Category Archives: change

How Do We Get There?

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strategic planning VancouverTranslating Vision and Strategy into Action

(This blog follows previous Strategic Planning newsletter topics.)

Sound familiar? “Our team had an incredible strategic planning retreat. Everyone got excited and aligned around a vision and the clear strategic results we all wanted to achieve. Now we’re back to “reality”, with poor follow-through, so chances are very little will actually change.”

Many strategic planning processes fall short at this stage. Thinking must shift from ‘where we want to be’ to ‘how we’re going to get there. When facilitating strategic planning, invite innovative and practical thinking about first steps to create a roadmap to results. I really like Grove’s GamePlan for this work.

  1. What measurable results are targeted?  Strategic vision goals are long-term goals that need to be further translated into desired end states and grounded into outcome targets.
  2. What blocks our way? Strategies, like the wheel of a car, must be able to move your business, organization or group from where you are today to the desired future destination. Once the future goals are clear, it is important to further analyze the specific barriers and gaps to successful achievement of the goals today, in order to formula effective strategic directions and actions.
  3. What critical factors matter most? No matter what barriers must be surmounted, certain key conditions must be met for success to occur. Limited organizational resources dictate that strategy focus on these high leverage areas while also addressing the barriers to success.
  4. Who will do what when? Strategy development involves the progressive fleshing out of broad directions into high impact objectives, initiative sand action plans with accountabilities.

Call to Action:

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, consider attending The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy, Vancouver area, June 19-21, 2013.

 

Where Do We Want To Be?

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Articulating A Bold Consensus Vision of the Desired Future

vision.path2As often attributed to Cat and Alice in Lewis Carroll’s novel, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

The visioning phase of strategic planning is about becoming crystal clear on your destination – the vivid images of what you’ll see when you get there. This creative, aspirational, and visionary stage is usually the one that your participants are looking forward to. In this phase, the focus of participants shifts from the past/present to the future, while building on the best of today.

Before you facilitate a visioning process, ensure that the group or organization’s mission and values are clear to participants. Why? If not,  the answers they give may include “why we exist” and the “values that guide our work”, rather than “where we want to be in our preferred future”.

Ground the vision with insights from external and internal environmental scan conversations, to leverage strengths and opportunities, side-step issues and address obstacles to success. The questions to ask include:

  • What is our audacious goal?  In your boldest vision of the future, what is the most compelling and motivating stretch goal that you aspire to achieve?
  • What will success look like? How will you know that you’ve achieved your vision; what are the specific results you’ll see when you get there?

Call to Action:

If you are an executive, manager, strategic planner, change agent, professional facilitator, or any leader seeking to facilitate productive, positive and aligning strategic planning meetings and change initiatives, register now for The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy, Vancouver area, June 19-21, 2013.

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.

Just starting out? These courses will enhance your facilitation confidence and empower you with solid foundational skills: The Confident Facilitator; The Skillful Facilitator.

Where Are We Now?

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creative tensionAnalyzing the Current Situation*

Creative tension is a key concept that informs the Insight phase of our model of Strategic Planning, and goes like this: ”Successful change is the result of seeking to resolve the creative tension that arises from simultaneously:

  1. Holding a clear-eyed and honest observation of current reality (where things are now )
  2. Remaining steadfastly committed to a clear and compelling future vision (where we want things to be), i.e., refusing to settle for less than what we want, despite reality.”

The implications for facilitating the process of Strategic Planning is that after the external scan, it is important to guide your group through another series of conversations to analyze, and dialogue about, the current internal situation. Ask: What is our understanding of where we are today? What is our influence and position relative to other players in this industry/sector? What is our current capacity and strengths on which future success can be built? What gaps exist between what is promised and what we deliver? This analysis of competencies, critical vulnerabilities, key potential growth areas and external threats is the first step in building creative tension. (A future blog will cover the second step, vision.)

* This blog follows previous Strategic Planning posts.  The concept of creative tension was popularized for learning organizations by MIT Professor Peter Senge (Fifth Discipline), the concept was first introduced by Robert Fritz (Path of Least Resistance).

Call to Action:

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, consider attending The Strategic Facilitator: Aligning Around Vision and Strategy in Metro Vancouver, BC, June 19-21, 2013.

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.

 

Making a Quantum Leap

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I love this image! Right now, this little fish jumping to a much bigger ‘pond’ feels like me, as I prepare to make a quantum leap. Here are some really neat tips reproduced from Stephen Mills Sept. 2009 blog,  “Is It Time for a Quantum Leap?”

Stop trying harder and look for something simple. A simple and elegant solution is a perfect way to make a quantum leap.

You aren’t building on previous steps. You are making a fundamental change. You are making a breakthrough leap. Back off the struggle and let something fresh come into view. 

Forget “common sense”. You can’t do what makes sense or what is usual. If you do what is common and usual you will get common and usual results.

The how of the quantum leap isn’t obvious or you would have done it already. Let go of your limiting beliefs. You need new boundaries, ones you can’t even imagine right now.

Break out of your routines. Find something new, something completely different. Your routines will keep you where you are at. What’s working now is what keeps you on your current plane. If you want to make a quantum leap you have to do something different, something improbable.

Quantum leaps are risky. There is a significant risk that it won’t work out, but who cares? You just make another leap until you find one that does work.

You are going to be uncomfortable. If you are comfortable, you didn’t take a quantum leap. No matter what happens you will learn a great deal. You may discover something wonderful and new about yourself.

Let the answer come to you. Get out of your own way and it will happen.

You can’t figure it all out ahead of time. You have to take a leap and make adjustments as you go. It’s going to be ambiguous and chaotic. It’s going to be wild, fun, and scary all at the same time. I’m a big believer in just doing and then figuring it out as you go.

Leap! 

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

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Just caught this fascinating talk by Dan Pink on the hidden truths behind personal motivation, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Except for straightforward tasks, it’s not the age-old motivators of money and power that drive us, but rather, our desire for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. In fact, research has shown time and again that using money as an incentive for activities dependent on our cognitive skills is a sure-fire way to reduce performance! The implications are powerful for all organizations, teams and groups seeking insights into how to boost innovation and performance.

Bonus: The graphic recording of Daniel Pink’s speech is truly dazzling and worth taking the time to watch!  (Thanks to Rosemary Cairns who first posted this to the IAF Group listserve so that I can now share it here.)

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“You Are Brilliant and the Earth Is Hiring” – Class of 2009 Commencement Address

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A message of urgency and hope for young people and all of the rest of us.

Extracts from: Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009

Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, founder of Wiser Earth and author of many books — most recently Blessed Unrest. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University of Portland, when he delivered this superb commencement address (read the full transcript)…..

“Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. ….. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system; you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. …..

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. ….

Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done. …..

No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. …..

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. …. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history. …..”

Read the full transcript)…..

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Stand By Me – Music for Change

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Wow, this is a truly uplifting rendition of the classic, “Stand by Me” (originally released in 1955 by The Staple Singers and released again in 1961 by the Drifters) from the Music for Change website. Music for Change is committed to developing cultural understanding and respect for cultural diversity through music and the arts in educational, community settings and through events and projects. Click on the link for the composite audio/video of different singers and musicians from different places around the world singing this great tune. Enjoy!

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Leadership in a Complex World

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Love this quote:

“In this day and age, when problems are increasingly complex and there are no simple answers, and no simple cause and effect – how stressful for leaders to pretend that they have the answer. A life-affirming leader is one who knows how to rely on and use the intelligence that exists everywhere in the community, the company, school, or organization. Such leaders act as stewards of other people’s creativity and intelligence. Today’s leader needs to be one who convenes people, who convenes diversity, who convenes all viewpoints in processes where our intelligence can come forth. These kinds of leaders do not give us the answers; rather they help gather us so that we can discover the answers together.”

– Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science

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