Engineering the Aha! Moment
The i in 3rd i Designs stands for insight. It also sounds like 'eye' and according to eastern cultures, the third eye possesses the ability to see wisdom. Organizations must cultivate their collective wisdom in order to establish an effective strategic direction. So where does wisdom come from and how can you cultivate it?Wisdom does not occur in a vacuum. It evolves out of knowledge (acquiring information) and experience (applying information when proactive - taking your lumps when reactive). The more knowledge and experience you can gather and organize, the greater the potential for breakthrough.
In addition to the quantity of knowledge and experience, it is also important to consider the quality. You want to draw upon the breadth of awareness as well as the depth of understanding. If you can accomplish both, profound insights into your current situation and optimal direction will naturally arise.
iC Strategic Planning Guides You to the Aha! and Beyond
The first step toward effective strategic planning is to involve as many people with knowledge and experience as you can. You need a critical mass of perspectives to insure that no consideration is lost.The second step is to invite those people to help you design a survey. This survey will be comprised of factors used to assess your current situation. The more people that comment on the design, the greater the chance that it will be comprehensive and clearly worded.
The third step is to have them take the survey and provide their insights for each factor. At this point you have the breadth of awareness, but not yet the depth of understanding.
The fourth step is to distill the insights provided for each factor into key takeaways or common themes. This exercise will sharpen your focus as to what the situation really is and prep you for the next step.
The fifth step is to identify the causes for each of the factors along with the causes for the causes (and so on). These causes will begin to merge into a few root causes. You can then invite the group to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed causes and provide suggestions for refinement.
Now that you have the requisite depth of understanding, profound insights into your strategic direction will naturally arise. But we are not finished. You may identify multiple promising directions. How do you choose the best one?
So the sixth step is to invite the group to compare each strategic direction against the situational assessment created in step 2. Using these 'what-if' scenarios, you will learn which strategic direction generates the maximum desired result. You may also learn ways to refine each strategy from participant insights.
But wait, there's more! During implementation you need a way to verify that you are on track and identify adjustments if you learn otherwise. So the final and recurring step involves conducting periodic progress checks against the situational assessment.