During the COVID-19 pandemic, strategic planning became a critical need for many organizations. New challenges emerged. Interesting opportunities presented themselves. For some organizations, new financial realities required urgent action.
Yet, at the same time, many organizations struggled tremendously to find ways to perform strategic planning effectively in all-remote formats. That included the frustrations of finding that magical meeting time that would work for everyone. Long Zoom meetings where attendees quickly lose interest. Planning sessions dominated by the same strong voices time and again.
To ensure we could help our respective client organizations perform strategic planning effectively in our “new reality,” Virtual, Inc. partnered with Peoplesworth, an organizational development consultancy, to re-imagine our approaches to strategic planning. What emerged from that collaboration are new methods for strategic facilitation that have led to remarkable client outcomes and will undoubtedly remain in our playbook for the long term.
2. Before We Begin…
• All attendees are in listen-only mode
• The webinar is being recorded
• Questions can be asked at any time using
the Slido interface and will be addressed at the
end of the webinar
• This recording and slides will be posted to the
Virtual Knowledge Hub and emailed to you
• Virtual, Inc. is an approved CAE provider – this
webinar is worth 1 CAE credit
5. New Transformation #1
Rethinking Participation:
The Infusion of Asynchronous Planning
• Kickoff
• Set up
• Mission
• Values
• Mission
• Values
• Vision
• Goals
• Vision
• Goals
• Objectives
• Metrics
• Objectives
• Metrics
TEAM TIME 1
SOLO TIME
TASK 1
TEAM TIME 2
SOLO TIME
TASK 2
TEAM TIME 3
SOLO TIME
TASK 3
TEAM TIME 4
7. New Transformation
#3
Strategic Planning Safe
Spaces: Benefits of working
anonymously
Psychological Safety: The belief that you won’t
be punished or humiliated for speaking up with
ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.
9. Following the
Research
• Diverse groups perform better and make
more accurate decisions than non-
diverse groups
• Companies with more gender and ethnic
diversity in top management teams have
better performance and better financial
returns
• Ethnically-diverse groups use more
information and make better
contributions to discussions than non-
diverse groups
• Diversity on a team helps eliminate
groupthink
Source: Powernoodle.com
14. #6: Simplicity: One Page Plan
www.peoplesworth.com and www.virtualinc.com
ORGANIZATION _________________________________________________________________________ PLAN PERIOD ________________________________
MISSION
Whom we serve and why
VISION
Who we aspire to be
VALUES
What we never compromise
DRIVE OUR MISSION: SUCCESS METRICS – Drive Our Mission
Obj 1
Obj 2
Obj 3
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: SUCCESS METRICS – Operational Excellence
Obj 1
Obj 2
Obj 3
ENGAGE AND ATTRACT MEMBERS: SUCCESS METRICS – Engage and Attract
Members
Obj 1
Obj 2
Obj 3
STRENGTHEN OUR CULTURE: SUCCESS METRICS – Strengthen Our Culture
Obj 1
Obj 2
Obj 3
FINANCIAL HEALTH: SUCCESS METRICS – Financial Health
Obj 1
Obj 2
Obj 3
15. New Transformation #7
Now MoreThan Ever: Strong Facilitation
• Kickoff
• Set up
• Mission
• Values
• Mission
• Values
• Vision
• Goals
• Vision
• Goals
• Objectives
• Metrics
• Objectives
• Metrics
TEAM TIME 1
SOLO TIME
TASK 1
TEAM TIME 2
SOLO TIME
TASK 2
TEAM TIME 3
SOLO TIME
TASK 3
TEAM TIME 4
[This slide will be displayed before the start of the webinar so that someone doesn't need to speak to it.]
This webinar is being recorded. The recording and slides will be posted to the Virtual Knowledge Hub and emailed to you.
All attendees are in listen-only mode throughout the webinar.
Questions can be asked at any time using the Zoom interface and will be addressed at the end of the webinar.
At the conclusion of the webinar please to take the survey to let us know how we did.
Virtual, Inc. is an approved CAE provider – this webinar is worth 1 CAE credit.
Now, let’s get begin today’s webinar.
Over the past year, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were forced to re-imagine our approaches to strategic planning.
What emerged from that collaboration are new methods for strategic facilitation that have led to remarkable client outcomes and will undoubtedly remain in our playbook for the long term. We’re excited to present those transformations to you.
Greg introduces himself
Jay introduces himself
GREG
Strategic planning was traditionally the domain of F2F meetings
Bringing people together a great way to hammer things out w/out distractions
The onset of the pandemic, of course, threw that notion onto its head
How do we do strategy when we can’t get together?”
Our solution – find technology that supports asynchronous collaboration
Game changer – Any time of day | over days | global participants
Jay RIFF on introverts
Enables introverts to contribute more fully
Means group doesn’t just do what the first extrovert to speak wants to do
Jay - Video meetings are here to stay
Save travel time, money; permit focus
How do we make them productive?
Refocus Team Time as Decision Time
Explain Facilitation Diamond
Come together at the star to DECIDE
All Day vs String of pearls
Jay - Patient Safety/Medical errors/Speaking up
Psychological safety – huge issue in HC
Gallup– 3 of 10 SA opinions don’t count
Can’t talk…can’t prevent failure
Not committed…can’t leverage talent
Define Smart anonymity (analytics)
More candid/No in group/Dilutes dominant voices
No HiPPO/no fear of reprisal/Meritocracy/Transp
Greg - Strategic plans stick when they are bottoms up vs. top down
Yet, tendency to limit planning to small groups of “top leaders.”
Practical drivers – not hard to facilitate planning among large groups.
Today’s technologies allow us to bring lots of people into a planning process
What we love doesn’t overwhelm the flow of work or distract from key decision making.
When you can successfully widen your field of participation, you get better results
(Flip to next slide)
Greg - We’ll talk more about technologies later
But one of platforms we like is Powernoodle
They put decision science at the center of their technology
Diverse groups perform better and make more accurate decisions
Companies with more gender and ethnic diversity in top management have better performance and financial returns
Ethnically-diverse groups use more information and make better contributions to discussions
Diversity on a team helps eliminate groupthink
GREG
Key enabler of our transformations - new breed of decision-making platforms and collaborative planning tools
Just having a tool doesn’t ensure your group will achieve successful planning outcomes.
We started by designing our planning processes, then used those requirements for selecting tools
not one tool or platform – we utilize a palate of different applications that best suit our needs.
Key characteristics great user experience, flexibility
strong reporting/analytics; simple setup & configuration
(Flip to next slide)
Greg
Powernoodle. Touted as a decision-making platform,
Brainstorming, idea labeling, ratings, rankings, voting and prioritization.
Our company made investments to ensure strong outcomes
Jay Story – Powernoodle Success
Jay - Key to Agility is Focus – How?
80/20 Rule -All Essentials, only essentials
Fast growth firms – 20% - Driving 60/120
Quarter for them is like a year for most organizations
Difference between driving 60/120
Same skills, more focus
What does this look like in practice?
Here’s how we focus T T T
Team: Large….small…stakeholder
Tasks negotiable, some essentials
Guiding ideas; current situation,
Goals, objectives, success metrics
What drives your focus? Template
Stephen Covey – 7 Habits
Jay - Best practice with Gazelles
One page strategic plan –
Easy to use, update, find
Smart plan/Baldridge criteria/ AM focus
Build intelligence into the template
Greater focus on outcomes drives faster process
Only have the necessary conversations
Greg story on Task Focus
Clients want silver bullet
Its not the big idea, it’s focus
Jay - French proverb/ need greater not less
Trusted 3rd party/Manager participates
Expert in virtual tools/F drives to outcomes
Focus on task; process (not distracted)
Encourage participation
Analyze, aggregate inputs/unbiased summaries
Global supply chain team case
Greg story –Virtual for member-based Orgs, Jay growth companies
Facilitation is not just about process
It’s about challenging, pushing and steering to outcomes
Seed question #1: Have you found that these new strategic planning techniques speed things up?
(Answer: Not necessarily; but we certainly find that it improves quality.)
Seed question #2: Once things get back to normal, isn’t it just more effective to do planning in person?
(Answer: We just don’t when “normal” will return, and what it looks like. Also, as we said, we believe many of these Habits improve planning processes and – more importantly – outcomes. So we believe they should be part of our planning toolbox, no matter what.
Seed question #3: You mentioned a few tools in this presentation? Can you repeat what those were? And which do you like best?
(Answer: Like for any project, we try to pick the tools that will work best for the job at hand. Over the past few years we’ve used a tool called Powernoodle quite extensively, and we really like it. They have a great support team, and the tool itself is very simple to use. But powerful, too. We also use an online visual space called Miro – great for interactive visualization work. And sometimes good old-fashioned surveys and polls serve a purpose.