"...strategic planning has impeded strategic thinking..."
- Henry Mintzberg (in the HBR, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning).
We're not saying there isn't a place for strategic planning and extrapolations, projections using hard data.
In the world of Agile teams today, "Strategy" is not clumsy and still has its place. In our era of data analytics, there is a place for soft data - insights, human judgement, wisdom and synthesis that is key to strategy-making.
1. Find a framework, a process, a methodology (DPI's Strategic Thinking process is one) that calls your leadership to spend that much needed quality time to having true strategic conversations and rethinking underlying assumptions, viz time for operational matters, fire-fighting that demand our attention. Even in established organisations, starting this culture from the top is necessary to bring about change that positions it for the future.
2. While we empower Agile teams down the line to be able to make decisions on their priorities and resource allocation, to remain nimble on the ground in implementation, we will all need new practices, habits, routines, mechanisms to align autonomy with clear overarching strategic direction, goals and objectives of the organisation - clarity, without leadership needing to be involved in small decisions.
If you need some ideas for both a process and framework for having those strategic conversations, AND also to align teams with clarity down the line, join us in-person for a time of learning and exchange with fellow sector leaders and professionals in January (18th) at the Social Service Institute. Register here! More details below.
