Friday, September 30, 2011

Strategic Planning Tool - The Strategy Map

Strategy mapping offers an approach to identifying a vision and strategy that is well-suited to agencies undergoing-or planning on-real change as the result of either internal or external influence (e.g. market change, manufacturing change, competitive change). This process strengthens business resilience by helping organizations dynamically chart the appropriate course by means of unstable and potentially dangerous waters.

Strategy mapping employs a 2-dimensional virtual "strategy map" where the horizontal axis symbolizes time as well as the vertical axis signifies the degree of change intended to impact the enterprise and also its enterprise environment over a period of time (delta of change).

The strategy map is commonly designed via the following steps, all of which are generally individualized to suit a given client's requirements:

1. First, introduce co-workers to the method of strategy mapping by asking them to plot a variety of trajectories of corporations they know. Help them to have an understanding of the various rates of change and distinct trajectories which have occurred inside the past to move specific organizations and industries from one state to another. Help men and women begin to appreciate the range of trajectories that are relevant to their organization.

2. Brainstorm important events inside the future of your business. These are the tipping points that might be transformative to the market and organization. Examples may well be when a essential mass of clients adopts a brand new technology or combination of technologies, when new competitors capture a specific market share, or when new laws and regulations re-shape the enterprise landscape.

3. Make a set of potential finish points, i.e. alternative visions of the organization's future. This exercise, which ordinarily entails small group brainstorming, results in alternative descriptions of the future company environment and also the organization's location within that environment. Using simulated hindsight, groups describe diverse trajectories for the small business, using a story line that captures important points along the way. These stories and headlines describe potentially pivotal moments where key trends impact the organization landscape plus the organization (e.g. new technology, competition, regulation, new enterprise models).

4. Conduct exercises to test people's assumptions about the influence of these key trends. Teams create secondary and non-obvious trajectories and optional end states. People today take into consideration what techniques would best enable the organization to withstand and succeed in many different environments.

5. Create a set of operating assumptions and potential trajectories for the company. Refine the headlines and stories. Create two to 3 strategy curves that represent the "probable futures."

6. According to those assumptions and likely futures, make selections about the company's vision and tips on how to carry out that vision. Develop a set of action specifics to accomplish it. Choose what else must be done to assure the organization's resiliency in the face of the forthcoming change.

By using the technique of simulated hindsight, strategy mapping gives participants a meaningful strategy to engage in conversations about the future. It enables them to take into consideration the future just as if it was an exercise in writing history. By projecting themselves into the future and working backward, employees can have the chance to believe by means of the consequences of distinct trends and factors, single out those which are most significant, and make decisions to strengthen the company.

As of now, there are a few which have made use of strategy mapping with Boards of Directors, in the executive level, with individual organization units, and to achieve cross-functional alignment. This approach enables people in the organization to attempt distinct futures, talk about and observe the positive aspects and drawbacks for each, and then create strategies to manage unanticipated changes. Consequently, these organizations come away using a deeper understanding of its future and an achievable, relevant vision and also a set of action steps to attain that vision.


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LRI's strategic planning consultants can help your organization create a strategy map. You can send your inquiry via e-mail to info@leadingresources.com or visit directly http://www.leadingresources.com or dial (916) 325-1190. You'll obtain a prompt, private reply from one of our consultants.


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