Services > Strategic Planning
What is most critical for organization success? Although strategy developing must be an on-going process in the organization, the strategic planning workshop is a time for intentional focus on eliciting input from management, surfacing issues, capturing ideas, and working toward shared understanding of the mission and vision of the organization. Outcomes include a list of priorities and goals to guide future discussions. In addition, the workshop is designed to familiarize participants with the process of strategic thinking and the work process can be replicated in-house to further learning and deeper strategic development.
Similar to other areas of service, the methodology utilized in this workshop focuses on participatory approaches. Although the consultant will draw upon experience and knowledge of the organization to ask questions and elicit responses, the consultant does not serve as a content expert, but focuses on utilizing the expertise of participants and structuring the responses of the participants in the interest of building shared group understanding of what is critical to the success of the organization.
Key Questions addressed by the workshop:
- Why do we exist?
- This question relates to the mission of the organization, which must explicitly state the basis on which the organization will do business (aspirations and goals), satisfy stakeholders and co-exist with environment.
- What are the values and beliefs of the organizations members?
- This question relates to the underlying beliefs and assumptions that guide organization thinking, and speaks to what the organization cares most about.
- What are our distinctive competencies?
- Distinctive competencies are those particular strengths that support why a service should not be provided elsewhere or provided at all, and undergird the long term success of the organization. Distinctive competencies are difficult to substitute, not easily found elsewhere, hard to imitate, and valuable in that they exploit opportunity. Competencies feed on each other to create a synergy that propels the organization and gives it strength of purpose.
- What are our organizational goals?
- Emerging goals are those that currently drive future strategy. Some of these goals arise from embedded practices and others from preferences and beliefs. Examining the current goal system requires participants to identify issues that are of key concern.
- This workshop is likely to lead to interest and inquiries in several related areas that will not be covered in-depth in this workshop due to time constraints. These areas include a closer examination of how specific goals add value to the organization and how that value is measured. Also, stakeholder analysis may be desirable to provide some insight into strategic options for the future, i.e., who influences strategy now, and how, and will they influence in the future.