Monthly Archives: May 2012

What’s Changing?

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Once your group, organization or business is clear on its mission , who they serve and the core values that guide the way we do things around here, the next set of process questions in strategic planning relate to scanning the present and anticipated future operating context.

What is changing in our external context?

The examination of the external environment is essential to understanding the complexities, uncertainties and possibilities for change. Your business or organization does not exist in a vacuum. Everyone involved in setting new strategic directions needs to develop a big picture view of significant factors and trends with the potential likely to influence your future success. Typical scan categories include the political environment, economic climate, social, technology along with sector/industry/discipline-specific arenas.

What is changing for our customers/stakeholders?

(Drucker’s question #3 is: What does the customer value?) Your future goals must anticipate and respond to the changing needs and realities of your key customers and stakeholders. Your strategic plan must not only ensure your organization delivers on their current expectations of value; it must anticipate or create what their future needs are likely to be. Insights are gained through research, focus groups or other discovery and learning conversations.

What are strategic innovation possibilities?

Whether for-profit or social-non-profit, your organization’s strategic plan must consider emerging best practices, leading-edge innovations, key drivers, core competencies and changing rules for success.

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose.

If you are an executive, manager, strategic planner, change agent, or any leader seeking to facilitate productive, positive and aligning strategic planning meetings and change initiatives, sign up for The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy.

You will understand how to guide the entire process of strategic planning, from clarifying why you exist as a group or organization, to assessing your current situation, describing your desired future state, establishing the strategies that will propel you forward, and determining how you’ll know if you’ve succeeded.

Why Are You Meeting?

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“Clarity of meeting purpose is a sweet weapon against confusion.” – Toke Palludan Moeller.”

Groups meet not only to get work done, but also to build relationships and the social capital required for successful collaboration after the meeting. However briefly, this human need for interaction with others should always be factored into your meeting.

Remember though, that the key to focused and productive meetings is the reason you are meeting in the first place. Be clear on your meeting purpose from the start. Generally, most meetings fall under three broad types of purposes:

1. To inform and update participants. (Typical Length: .5 to 1.5 hours).

2. To obtain input and/or generate consensus around issues, problems and plans. (Typical Length: 2-3+ hours; sometimes over several weeks/months).

3. To develop and implement strategy and change. (Typical Length: 1-3 days annually; 1-3 hours quarterly).

As you plan your meeting, ask yourself this question: “Why are we meeting and what do we hope will be different as a result?” Having this clarity will greatly assist you in planning your agenda and facilitation processes.

Start your meeting off with a clear explanation of that purpose to participants, for example: “When you walk out, you’ll be current on the status of our top priority projects; your ideas are essential to the resolution of this issue; and, finally, we need to align on new future directions and the plans to achieve them.” If you do need to meet, then being clear on your meeting purpose is the first step in achieving focused and productive meetings.

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose. Read the path to Effective Facilitation to get started now.

Mission and Values

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Strategic Planning often begins with hindsight looking to the past to discover what your organization, business or group historically set out to achieve in its noblest purpose. The foundation of who you are today rests on the journey you have taken so far. Take time to harvest stories that reveal the very best of who you are – therein lies your purpose, core mission and guiding values.

In this first phase of Strategic Planning, several sub-questions are addressed, two of which management guru Peter Drucker has flagged as the most important questions to ask your organization:

* What is our mission? (Drucker’s question #1 – What is our Mission?) At the most fundamental level, why does this organization, business or group exist at all? What is your ‘raison d’être’ describing your noble purpose and your idealistic motivations for doing what you do? As Jim Collins, noted author of Good to Great, comments – your core mission should endure for decades, even centuries, while almost everything else will likely evolve and change over time.

* Who do we serve? (Drucker’s question #2 is: Who is our Customer?) Unless there is clarity at all the levels of the organization around this question, then much confusion, unfocused and even conflicting effort may result. Whether you serve clients, members, customers, patients, or the public – ultimately these key stakeholders justify your existence. Great organizations are relentless in their pursuit of serving their customers over time.

* What do we do? What is our unique work, role or function? What products and services do we provide in carrying out our mission and serving our key stakeholders?

* What guides our work? The core values and guiding principles of your business, organization or group are what distinguish you from everyone else. Like the DNA in a living organism, core values create your unique identity guiding everyone from the Board level to the front line to decide, behave and respond according to a coherent, recognizable set of principles.

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose.

If you are an executive, manager, strategic planner, change agent, or any leader seeking to facilitate productive, positive and aligning strategic planning meetings and change initiatives, sign up for The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy.

You will understand how to guide the entire process of strategic planning, from clarifying why you exist as a group or organization, to assessing your current situation, describing your desired future state, establishing the strategies that will propel you forward, and determining how you’ll know if you’ve succeeded.

Do We Really Need to Meet?

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If meetings have a bad name, it is often because there is not a good reason for scheduling one. As a meeting convenor, your first task is to explore if the desired outcomes could be achieved through a more effective avenue. For information-sharing meetings, here are nine effective meeting tips you might want to consider:

  1. Share written information and documents through email and focus the meetings to questions and reactions, rather than presentation.
  2. Create an on-line group engagement thoughtstream, blog or open-ended survey, inviting anyone to contribute their ideas before the meeting.
  3. Create a recorded or video-taped message to ensure everyone hears the same message.
  4. Determine who really needs to attend. Are you inviting people out of courtesy rather than necessity? Can agenda items be bundled in order that some participants can attend the part of the meeting that is most relevant to them?
  5. Challenge whether that ‘routinely scheduled meeting’ is really adding value. Just because you’ve always met as a team on Wednesday mornings, doesn’t mean the meeting is always required. If there is no pressing need to meet; then pass that week.
  6. Can your status meetings, say in a production shop, be held standing up? You may find as others have that the length of meetings is drastically reduced because most folks don’t like to have to stand for too long. Standing meetings motivate participants to get to the point faster.
  7. Ban all cells, laptops and other distracting devices during the active meeting to ensure participants are focused.
  8. Give participants a couple of minutes before you open up a status go-round, to write down their points. Then invite laser-like, headline contributions only. Details can be provided through Q&A.
  9. Set the timer for the scheduled time, appoint a Timekeeper, and ask for regular cues on time remaining. Start and end the meeting on time.

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose. Read about the path to Effective Facilitation to get started now.

Facilitating Strategic Planning

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A fundamental competency of leaders is to guide the direction-setting process for their business, organization or group, typically through strategic planning. A good strategic plan provides clarity, focus, consensus and alignment at all levels to priority goals and results.

Key Process Questions

In this blog series, we will cover key process questions around which the process of strategic planning is facilitated:

  • Who are we?
  • What do we do?
  • Where are we now?
  • Where do we want to be?
  • How will we get there?

Along the way, as we unpack these high level questions, we will emphasize when to answer Peter Drucker’s five most important questions to ask your organization:

  1. What is our Mission?
  2. Who is our Customer?
  3. What does the Customer Value?
  4. What are our Results?
  5. What is Our Plan?

Call to Action:

The Masterful Facilitation Institute exists to build your confidence and skills as an effective facilitator so you can design and facilitate great meetings – every time, for any purpose.
If you are an executive, manager, strategic planner, change agent, or any leader seeking to facilitate productive, positive and aligning strategic planning meetings and change initiatives, sign up for The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy.

You will understand how to guide the entire process of strategic planning, from clarifying hy you exist as a group or organization, to assessing your current situation, describing your desired future state, establishing the strategies that will propel you forward, and determining how you’ll know if you’ve succeeded.