The Drivers. The Drivers Model. Step 3. How do we plan to get there? Step 1. Where are we now? Step 4. How will we monitor progress?

Transcription

1 The Drivers Model Leadership Strategies has developed the Drivers Model, a method for taking a strategic approach to addressing a business situation. The model provides a simple communication tool for helping organizations construct a strategic plan. The model is fully scalable and applies to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations, a field office, an individual department, a work team, etc. BARRIERS CSFs The Drivers Monitor/Reassess VISION Where We Want To Be CURRENT Where We Are Today CSFs There are four major steps in our standard Drivers Model. What follows is a brief overview of the four steps. We have also attached a sample deliverable, a sample of the action plan format and a list of terminology definitions. Typical Activities Typical Activities Step 1. Where are we now? Step 2. Where do we want to be? Customer Surveys Focus Groups Internal Surveys/Interviews Review of Existing Plan Competitor Analysis Industry Trends Visioning Exercise Mission Statement Goal Development Objectives Development Guiding Principles Step 3. How do we plan to get there? Step 4. How will we monitor progress? Success Factor Analysis Barrier Analysis Strategy Development Prioritization Action Planning Monitoring Status Grading of Performance Adjustments to Strategies Refinement of Objectives 1 Leadership Strategies

2 Sample Plan VISION The Place Where Meeting Planners Meet MISSION To provide a forum for furthering the growth and professionalism of the meetings industry with a commitment to excellence and high ethical standards. We perform this mission through programs which promote education, community involvement and networking. GUIDING PRINCIPLES Education is our fundamental focus. We offer programs that improve the industry skills of our members. We believe it is our responsibility to use the resources of our industry to help improve the local community. We will implement policies that ensure that a suitable membership balance is maintained between planners and suppliers. GOALS Education Provide educational opportunities for our members, at various levels to enhance professionalism and stay abreast of industry trends. Community Outreach Provide funds and services to support the local community and provide a vehicle for organization recognition. Membership Maximize membership growth, retention and involvement. Organization Maintain sufficient organizational and financial resources to support programs. Professionalism Promote meeting management as a viable and worthwhile career with an emphasis on the professional certification of members. Networking Provide an atmosphere for the sharing of ideas with peers, planners and suppliers. Meeting Planners Organization OBJECTIVES Increase net membership to 650 Achieve avg attendance of 250/meeting Achieve 10% committee involvement CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS Dynamic presenters with timely, substantive topics to increase meeting attendance High awareness of association by meeting planners to attract new members BARRIERS Inadequate process for getting new members involved results in burnout of a few and low retention High membership turnover hinders consistent growth STRATEGIES Utilize assessment survey and industry referrals to select quality speakers and topics Revise new member registration process to ask desired committee Hold quarterly committee fairs after meetings Distribute new member list to committee heads Implement PR program to report activities to the local media ACTION PLANS Assemble new PR Committee (Exec, 2/1) Develop PR objectives (PR, 3/1) Develop Promotion program (PR, 3/15) Hold Board presentation (PR Chair, 4/15) Implement Promotion (PR, 5/1) Assess Promotion effectiveness (PR, 6/1) 2 Leadership Strategies

3 Step 1: Where are we now? (Situation Assessment) Understanding the current situation is vital to identifying the approaches needed to drive success. A full understanding of the current situation includes an analysis of several areas. The list below shows a sample list of assessment areas and one or two of the key questions to be answered for each. Customer Views Employee Views Industry Trends Strategic Planning Process Communications Plan Strategic Plan Document Competitor Info Current Situation Initiatives, Performance Monitoring Plan Customers What are their current and future needs? What are their perceptions of our performance? Employees What are their perceptions of our organization and how we can improve? How can we make them more effective in their roles? Industry trends What have been recent shifts in the industry? What shifts are anticipated for the future? Competitors How do we compare against our competitors? What are their recent and anticipated initiatives? Performance trends How are we performing by product, by market, by channel? Recent goals and initiatives How are we achieving against our plan? How successful have we been with recent initiatives? Organization profile What are our strengths and areas for improvement with regard to our organization structure, processes, technology, culture, etc.? Often, planning teams summarize the current situation information into a SWOT: a summary of the organizations key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. 3 Leadership Strategies

4 Step 2. Where do we want to be? (Strategic Direction) The heart of strategic direction setting is this second step. In our Drivers Model, the information from the situation assessment is combined with the understanding of future trends to develop the vision statement and the mission statement. Vision the organization s preferred picture of the future Mission the overall purpose of the organization (i.e., what the organization does, for whom it does it, and the benefit) The second page shows a sample segment of the strategic plan for a trade association of meeting planners. While the mission speaks to what they do, for whom, and the benefit, the vision describes what the future will look like if the organization achieves its mission. Vision The place where meeting planners meet Mission To provide a forum for furthering the growth and professionalism of the meetings industry. The strategic direction setting also includes the defining of goals and objectives. Goals the broad, longterm aims that define accomplishment of the mission Objectives specific, quantifiable, realistic targets that measure the accomplishment of a goal over a specified period of time. Each goal has a specific set of objectives, as shown below for the membership goal. Membership Goal Maximize membership growth, retention and involvement. Membership Objectives Increase membership from 500 to 650 Increase average meeting attendance to 250 Achieve 10% committee involvement The objectives establish the bar for the rest of the planning effort. All the strategies, action plans and investments should be focused on achieving one or more of the plan objectives. Therefore, it is critical that you select the right objectives for measuring our success. Establishing objectives is perhaps the toughest work in planning. The planning effort also includes establishing Guiding Principles general guidelines that set the foundation for how the organization will operate. Guiding principles are more than just a statement of values. Guiding principles also describe the actions the organization will take based on the values. 4 Leadership Strategies

5 Step 3 How do we plan to get there? (Implementation Planning) Once the objectives are established, the next step is to develop the road map for achieving the direction. For the road map to be viable, however, it must focus on three areas in particular. Critical Success Factors Dynamic presenters with timely, substantive topics to increase meeting attendance High awareness of association by meeting planners to attract new members Objectives Increase membership from 500 to 650 Increase average meeting attendance from 175 to 250 Achieve 10% committee involvement Strategies Utilize assessment survey and industry referrals to select quality speakers and topics Revise new member registration process to ask desired committee Hold quarterly committee fairs after meetings Distribute new member list to committee heads Implement PR program to report activities to the local media Barriers Inadequate process for getting new members involved results in burnout of a few and low retention High membership turnover hinders consistent growth The barriers to achieving the goals and objectives indicate those challenges which the organization must overcome to achieve its strategic direction. Barriers answer the following questions: Why haven t we achieved our goals already? What is standing in our way? While barriers address the challenges, the critical success factors identify those key conditions that must be met to achieve the goals. Critical success factors, typically no fewer than two and no more than seven per goal, serve as a guide for determining the strategies to be developed. The strategies that are undertaken (i.e., the road map) must drive achievement of the strategic direction by controlling the critical success factors and overcoming the barriers. 5 Leadership Strategies

6 An important activity at this stage is the prioritization of strategies to determine the items to focus on first. For each priority strategy, an action plan is developed which details steps, responsibilities, costs and timetables. The action plans can then be summarized to identify resource requirements and to develop a resource plan to meet those requirements. Sample Resource Requirements Prioritized Initiatives Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 1. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 2. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 3. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 4. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 5. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 6. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 7. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ 8. $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Totals $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Step 4 How will we monitor progress? (Monitoring) Many organizations benefit simply from going through the process of creating a strategy. At this point, everyone is clear on where we are going and how we plan to get there. However, the key value to strategy development comes in the implementation of the plan. Unfortunately, all too often, strategic plans become space fillers on an executive s bookshelf. To prevent this occurrence, we recommend a structured monitoring process every threetosix months. The structured review involves: Assessing progress on strategies Grading the current and projected performance against the objectives Identifying changes in the environment, new barriers, additional critical success factors Making adjustments to the objectives Reestablishing priorities for strategies, removing strategies and adding new strategies as needed While often a sobering process, this detailed level of monitoring provides a method for ensuring that the longterm strategy stays on the front burners, despite the pressures of the daytoday business operation. 6 Leadership Strategies

7 Sample Action Plan Strategy: S1. WE WILL DEVELOP A BESTINCLASS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS BY UTILIZING AN OUTSIDE CONSULTANT. Objective(s): Supported Owner: C1. Achieve product development cycle time (approved concept to FCS) of 12 months for revolutionary/platform/breakthrough products; 15 months for products we start one year from now. C2. Achieve product development cycle time variation of 10% for breakthrough products. Engineering Deliverables: Description of the recommended product development process Results from testing the recommendations in two pilot programs Plan for implementing the recommendations companywide Due Date: 12/31/XX Person Years: X Total Costs: $XXX,XXX Action Step Responsibility Due Cost PersonYrs 1. Identify potential consultants Marketing Q1 xxx yyy 2. Select consultant Marketing/ President 3. Finalize consultant contract Marketing/ President 4. Allocate people internally Marketing/ Engineering Q1 xxx yyy Q2 xxx yyy Q2 xxx yyy 5. Develop project plan Consultant Q2 xxx yyy 6. Benchmark against other organizations Team Q2 xxx yyy 7. Implement and evaluate first pilot program Team Q3 xxx yyy 8. Implement and evaluate second pilot program Team Q4 xxx yyy 9. Perform postmortem and go live with recommendations Team Q4 xxx yyy 7 Leadership Strategies

8 Strategic Plan Terms and Definitions Vision Mission Guiding Principles Goals Objectives Critical Success Factors Barriers Strategies Actions A picture of the preferred future ; a statement that describes how the future will look if the organization achieves its ultimate aims. "The vehicles of choice for a valuefocused world" A statement of the overall purpose of an organization. Describes what you do, for whom you do it and the benefit. "Our mission is to provide the consumer with high quality, price competitive automobiles to meet their personal, business and recreational needs. " General guidelines which set the foundation for how an organization will operate. "Responsiveness to consumer needs will be a first priority in our operations. Therefore we will..." Broad, longterm aims that define accomplishment of the mission. "Profitability Maximize net income by increasing revenues and controlling costs." Specific, quantifiable, realistic targets that measure the accomplishment of a goal over a specified period of time. "Increase revenues by 12% in Limit increases in overhead costs to 2% in Achieve a 5% reduction in management staff through increased automation." Major items or issues that must "go right" to achieve one or more objectives. "Body styles that are pleasing to the public. Effective dealer network. Successful office automation project." Existing or potential challenges that hinder the achievement of one or more objectives. "Inefficient northeast plant. Price competition from Japan manufacturers. Public perception of poor quality by USA." Broad activities required to achieve an objective, control a critical success factor, or overcome a barrier. "Establish partnership with Japanese manufacturer to revamp the northeast plant. Implement program to widely promote our success as a quality producer." Specific steps to be taken, by whom and by when, to implement a strategy. "Initiate discussions with PR firm on Quality Promotion BPC 2/1 Develop first draft of Promotion AKO 3/15 Review Promotion internally and update BPC 4/1 " 8 Leadership Strategies

9 Leadership Strategies The Facilitation Company Professional Facilitation Leadership Training Meeting Facilitation Facilitation Series Management Series Strategic Planning Systems Analysis The Effective Facilitator Facilitating IT Sessions Management to Leadership The Effective Consultant Issue Resolution Team Building Making Meetings Work! Effective Teams Work! The Effective Communicator Effective Presentation Skills Conference Facilitation Process Improvement Planning Series Strategic Planning Project Planning IT Series Project Leadership Managing User Relationships Leadership Strategies The Facilitation Company has rapidly become one of the national leaders in facilitation services. We provide companies with professional facilitators who facilitate executive teams and task forces in topics such as strategic planning, issue resolution, requirements analysis, process improvement and conference forums. Our facilitators are experts in the Principles of Facilitation tm, our facilitation methodology which includes the ten fundamental principles of facilitation and over 90 specific techniques for implementing the principles. The principles provide a comprehensive approach for facilitating any session, and ensure a consistent level of quality and effectiveness in our work. Along with being expert facilitators, we also train people in facilitation skills. We offer public classes in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Washington, DC, and onsite private classes for clients around the nation and the world. Through our facilitation series, people inside of organizations learn to use our facilitation methodology in their own meetings! 56 Perimeter Center East, #103 Atlanta, Georgia Leadership Strategies