The Whole Thing reserves the right to alter dates, content, venue and the trainer for each course with reasonable notice.

CERTIFICATION

This course is CPD Certified with each day equivalent to 6.5 hours of CPD

Strategic Thinking and Planning Practice for Effective Direction, Purpose and Sustainable High Performance

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Business leaders, managers at all levels and top talent in the organization that want to improve their strategic thinking and planning competency so that they can get the very best results from their leadership, teams and colleagues in pursuit of the organization’s goals.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Planning is one of the most important management and time management techniques. Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. This effort demands strategic thinking that is focused on value creation as well as purpose for sustainable high performance. If you plan effectively then you can significantly reduce the time and effort required to achieve your goal. A plan is like a roadmap and so if formulated properly you can always see how much you have progressed towards your goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next. Effective strategic planning is an ongoing process and the foundation of good personal and business practice. Mastery of the strategic planning process is vital for effective leader and leadership and driving personal and business growth.

Strategic Thinking and Planning is a proven approach to planning that covers all fundamentals of the strategic planning process with particular emphasis on strategic thinking perspective and strategic planning implementation as our experience tells us that it is in these areas where most planning fails. The program takes a holistic view of planning at the function (department) level and introduces the delegate to the knowledge, skills and attitude required to confidently deliver strategic planning that drives effective direction, purpose and sustainable high performance.

The program is well researched, knowledge-based and designed with the individual learner at the centre of the learning process which means that the course is extremely interactive and practical.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course delegates will be able to:

✓ Determine strategic thinking (value creation) and planning

✓ Determine your role in strategic planning and planning leadership

✓ Determine the strategic planning process and its key components

✓ Determine situation analysis and the tools and techniques used to provide data

✓ Determine effective problem solving and decision making and the tools and techniques used to help make the best decisions

✓ Determine implementation and how to set-up and implement for success

✓ Develop and practice strategic thinking for effective strategic planning

✓ Develop key strategic planning skills

✓ Produce drive to self-develop in strategic planning

✓ Produce positive impact on the overall performance of each delegate and the organization

COURSE CONTENT

DAY 1 • STRATEGIC PLANNING FUNDAMENTALS

Strategic Planning Overview

• What is a Plan?
• Different Types of Plan
• What is Strategic Planning?
• The Strategy Hierarchy (Planning Levels)
• Board Level – Corporate Strategy
• Business Level – Competitive Strategy
  • Function Level – Tactical Strategy
• The Benefits of Strategic Planning

From Strategic Intent to Results

• The Strategic Planning Process
• Your Guide and Rulebook (Vision, Mission and Values)

Strategic Thinking

• What is Strategic Thinking?
• Understanding How Your Organization Creates Value
• Strategies for Value Creation
• Exercise – Value Adding and Value Destroying Activity at Work
• Profit or Purpose Maximisers?

Effective Strategic Thinking and Planning Style

• Great Strategic Thinkers and Planners
  • Attributes
  • Barriers
• Activity: “Self- Assessment”
• Complete a self-assessment questionnaire. Result establishes the individual’s major strengths and weaknesses in strategic planning that will be used later as a basis to set a personal improvement goal.
• Your Identity (linking your beliefs to behaviour)

Your Role in Strategic Planning

• Strategic Manager versus Leader
• A Manger’s Key Tasks
• Your Role in Strategic Planning
• Strategic Thinking Mindset
  • Video- Did You Know?

The Key Elements of a Good Strategic Plan

• Key Elements of Strategic Planning
• The Key Elements of a Good Tactical Plan
• Your Resource (Time, Money Manpower)

Some Planning Tools

• Scheduling For Simple Projects
• Scheduling For Large Projects
  • Critical Path Analysis and PERT Charts

Strategic Planning Control

• Management Control Cycle
• Evaluation Strategy
• Strategic Planning Reviews
• The Benefits of Evaluation (Reviews)

DAY 2 • STRATEGIC PLANNING ANALYSIS (GOAL SETTING, PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING)

Strategic Planning Analysis

• What is Strategic Planning Analysis?
• The Benefits of Effective Strategic Planning Analysis?

Strategic Direction

• Setting Strategic Direction- Function Level
• Importance of Strategic Value (From day 1)
• Identifying Your Competitive Advantage

Situation Analysis

• Understanding Your Situation
• Types of Situation Analysis
  • Internal Analysis

(Vision, Mission and Values; Strengths and Weaknesses (SWOT), Gap Analysis)

• External Analysis

(Opportunities and Threats (SWOT); PESTLE; Porter’s Five Forces Model)

• Key Steps Following Analysis

Analysis Tools and Techniques

• Idea Generation
  • Creative Thinking, Brainstorming, Mind Mapping
  • Critical versus Creative Thinking
• Other Tools
  • Stakeholder Acceptability
  • Force Field Analysis (Lewin)
  • The Uncertainty-Importance Grid

Goal Setting

• What is a Goal?
• Goal versus Objective
• Why Set Goals?
• The Effect of Goal Setting on Individual Performance
• Setting SMARTER Goals
• Stretch Goals
• Measures For Your Goals
• Limitations

Problem Solving and Decision Marking

• Problem Solving/Decision Making Cycle
• Problem Analysis Tools
  • Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa)
• What is Decision Making?
• Decision Making Tools
• Decision Making Techniques
• Evaluating Options
  • Strategic Option Grid
• Stages of Group Decision Making
• Common But Invisible Decision Making Traps
• Levels of Decision Making
• Decision Making Who to Involve

Other Essentials Following Analysis

• Alignment
• Identifying Risk Components
• Contingency Planning
• Developing Action Plans
• Developing Key Performance Indicators

Pre-Implementation Planning

• Critical Pre-Implementation Steps for Success
• Facts that Will Help Your Implementation Success
• Strategies to Avoid or Use with Caution

DAY 3 • STRATEGIC PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL

Implementation

• What is Implementation?
• The Benefits of Effective Implementation
• Reasons Why Strategic Plans Fail
• Overcoming Resistance

Managing Conflict

• Developing Trust
• What is Conflict?
• Managing Conflict Assertively
• Benefits of Managing Conflict Well

Implementation and Change

• Implementation versus Change
• Managing Change
  • Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model
• Implementing Change
• Forces for and Against Change
• Implementing Tactical Change
• Levels of Acceptance and Influence

Communication and Motivation

• Communicating Your Plan
• Motivation
  • Video- Daniel Pink “Drive- The surprising thing about what motivates us”

Control Management for Success

• The Control Management Process
  • Establish Standards; Measure; Review and Correct
• Control Tools at the Business Level
  • Management Control System (MCS)
• Control Techniques at the Business Level
• Balanced Scorecard (Designed to Recognize KPIs)
• Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Kaizen (Continuous Improvement),
• Control Tools at the Functional Level
  • Activities
• Control Techniques at the Function Level
• Performance Appraisals
  • Mentoring
• Set-up for Review
• Overcoming Problems with Control
• Build on Change

Key Learning Review

• Group discussion and professional feedback to consolidate key learning. Delegates will leave the day with a list of development activities to improve their strategic thinking and planning competency back at work.

IN ADVANCE

Each delegate will be asked to complete a pre-course questionnaire to determine their individual learning objectives. These will be used by the trainer to give on track training that is focused on the individual learner attending.

ON-TRACK FOR GROWTH

The individual leaves this program with a Personal Action Plan to encourage immediate transfer of training to the job.

REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE

To register for this course please review the grey box above. If no public course is listed or the location and dates shown don’t suit you then please request a proposal for this course either as a public training course or if you have 6 delegates or more as an in-company training course by clicking on Request a Proposal.