Citation
Sterling, J. (2013), "Association for Strategic Planning highlights", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 41 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-05-2013-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Association for Strategic Planning highlights
Article Type: Conference report From: Strategy & Leadership, Volume 41, Issue 5
Some of the highlights of the keynote presentation of the Association for Strategic Planning's National Conference in Atlanta were:
Nicholas Webb, President, Lassen Innovation – "Increasing the ROI on your strategic initiatives – innovation: the strategists' secret weapon"
Nicholas Webb's welcoming keynote address drew heavily on the ideas underpinning B. Joseph Pine and his co-authors' work on the "experience economy" [1] and their customer-journey model, Webb made the point that information and knowledge need to be brought to bear at each touch point an organization has with its customers. By doing so, "dynamic, layered experiences" can be created, adding value and deepening customer relationships.
Webb closed with a demonstration of experiences managed well versus experiences managed poorly. Using the Apple Store and Best Buy as foils for the demonstration, Webb made a compelling case for bringing an intimate understanding of customers' needs, expectations and "jobs to be done" to each significant touch point in the experience – that is, upon entry to the store, upon purchase, in product interaction and in customer service experiences.
William Eggers, Director, Deloitte Research – "Getting big things done in government: lessons from the past 50 years"
William Eggers' keynote address drew heavily on his book If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) co-authored with John O'Leary. The topic and the presentation were a strong fit for a segment of the ASP membership, namely, the many individuals and firms working on strategy for government agencies, branches of the military and related consultancies.
Eggers' and O'Leary's book is built on research into 75 major public initiatives, ranging from the highly successful to utter failures. They found five commonalities among successful projects:
It must start with a good idea.
The idea must have an implementable design (generally in the form of authorizing legislation).
The design must win approval "signaling a moment of democratic commitment" – something Eggers refers to as the "stargate."
There must be competent implementation.
The initiative must generate desired results.
That same research also identified "seven deadly traps" that major initiatives can fall into as they work their way through this generic process. Eggers shared a number of case studies illustrating the traps. For instance, President Ford's "Whip Inflation Now (WIN)" program cobbled together "a laundry list of cures" for inflation – none of which included tightening money supplies until inflation was under control. As a result, WIN failed at the idea phase.
An example of a design phase trap ("design-free design") shared by Eggers was California's deregulation of electricity. The design phase was so inclusive and responsive to input that the resulting deregulation scheme became hopelessly complex. That in turn created gaping loopholes in the system, allowing Enron to game the system, drive Northern California into rolling blackouts, and earn a significant profit in the process.
Keynote panel – "Emerging themes in strategy: from best practice to next practice"
The keynote panel was moderated by Lauret Howard, VP for Strategy, Business Development and Risk Management at NASCO, an independent claims processor for multiple Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. Her panel included a mix of non-profit, privately held and public company strategists: Toby Black (CHEP); Russ McGuire (Sprint-Nextel); Cal Kellogg (Blue Cross Blue Shield Arkansas); Paul Hamalian (Habitat for Humanity); and Tino Mantella (Technology Association of Georgia).
Each panelist began by discussing the major strategic drivers for their organizations. They then address four major topics: tools and analytical frameworks they find useful; approaches for gaining stakeholder agreement on strategy; approaches for improving strategic thinking within their organizations; and approaches to risk management.
Tools and analytical frameworks
Toby Black strongly advocated using macro level objectives – customer satisfaction metrics, sustainability metrics and financial metrics – to drive alignment globally. Russ McGuire noted that Sprint identified and persistently communicated three priorities to drive their turnaround.
Both CHEP and Sprint also invest in environmental scanning, though in different forms. CHEP invests directly in futures research to identify emerging trends to incorporate into the company's strategy. Sprint-Nextel engages in a weekly "outside-in" scanning process that drives stories of new developments in the industry – such as competitor actions and technology developments – out to regions and through the functional organization to drive cross-functional collaboration on change.
Gaining stakeholder agreement
Paul Hamalian shared a very recent example of Habitat's commitment to building stakeholder agreement across a global organization with strong grass-roots ties at the local/country level. The approach focused on "genuine appropriate engagement," which enabled the entire global organization to discuss strategy in meaningful ways, embrace universal values and goals, but tailor action to local conditions.
Tino Martinez drew on a past experience running the YMCA across metropolitan Chicago to share an approach to gaining stakeholder agreement. YMCA used a technique from the Jim Collin's playbook, a "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" to unify a diverse set of stakeholders around an initiative and to awaken their sense of urgency. That BHAG involved driving a $50 million capital campaign – in which most of the funds were raised by YMCAs in more affluent parts of the metro area and used to redevelop facilities in the inner city.
Improving strategic thinking
Cal Kellogg shared Blue Cross Blue Shield's approach for improving strategic thinking. He noted the need to change and to think strategically has become critical with the pending implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Kellogg noted that BCBS has done three things to drive change and strategic thinking: define a core set of critical success factors for the future in light of ACA, including a strategy map and balanced scorecard aligned with those success factors; align individual and organizational incentives with the scorecard; and focus communication and training on breaking cultural and behavioral patterns that resist change.
Toby Black concurred with Kellogg, noting that CHEP has translated its macro-level corporate objectives into specific incentives and disincentives at the regional and individual level. He also noted the importance of training, communication and "persistency" to drive a genuine understanding of strategic priorities and to encourage long term thinking "rather than our usual short term mindset."
Risk management
Finally, all the panelists shared ideas relative to ongoing risk management and risk mitigation. They noted the importance of being proactive in identifying risk. They agreed that being open and realistic is critical to managing risk ("under promise and over deliver if you can"). They noted the importance of cascading responsibility and ownership of strategic issues so that the need for course corrections can be identified early. And, they agreed that prioritization is critical to avoid over-extending the organization and its resources.
Peter DiGiammarino, CEO and Chairman, intelliVEN – "Manage to lead: seven truths to simply change the world"
The conference ended on a high note with a presentation by Peter DiGiammarino on "the seven truths to simply change the world." DiGiammarino began by noting that management and leadership go together to drive change. Further he cautioned that the "seven truths" are deceptively simple, but that each truth requires action. Finally, he noted that the "seven truths" are operable simultaneously at all times – and thus, must be acted upon concurrently. The "seven truths" and implied actions are:
1. Truth: An organization exists to solve a problem for people. Action: Get clarity regarding what the problem is and for whom you are solving it as well as how you intend to solve it. DiGiammarino noted that getting alignment between what/who/how dimensions can be very difficult and he shared some worksheets and tools to help audience members successfully define all three dimensions.
2. Truth: It takes a team. Action: Get aligned, decide what kind of leader to be and gather followers. DiGiammarino shared examples of a variety of leadership models, each of which has appropriate applications in a given set of circumstances, depending on the mission of the organization, as well as the talent, timing, orientation of the leader. Ultimately, leaders decide what to do differently next.
3. Truth: Context matters. Action: Plan change by deciding what must change, why it must change, and how it should change. DiGiammarino made the point that organizations tend to change in waves – slowly at first in response to "turbulence," then quickly making great progress, and then plateauing. At most times no change is the right approach for an organization, but occasionally turbulence drives the need for incremental or dramatic change to reach a new plateau.
4. Truth: It pays to pay attention. Action: Take action and review what happens. This do-and-review two-step applies to every function and every strategy – action requires review and that review leads to new action.
5. Truth: No leader succeeds alone. Action: Get help from outside experts and coaches, as well as from peers.
6. Truth: Growth is good. Action: Grow in ways that increase value, impact and opportunity. DiGiammarino highlighted a framework for thinking about organizational structure in the context of growth – both in size and complexity. He recommends operating according to the principle that an organization should only add as much structure as necessary to remain effective.
7. Truth: It's OK to do what you like and are good at. Action: Focus – act intentionally and persist variously. DiGiammarino's main point relative to this last truth are to align what you like, what you are good at, what you want, and what you value. Further, good leaders help their people align the four.
Part 2 of this conference report will cover highlights of the break-out sessions, spot light the winner of the Richard Goodman Award for Excellence in Strategic Planning, report on the findings of ASP's research into strategic planning in the non-profit sector, and summarize the balance of the conference proceedings.
Notes
1. Pine, B.J., Korn, K. and Gilmore, J., The Experience Economy and Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier (Berrett-Koehler, 2011).
John Sterling
Partner with Sterling Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm located in the Chicago area that advises on strategic planning and strategy implementation. Part 2 of his coverage of the ASP conference will appear in a future issue of Strategy & Leadership.