Saturday, October 29, 2016

Strategic Process Preferred

There's a lot to know about strategic process, and doing it well takes practice.

How would you use strategic process to support inclusive process for a large number of stakeholders who have little relationship and less time working and thinking together?

First, I would propose a number of significant questions related to the topic at hand.

Next, I would send out the questions to all involved and have them look them over and add any that they think are missing.

After that, I would have the stakeholders rate the questions.

Then, I'd transparently share the rating and focus on the question chosen by most as number one.

To focus on the question, I'd begin with a collaborative Google doc where everyone gets to "voice" their interpretation, related ideas, and questions related to the question.

Then I would bring the team together and let everyone have 2-3 minutes to discuss their point of view.

After that I'd work with the group to idealize the end point, what's important about the result. We would create a result/vision statement--where we want to go.

Then we'd work together with sticky notes to chart the path from the meeting to the result. We would visually make the path on the wall. The team would talk about the path moving, coupling, and switching sticky notes until all were satisfied with the path.

The path would also be placed on a collaborative Google doc. As people traveled the path, they would be encouraged to add thoughts, ideas in writing.

Mid-stream the team would meet again to see how it is going. At the end, the team would evaluate the effort in terms of the final result. Then they would begin again.

This is a process that would be cumbersome to start, but effective and more streamlined as people got used to it. It's a process that Hattie supports well with his research.