We had a great time facilitating a Strategic Thinking Training workshop for 13 non-government organizations including program sponsor, Consuelo Foundation and three local government representatives on October 24 and 25, 2017. ExeQserve is a Training Consulting company based in the Philippines. Consuelo Foundation is an Non-profit Organization based in Hawaii that helps Filipinos by advocating and supporting movements to protect and treat children from abuse. The NGOs are partners in Consuelo Foundation’s programs in the country.
The program gave the participants an opportunity to appreciate and have an application level knowledge of how to think strategically as they pursue the objectives of their respective organizations. The topics went as followed:
Overview of Strategic Thinking
The participants learned the importance of strategic thinking through a learning game where they have to change strategies as the client expectations change. They were also introduced to the five elements of strategic thinking as proposed by Dr Jean Liedtka which are intent-focus, systems perspective, thinking in time, intelligent opportunism, and being hypothesis-driven. Edwin C. Ebreo, the resource speaker and facilitator went deep on each element by sharing and simulating tools to apply in strategy development.
Embracing the Strategic Thinker’s Mental Model.
Mr. Ebreo proposed that one would not event begin to do strategic thinking if one does not possess the needed mindset. Topics like locus of control, paradigm shifting from powerless to empowered thinking was presented. The module ended with the participants identifying the kind powerless thinking that hindered them and replaced them with empowered mindset. The session helped the participants appreciate what they need to be so they can become effective strategic thinkers.
Systems Perspective
We started this session by introducing the of idea systems thinking and how deductive and inductive reasoning is critical in systems thinking. The participants had fun playing learning games and at the same time realize the risk of not being careful about their understanding of issues and factors affecting them. We introduced the use of causal loops in understanding issues and applying stake holder analysis as tools for understanding current situation, an important first step to strategy development.
Intent-Focus
In this session, we highlight how intent focus is the opposite is the opposite of task or process focus. In this session, the participants learned how planning is important but the plan itself is not important. This means that while it is important to develop a strategy, they should learn to adjust or change their strategy altogether if that is what’s necessary for the achievement of the goal.
Thinking in Time
The learners learned the importance of looking at data, reading trends and learning from it. We talked about what data are being collected and what those data are telling us.
Hypothesis Driven
Each strategy is a hypothesis and each implementation is an experiment where one gets to conclude in the end if the hypothesis is correct. We spent the most time on this session. The participants were introduced to some action planning tools. We also introduced PDCA as a way of structuring plans and execution, RASCI as role clarification tool, ADKAR as change management tool and some tips on Monitoring and Evaluation.
There was a lot of appreciation from the participants about the program and expressed looking forward to using and sharing it in their own organization. If you wish to have Strategic Thinking Training for the managers and supervisors in your organization, check out this LINK. or attend our public seminar on April 3-4, 2018
