
to resolve anytime soon given the tight labor market and stiff competition for
talent from other companies.
Situation
Activities
1. Identify the most common customer delivery complaints within one month.
Required Capabilities
Analytical Skills (Analyst)
Required Operational Resources: N/A
2. Develop new delivery engagement process within one month.
Required Capabilities
Process Design (Process Engineer)
Documentation (Technical Writer)
Delivery Experience (Delivery Employee)
Required Operational Resources
Printing Budget
3. Model a system for classifying deliveries according to on time probability
within one month.
Required Capabilities
Analytical Skills (Analyst)
Required Operational Resources: N/A
4. Set up a specialized delivery system for high-risk deliveries within three months.
Required Capabilities
Process Design (Process Engineer)
Required Operational Resources: N/A
5. Set up a new system that classifies drivers by length of service within one
month.
Required Capabilities
Analytical Skills (Analyst)
Required Operational Resources: N/A
6. Develop nonmonetary rewards and perks that incentivize drivers to stay with
the company within three months.
Required Capabilities
Human Resources Expertise (HR Specialist)
Delivery Experience (Delivery Employee)
Required Operational Resources: N/A
Activities, Capabilities, and (Resources)
Objectives
1. Reduce customer complaints from sixty complaints per thousand deliveries to
no more than fifty complaints within three months, no more than forty within six
months, and to no more than twenty-five complaints within nine months.
2. Improve on-time deliveries from the current rate of ninety percent to at least
ninety-five percent within six months and at least ninety-eight percent within nine
months.
3. Improve delivery employee retention by reducing attrition from the current
twenty-five percent of drivers a year to no more than twenty percent within six
months and no more than fifteen percent within nine months.
We will establish a new delivery engagement process that will address the most
common customer complaints. We will identify deliveries that are the least likely
to be on time as at-risk deliveries and then incentivize staff to improve the odds
of delivering those on time. Finally, we will set up a new program for our drivers
which provide non-monetary incentives for remaining with us, which include the
selection of routes based on seniority as routes become available. Other perks
include free delivery coupons for friends and family for every year an employee
remains with the company.
Course of Action

6. Ryan’s SPARK Program: Dynamic Tracking
Monitoring Checkpoint: One Month (Reviewed as on right)
1. Identify the most common customer delivery complaints. (Activity Check)
2. Develop new delivery engagement process. (Activity Check)
3. Set up a system for classifying deliveries according to on time probability.
(Activity Check)
5. Set up a new system that classifies drivers by length of service. (Activity Check)
Monitoring Checkpoint: Three Months (Reviewed as on right)
1. Set up a specialized delivery system for high-risk deliveries. (Activity Check)
2. Set up a new system that classifies drivers by length of service. (Target Check)
3. Develop nonmonetary rewards and perks that incentivize drivers to stay with
the company. (Activity Check)
4. Reduce customer complaints from sixty complaints per thousand deliveries to
no more than fifty complaints. (Target Check)
Monitoring Checkpoint: Six Months (Upcoming)
1. Reduce customer complaints from fifty complaints per thousand deliveries to
no more than forty complaints. (Target Check)
2. Improve on-time deliveries from the rate of ninety percent to at least ninety-
five percent. (Target Check)
3. Improve delivery employee retention by reducing attrition from the current
twenty-five percent of drivers a year to no more than twenty percent. (Target
Check)
Monitoring Checkpoint: Nine Months (Upcoming)
1. Reduce customer complaints to no more than twenty-five complaints per
thousand deliveries within nine months. (Objective Check)
2. Improve on-time deliveries to at least ninety-eight percent within nine months.
(Objective Check)
3. Improve delivery employee retention by reducing attrition no more than fifteen
percent within nine months. (Objective Check)
Monitoring Schedule
1. Identify the most common customer delivery complaints.
Activity Check: This activity was completed on schedule. (Completed)
2. Develop new delivery engagement process.
Activity Check: We have not completed this activity. (Problem)
Diagnosis: Technical writer was delayed by another project. (Extraordinary)
Response: Ryan will extend (Enhance) the activity timeline by two weeks.
3. Set up a system for classifying deliveries according to on time
probability.
Activity Check: This activity was completed on schedule. (Completed)
4. Set up a new system that classifies drivers by length of service.
Activity Check: We have not completed this activity. (Problem)
Diagnosis: Drivers union and HR are both opposed to this measure.
(Relevant Environment)
Response: Ryan will (Change) the activity to simply getting a list of drivers
with their start date. The official classification of drivers is no longer part
of the activity. Extend (Enhance) the target completion date by two
weeks.
1. Set up a specialized delivery system for high-risk deliveries.
Activity Check: This activity was completed on schedule. (Completed)
2. Set up a new system that organizes drivers by when they started with the
company.
Activity Check: This activity was completed on schedule. (Completed)
3. Develop nonmonetary rewards and perks that incentivize drivers to stay
with the company.
Activity Check: We have not completed this activity. (Problem)
Diagnosis: Drivers union claims that their contract prohibits preferential
selection of route assignments, claiming routes are assigned randomly to
ensure fairness. (Relevant Environment)
Response: (Add) the new activity "Within a month propose to management
that some financial resources be made available to reward driver loyalty."
(Remove) the current activity from the program.
4. Reduce customer complaints from sixty complaints per thousand
deliveries to no more than fifty complaints.
Target Check: Receiving forty-eight complaints per thousand deliveries
(Balanced)
Monitoring Checkpoint 1 Month
Monitoring Checkpoint 3 Months

7. SPARK Benefits and Applications
Enhances Management Capabilities
SPARK provides managers with a systematic, well-defined process that focuses
on balanced planning and responsive execution.
Improves Organizational Flexibility
SPARK allows managers to quickly transition to new roles and challenges by
providing a universal yet comprehensive approach to management.
Scalable
SPARK can be used at any level of an organization whether it be the
management of groups, projects, or the entire organization.
Flexible Level of Detail
SPARK can be as detailed or general as the user prefers, since the value of the
framework lies in the management approach and process. SPARK works
equally well for those that love managing down to the last detail as well as
those who prefer a more general approach.
Improved Situational Awareness
SPARK significantly enhances situational awareness allowing one to better
understand the performance or lack thereof when analyzing an organization.
Universal
SPARK provides consistency and uniformity across different functions within
an organization, facilitating the spread of best practices.
Comprehensive Model of Management
SPARK provides a comprehensive overview of management which can be used
to better understand the role and application of related tools and models.
Managerial Efficiency
SPARK provides managers with the right questions in the right sequence,
enhancing situational awareness and effectiveness.
Built for Contingencies
SPARK provides tools and processes to identify and respond to problems and
opportunities as they arise during execution.
Applications
Group or Team Management
Supervisors and managers of small groups and teams can utilize SPARK to
improve performance and enhance group capabilities.
Project Management
SPARK is excellent for project management and is especially effective at
maintaining focus while minimizing scope creep.
Change Management
SPARK provides an effective means of managing change initiatives within an
organization, given the focus on dynamic execution.
Organizational Management
SPARK is a powerful tool for managing organizations at the highest levels,
providing transparency and clarity to employees, customers, and partners.
Training Programs
Training managers can use SPARK programs to oversee development and
continuous learning within their organizations.
Competitive Analysis
SPARK provides a lens through which to view and analyze competitive
organizations.
Troubleshooting
Managers can use the SPARK Framework to quickly identify potential reasons
for underperformance in troubled areas of an organization.
Crisis Management
SPARK allows managers to cut through the noise and focus on what’s
important, which is invaluable when it comes to crisis and uncertainty.
Alliance or Relationship Management
SPARK can be a powerful tool for managing alliances, joint ventures, or other
cooperative endeavors.
Entrepreneurship
A SPARK Program can be used to rein in the chaos of a startup.
Benefits

8. Key Ideas
Strategy is the selective conversion of ideas and questions of purpose, vision,
identity, evolution, competence, and desire into a set of formatted objectives.
Put simply, I believe strategy is the development of actionable objectives. These
objectives initiate the strategic planning process as laid out in the SPARK
Framework. The numerous strategic tools and frameworks available provide
excellent means for generating these ideas and questions. However, those same
tools rarely provided the mechanisms needed to execute.
As an example, if you were to use SWOT Analysis, what do you do with the
results of that analysis? How do you steer your organization according to the
findings? How about the ideas generated from a BCG Analysis? How do we
execute based on those findings? SPARK provides the bridge from strategic
ideation to strategic execution.
The Role of Strategy
Balanced Management is execution without scarcity or waste.
Scarcity (Problems)
Scarcity is present when performance falls short of objective or target values.
This represents a problem in that the committed resources are not sufficient
to execute the strategic plan.
Waste (Opportunities)
Waste is present when performance exceeds objective or target values. This
represents an opportunity in that some resources may be reallocated to other
areas of the organization where scarcity exists.
Effective Management = Balanced Management
The role of capabilities and the human resources that provide them is central
to the framework. SPARK requires a deliberate understanding of what human
resources can provide in terms of the capabilities required by various
activities. While strategic planning involves the identification of those human
resources that can provide a capability, it is the role of responsive tracking to
ensure those human resources are actually providing them.
People are Collections of Capabilities
Strategic Planning is not Exclusive
When reflecting on the books I have read and the research I have conducted
regarding strategy and the concept of competitive advantage, I have come to
understand competitive advantage as follows.
The greater the ability of an organization to retain and direct collective critical
thinking capabilities towards organizational goals and purpose, the greater
that organization’s competitive advantage. Everything else is temporary.
Critical Thinking is Competitive Advantage
Innovation is born of constraint; for without constraint, innovation has no
purpose.
I wanted to harness the power of constraints in the SPARK Framework. The
introduction of constraints forces one to think differently, providing ideas they
would not have otherwise had. The real or artificial constraints we can
introduce during the strategic planning process will spur the ideation of
potential courses of action that might not otherwise have been seen.
I wanted SPARK to provide a route to not only management, but innovation as
well.
Constraint and Innovation
Strategic planning is often defined in the most exclusive manners, somehow
insinuating that only the highest executives and consultants are capable are
conducting it. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, by limiting the
definition in this manner, managers often are not exposed to the bevy of
works and tools that will undoubtably make them more successful in their
current roles.
The SPARK Framework does not differentiate between the strategic planning
process for a child opening a lemonade stand or a CEO running a Fortune 500
firm. The scope may be different, but the process remains the same.
We should be managing people to three ends.
1. Build New Capabilities – We seek to build new capabilities in people so
that they may be deployed in furtherance of organizational objectives.
2. Enhance Existing Capabilities – We seek to enhance people’s current
capabilities so that they produce additional value.
3. Maintain Existing Capabilities – We seek to maintain people’s current
capabilities so that they provide the value as planned.
Managing People