Strategic Planning

The pandemic crisis has shifted perspectives on strategy. Strategic planning has often been viewed as an annual event but now, strategy is viewed as a continuous process that evolves and moves dynamically. The latest research and practice emphasise the importance of knowing how to transform your business with speed and agility in response to disruption and complexity. For this reason, the responsibility for strategy formulation and deployment has moved from the executive suite to the broader organisation. The pandemic has accelerated these trends and placed greater emphasis on all leaders understanding how to set strategic priorities and deliver on them consistently.  

This course focuses on the tools and techniques that enable you to transform the way you think about strategy and do it in your organisation. You will learn to analyse the current situation, determine relative strengths and weaknesses of the organisation or function, identify core competencies and align the plan to the needs of your external customers. You will be able to write the storyboard of your organisation’s evolution as it strives to achieve its vision and goals. You will see the difference between tactics, operational decisions and strategic imperatives and know what to do to deliver increased value to your customers.  

 

Course benefits and learning outcomes

Benefits for you:  

·         A disciplined method for developing and deploying strategy. 

·         Tools and techniques which you can use immediately. 

·         Clarity on how to identify what differentiates your organisation from others. 

·         The ability to tell influential stories. 

·         Understanding of how to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. 

·         Steps to building a cohesive culture. 

·         The ability to think laterally and push into the future rather than looking over your shoulder. 

Benefits for your organisation: 

·         Increased competence to develop and deploy strategic priorities and adapt quickly when needed.

·         Increased capability to develop and lead strategic initiatives that differentiate your organisation in the market.

·         Greater ability to become more agile in strategic decision-making.

 

Course structure and topics covered

Day One

Introduction to strategic planning 

·         History of planning methods. 

·         Development of strategic plans.

·         Frameworks for applying strategic planning. 

·         Pitfalls of planning processes. 

Defining the mission, statement of purpose and or charter 

·         Establishing the critical focus. 

·         Defining whom you serve.

·         Clarifying why you are in this game. 

Defining vision 

·         Defining the long-term proposition. 

·         Creating a compelling picture of the future.

·         Narrowing the focus to deliver clarity. 

Useful analytical tools 

·         Revealing key customer needs, wants and expectations. 

·         Clarifying core competencies both current and future. 

·         Defining your company’s competitive profile. 

Day Two

Achieving alignment and integration across the organisation 

Identifying the key challenges, goals, strategy and objectives across: 

·         Customer types 

·         Operations 

·         People and teams 

·         Sustainability 

Developing your action plan 

·         Who – is going to do it? 

·         What- are they going to do? 

·         Where- are they doing it? 

·         When – will they do it? 

·         How – will they do it? 

Developing your storyboard 

·         Six critical elements to build a coherent story.  

·         Tools and techniques for telling the strategic story that aligns people across the organisation.

 

Who should attend?

·         Leaders of people and systems who want to participate actively in or lead a strategic planning process for their functional area or organisation.

·         Leaders who know that understanding strategic planning is a core competency and experience in this discipline will enable them to move into more strategic roles with greater confidence