Why we love deep dives
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
When thinking about strategy, what’s under the surface is at least as important as what we can already see. That’s why Lucent use Deep Dives with our clients to explore their financial and impact data in as much detail as we can.
Most importantly, we ask that the relevant lead personnel are in the room, whether that’s the Chief Executive or the Accounts Administrator.
By the time the Finance Deep Dive starts, we already know what’s in the organisation’s accounts; we’ll have examined their financial history on the Charity Commission website, and often their management accounts and projections too. But being able to ask in-depth questions, hear from different perspectives and understand what motivated different choices is invaluable.
At the Impact Deep Dive, it’s sometimes the first time people from different teams have pulled together all their different data sources and tried to tell a story about it. We focus on who your organisation is reaching, who it isn’t, and crucially, what the data sources and evidence is that you’re drawing on. This will be the information we have to work with in developing a new strategy, so it really matters that everyone has a clear view of what it’s showing and where the gaps are.
Bringing it together
Drawing the Deep Dives together, we often present the findings to trustees and ask for their reflections. We could tell you ours, and often we do, but sometimes it’s the process of making sense of the detail together that leads to strategic breakthroughs.
It all starts with a conversation. Just contact the team to begin your journey.