A free tool to help you get moving with your strategy
"It all got off to such a flying start. But now I feel totally stuck." Sound familiar?
Here are some tips to help you move beyond some of the most common barriers organisations face in developing their strategy.
The best way to get going with your strategy is to get going
One of the questions we get asked most often about strategy is how to start.
Strategy can feel like trying to unpick a big knotty problem. And there is a fear that pulling too hard on the wrong end of the string might make the problem even knottier. If you have a fear of starting in the wrong place or at the wrong time, try thinking about strategy differently.
Strategy is not a problem to be solved or a beautiful document to be written. Good - and lasting - strategy is about creating a dialogue with the people you serve, your team, your Board, your funders and your partners.
Asking some simple questions will start the ball rolling. Try:
What gives our organisation edge?
What really matters around here?
Which people do we connect with that others can’t?
But, whatever your questions, rest assured there is rarely a bad place to start your strategy. At the end of the day the best way to get going is, well, to get going.
Why little and often helps unlock strategy
Keeping up momentum on strategy work can be a real challenge. In the rush of initial excitement, you can set off at an unsustainable pace, thinking you will solve strategy dilemmas that have been a problem for decades in a matter of weeks. The result is that you will end up feeling exhausted and losing momentum on the strategy work, with a resulting loss of credibility with your team. In the rush of activity, you will also likely lose a sense of perspective on the issues you are trying to solve.
So build yourself a reasonable timeline: in our experience a minimum of 6 months is typically required for a major strategy rethink. This will allow time for building conversations with those who use your services, your colleagues, your peers - and sufficient time-out to reflect and refine your thinking.
And, be kind to yourself in the process. Change will make you feel tired and overwhelmed as well as excited and energised. 30 minutes every morning to work on big strategic questions may feel much less daunting than blocking out a whole day of reflection. What works for you?
Moving around big strategy blocks
Brain ache, confusion and poor previous experiences of developing strategy leave some of us with a deep aversion to thinking about the long term.
There are plenty of good reasons to shelter behind: life is just too busy, delivery and project demands are too high, and the organisation is doing ok isn’t it?
And while this “anything but strategy” approach might be understandable, it will quickly leave your organisation adrift. Without a clear strategy, people are unclear how to prioritise work, leaving them feeling at best exhausted and at worst overwhelmed. Gaps emerge between an organisation’s aspirational vision and what it actually does, with the result that new recruits quickly become disillusioned and disengaged. And resources feel scattered or wasted, leaving everyone with a nagging sense that you could do better.
What do you do if you prefer anything but strategy?
One thing we regularly do with clients is to help them make the benefits of strategy real and tangible. Get the team together, identify and visualise the strategy in operation:
What will it mean for your inbox?
You walk down the street on your commute and notice something that your strategy has helped deliver - what is it?
What will change in your Board meetings?
What will others be saying about you, your team and its work a year into the new strategy?
How will it make you feel?
Gather these together and build a treasure chest of all that a good strategy will deliver. Come back to it and add more treasure throughout the process.
We can help you create the headspace required to think afresh about the future. Reach out to the team to begin your journey.