Strategy development workshop designed to get your organization aligned, focused, and executing against key growth initiatives – including an adaptive mechanism for keeping your strategy relevant for the long term
Purpose of the Guided Innovation Growth Strategy Bootcamp
To unleash the knowledge, intuition and experience already available inside your company and focus your entire organization on finding and executing against your most important growth initiatives.
Benefits and results
The primary benefit of the strategy bootcamp is that it focuses company efforts on the highest leverage initiatives – the ones that create the most growth with the resources you have. Other results include:
- Improves execution by building alignment across the leadership and management team on key goals and how to accomplish them.
- Creates employee engagement and commitment with a compelling vision of the future, a roadmap for the organization, and clear understanding of each functions role in getting there.
- Eliminates confusion and ambiguity by providing a clear picture of the priorities and how each key initiative integrates with the overall strategy.
- Unlocks the information and experience you already have internally in order to create more robust strategies.
- Gives your team the support it needs to make continued improvements.
How the Guided Innovation Growth Strategy Bootcamp is structured
The program begins with a fast scan of the organization. Prior to the bootcamp we meet with key stakeholders and influencers to get a feeling for the issues and challenges. We also help you assemble the team that will develop the strategy as well as identify those that need to have input along the way. These steps are critical to helping build the guiding coalition that will sustain the execution effort.
The bootcamp itself is an intensive effort where the team gets away to focus solely on developing the growth strategy. People do their best work when they can focus so we recommend choosing an offsite location far enough away from home that participants can get away from their daily home and office responsibilities. Normally the bootcamp takes three days, but shorter formats are available for very small companies or start-ups.
The first step in the process is envisioning your future. After a brief overview of the process and training on the fundamentals of high-leverage, constraints-based planning,* your team will work in several hands on sessions to develop a consensus on your key goals and critical success factors and to construct a goal tree depicting your strategic objectives.
The second step is assessing your reality. In this part of the process your team creates a picture of reality and identifies the gaps between where you are and where you need to be. This includes an assessment of the market, competitive, economic, regulatory and societal factors you are facing.
With the gaps identified, we then help you to design your strategy and tactics. In a rigorous process designed to identify and resolve the conflicts that would otherwise plague you in execution, your team develops a robust set of strategies and tactics. Then they construct logical representation of the strategies that provides a picture of your goals and critical success factors together with the changes you need to execute in order to achieve them.
Even the best strategies can fail in implementation – that’s why the final step is thorough execution planning. In the weeks that follow the bootcamp, we work together with your leaders and their reports responsible for execution to help identify potential obstacles and to create and bulletproof your implementation plans. When we’re done, you’ll not only have a plan – you’ll have the commitment of those you are depending on to carry it out.
Of course your environment is dynamic – that’s why the final step isn’t the end of the process. It’s hard to hit a moving target so strategies need to be set, but they also need to evolve as your reality changes. After six months of execution, we come back in for another fast scan and mini-session to see what you’ve learned, and identify any changes necessary to address gaps you may have uncovered. Over time, this mechanism becomes part of your ongoing planning process so that your objectives and strategies stay relevant over the long term.
* Our process is adapted from H.W. Dettmer’s ground-breaking work on a theory of constraints based approach to planning – “Strategic Navigation”
Our Unique Approach
Much of the knowledge and intuition you need to create your strategy already exists inside your company – we just help unlock it. After all, the talent within your organization has both the knowledge and intuition built over years of experience. The problem is that their day jobs don’t allow them to look at the situation from an outside perspective. That’s where the strategy bootcamp comes in.
An important part of what we do is challenge assumptions. Frankly, your team may find this a little uncomfortable at first; after all, you’ve operated a successful business for years and certain approaches have just become ingrained. But we’re not company or industry insiders, so we can bring an unbiased, external perspective that helps smoke out the assumptions, policies, and interactions that are holding you back.
We’re always there for you and your team. You shouldn’t have to make an investment decision every time assistance is needed, nor should your people have to seek permission to spend money when they need help. In addition to scheduled sessions, unlimited support by phone and e-mail are always included in any project we do with same-day response in most cases.
Our unique promise
All of our work is backed by an unconditional performance promise – You’ll see gains that far outweigh your investment or we’ll work without any additional payment until you do.
Can you afford another plan year or big initiative without this level of strategic clarity?
You can call us directly at (262) 672-2700. Or if you prefer, just visit the contact us page and request a call.