Do not expect a different outcome from the same old methods.
By Armin Forstner, Managing Partner, Serrano 99 Management Consulting
We, as leaders, all know that planning a path for the future of our organisation is an important task. Like many of you, I have been through a great number of strategic planning sessions in various functions. Most of the time a new strategy covers small evolutionary changes. From time to time a more seismic shifts in strategy is needed. Last time I was part of a seismic shift was during/after the financial crisis when I was one of the leaders in a financial media business developing a strategy for the ‘new normal’ back then. Like yourself, we used a variety of different strategy methodologies like Blue Ocean, Five Factors, Balanced Scorecard, SWOT, … the list is long. These methods delivered more or less ‘okay’ results.
Looking back, and thinking about these strategy sessions and different methodologies, I always felt that there was something missing. We tended to focus on products, functions processes, financial performance to create a strategy. We never discussed an element that classic business education and business advisors failed to address: strategies are designed by (a group of) individuals. This means that, despite their technical skills, ranging from financial modelling to strategic analytic tools, these individuals, and in 2009 this included me, lack self-awareness and capacities for structured human-centred and strength-based leadership to guide outstanding strategic planning sessions, that deliver lasing organisational success and a purpose-driven, engaged workforce.
2021 is bringing us on a path which we hope will snap us out of the in/out cycle of lockdowns, with vaccinations on their way. What continues to be a major driver of uncertainty will be the economic fall-out of the past 9 months and the continuation of the pandemic into the first half of this year. We will see whether or social and new buying habits, will remain changed for ever. All of us will need to rethink, respond and reshape our organisations to adopt to this so-called New Normal.
New strategy …. same old approach?
When clients ask my Serrano 99 colleagues and myself to help facilitate their strategy sessions, they normally turn to us when their ‘usual’ methods did not achieve the desired outcomes. Of course, you cannot expect to achieve a different outcome or a new way of thinking by using the same old approach that led to this point in the first place. A new way of thinking from a new kind of leader is needed.
It is like you want to open a closed door and you push and pull at the doorhandle, but it won’t open. You come back and you now try with even more power to push and pull at the door but it still won’t open. It will never open through a push or pull method, because it is a sliding door.
The same is true when it comes to resetting your strategy; people like to fall back on what is tried and tested, but the future is constantly changing, and good leadership is prepared for what is new and exciting.
New strategy …. new approach!
A new strategy, in simple terms, means, taking different actions and decisions to achieve the same or a new goal. So, if we expect from the same individuals to take different actions and decisions, we will need to work, building these capacities, with those individuals first:
1. Strategy Team and Leader Capacity Building
- Build individual self-awareness
- Create open mindedness and curiosity
- Introduce positive collaboration practises
With individuals now being aligned in their language and how they can positively interact with each other we now move into the strategy facilitation phase, using human-centred and strength-based methods:
2. Positive Strategic Facilitation
- Use positive strategic analytic tools
- Understand strengths and opportunities
- Allow cognitive diverse inputs into the strategy process
Finalizing a new strategy is an exciting time for any organisation. Once the road map is clear, the focus will shift to implementation:
3. Transformation
- Take positive action
- Implement strategic plan
- Encourage, monitor and help during the transition
Shifting towards a new strategy is hardly ever easy. It means letting go of the past and overcoming our longing for it. Building an individual’s capacities prior to asking them to create a new path for the organisation will help ease the transformation and create a better, lasting outcome overall.
In our strategy facilitation, we bring all elements from Positive Leadership Training, our own SCOC Strategic planning tools combined with Design Thinking, Appreciative Inquiry and Positive Organisational Development programmes together.
If you require help with your New Normal Strategy, please do connect with us at Serrano 99, where we are pleased to announce that we have been named winner Most Outstanding Strategic Facilitation Consultancy 2021 – UK at the Global Excellence Awards.
