In the previous posts we have developed the seven critical factors, weighted them and scored them and identified the strategic gaps.
How do we close those gaps and arrive at the Strategic Action Plan?
What else can be done?
Starting with the largest weighted gap we go through a similar synthesis process to the Critical Factors. Each delegate privately writes down the no more than seven projects, activities or policies required to close the gap. We then combine these collaboratively to give no more than seven projects. We weight these and score them privately and then collaboratively and assign high level timelines and responsibility for execution.
We then tackle the next largest gap and so on. If some of the weighted gaps are small we may ignore them in the interests of team time efficiency.
As we process more gaps we may find duplication of projects, we still capture each of these to build the consolidated action weight.
These results pull through to a consolidated worksheet and once the gap analysis is complete we sort the consolidated worksheet to rank the projects in terms of relative contribution to closing the overall gap. We then clump together those that are similar and create a set of major programs that will deliver the required strategic outcome – this is the StratAction© Plan which is then moved into program management.
For a small or moderate size organization, one Strategic SnapShot© may complete the process. With somewhat larger organizations a few SnapShots© and gap analyses may be undertaken all feeding through to one consolidated StratAction© Plan. This process works effectively for organizations as small as one person through to large organizations comprising thousands of personnel.
Strategic Map
Depending on the size of the organization we may conduct multiple SnapShots© and Gap Analyses leading to a more comprehensive StratAction© plan. We have a list of nine major components that make up the entire strategic environment starting with Core Strategic Objectives, looking at Market and Product Factors and ending with Strategic Governance Capability. There are a large number of sub-factors that we have identified for possible analysis and some of these may be duplicated across multiple departments and multiple customer segments. This full scale only applies to large organizations.
The level of detail investigated is agreed and budgeted with the CEO.
Strategic Key Performance Indicators (StratKPI©)
Based on the Critical Factors we can develop up to seven key measurements of performance per factor for each operational department and weight these in terms of delivering the required corporate strategic outcome. We then select approximately seven KPI’s with the greatest weight across all seven of the corporate strategic factors to be used as the measures of performance of that department head and team. In doing this we ask the question “tell me how you want me to perform (the Critical Factors) and I will tell you how to measure me (the KPI’s)” – this is the flipside of “tell me how you will measure me and I will tell you how I will perform.”
Strategic Decision Making (StratDecision©)
Based on the seven corporate critical factors, or the critical factors for a particular department we weight and score a set of measures in order to develop a weighted measure of compliance with a particular set of decision criteria to be evaluated leading to a structured strategic approach to decision making – the item with the highest weighted score is the correct choice.
Strategic Matrix (StratMatrix©)
Frequently two SnapShots© are related to one another and can be plotted on a seven by seven matrix. The weights multiply out highlighting hotspots for action.
Conclusion
The end result of these various tools and processes is a comprehensive strategic management environment that is highly result orientated and which sharply focuses attention on those actions that will make the greatest impact on the performance, profitability and growth of the organization. In other words, helping the organization to thrive!
Visit my website for more information
If you are not in the market for this service right now or are not the appropriate decision maker in your organization please share with someone who is appropriate. Finder’s fee for referrals that result in revenue. Thank you so much.
Warm regards
Dr James A Robertson
The Strategy Doctor