Gathering inputs for annual and quarterly sessions are a critical part of creating and maintaining a resilient strategy.
This data and feedback from across the whole business that helps a leadership team get an honest picture and shared understanding of the “current state”, before developing a strategy to bridge the gaps to the desired future state. The adapt approach to strategy asks function leaders to gather inputs for their function to present to the Organisational Leadership Team.
Data and feedback might be:
hard numbers and ratings from surveys or financial reports
qualitative customer feedback
market research findings
feedback and observations from employees
It’s important to gather inputs from a variety of stakeholders and from every area of the business.
To ensure an effective strategy session and avoid overload, carefully select the most relevant inputs for strategic planning. Focus on key data that provides insights into how each function is performing and what could impact strategic decisions.
Leaders should evaluate ALL functions' capacity to deliver on their current accountabilities (BAU - business as usual) and support new initiatives. For example, setting goals like improving referrals and brand awareness is valuable but if the business development function’s current state is they are under-resourced or disengaged, achieving anything beyond BAU will be challenging.
It can be helpful to look at function accountabilities to gather inputs - how well are you meeting them? What are the gaps? Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Trends is a good framework to apply.
Avoid bringing a list of ‘what we did’ - this can be a pitfall if function accountabilities are very task rather than outcome-oriented. This is an opportunity to review your function accountabilities and present any potential changes/suggested edits as an input (a weakness or opportunity for the function).
Examples of inputs
All functions
Team Assessment highlights
Team CV data
SWOT on function accountabilities:
What’s working
What we do well - inherent strengths
Weaknesses - inherent or situational/incidental
External opportunities
External threats - e.g change in customer behaviour, key person risk
Team objectives - review of completed, status of current
Feedback from key staff - Stop/Start/Keep Doing interview or Cheers/Ideas/Grinds my Gears
Feedback on functions’ ability to measure performance and report to monthly leadership meetings i.e. what does great look like for this function and how do we know we are winning?
Proposed changes to function accountabilities
Leadership
Leaders CV scores
Purpose and vision review
Leadership team assessment
Check-in with emerging leaders
Celebration of how far we’ve come
Role clarity and accountability of leadership team
Culture
CV scores across the organisation
Engagement surveys
Review of cultural initiatives
Values audit
Safety stats
Feedback from Cultural Leaders team
People
Retention
Remuneration survey/fairness (CV)
Average tenure
Review onboarding process/recruitment process
Review of training
Exit interviews
Economic Engine
Opportunities for innovation, update on current experiments
Threats, opportunities?
Review of sales pipeline
Analysis of customer feedback
Profitability per value stream – critical numbers
Clarity of purpose for value streams
Product sets/offerings
How do we go to market? How do we build our offering?
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Customer satisfaction surveys/complaints
Stakeholder catch-ups
Review key partnerships
Performance – is it profitable?
R&D budget
Review opportunities against bullseye
Quality measures, e.g. rework needed
Review of website/marketing collateral from an objective source
Organisation Design
Do we have role clarity? How many people have roles defined?
Is there a unified understanding of how the business works?
How transparent is this information?
What is the current structure (hierarchy/teams)? Is it effective?
Team guidance review
Financial Security
P&L statement/financial reports
Critical numbers
What are the value drivers?
Cash flow forecast
Leading indicators
Ownership
Is leadership and ownership separate?
What is the succession of ownership in the long term?
Gather Inputs Meeting: PreWork