Client Question: “I have been asked to put together an organizational strategy for my group. Where do I start?”
This may feel like an overwhelming assignment if you haven’t done it before. Your organization may have a specific format that they use, so ask some of your peers for examples.
Here are some of the main things that I have seen included in strategies:
- Executive Summary – Explains the reason that the new strategy is needed and what you are looking for from the audience that you
- Assumptions/Guiding Principles – Did you have any guiding principles or assumptions that you used when creating the strategy
- Current state – explain the current state of your organization
- Gaps – what are the gaps that need to be addressed to get you to future state
- Future State – what you envision it looking like once the changes are made
- Approach to transition – will it be done in phases or all at once?
- Timing to move from current state to future state – what is the timeline to get you from where you are now to the future state
- Skill sets – are there current state capabilities that your team has and future state capabilities that you would like them to have?
- Work reviews – are there changes that you would like to make in terms of the work they are doing now vs what they should be doing in the future state?
- Issues/ Risks – are there issues/risks with your current state that need to be addressed?
- Benefits – identify the benefits of moving to the future state (reduce headcount, allows more customer service focus, higher productivity)
- Financial implications – these could be short term costs to get to long term cost reductions (headcount, training needs, temporary contract help)
- Recommendations – do you have a recommended choice that you are wanting a decision on from your management team? (you may prefer one approach over another but need the team to align with you on it)
This is a high level view of what you could include. All of these items may not apply so review them to see if they are needed. A good strategy needs input from key stakeholders to ensure that you have all the pieces included. Do you have enough input to make decisions on what changes need to be made? Are people aligned with your thinking as you talk to them? It is good to show that you already have support from some key stakeholders.
Putting a strategy together takes some time. Be prepared that this document will be iterative as you have these conversations. That is okay. It takes some time to reflect and ensure that you are making the right decisions, so don’t rush it. You want to demonstrate that you are being strategic in the process that you went through and that you will have a successful transition to the future state.
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