OST and strategic planning: a late comment

[kerry napuk]

Hi

Just returned to the UK after six weeks celebrating the 50th 
anniversary of ON THE ROAD with my son, David, through nine western 
states and 5,500 miles.  While shaking out the dust, I stumbled across 
the theme on OS and strategic planning.  Please forgive these late 
comments about a subject close to my heart.

Having served on 15 boards, I realised there must be something more to 
life than growing another 5 to 10% next year.  After considerable 
research, I discovered there was no planning model for small and medium 
size organisations, just numerous approaches for big ones.  This led to 
writing a book, THE STRATEGY LED BUSINESS: Step by step strategic 
planning for small and medium size companies (McGraw-Hill, 1996) and 
facilitating several top teams to an agreed future they created.  But a 
common problem emerged:  the senior team was bonded to a future but 
nobody else owned it, because they did not participate in framing that 
future.  Moreover, the senior team failed to capture vital front line 
experience and creativity of all their people.

This realisation led me to large group work including Open Space and 
bringing the whole system into one room to look at the future and agree 
key issues and priorities.  After experiencing this wider dynamic, 
Eddie Palmer and I wrote THE LARGE GROUP FACILITATOR'S MANUAL (Gower, 
2003).  In the manual we created a Vision Search and Strategy Search 
for whole systems.    The following useful hybrid approach developed:

1. Open Space with the whole organisation to identify issues, 
opportunities, threats, and priorities that should be considered by the 
top team when framing a future direction, objectives and goals.

2. Using this framework for the future, the whole organisation goes 
back into Open Space to agree strategies, detailed action plans, 
resource allocation and priorities.

Plans also can be reviewed periodically in Open Space.

Kerry Napuk
Edinburgh
www.openfutures.com

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