Strategic Doing Workshop PackBobrow-Williams Group, LLCFranklin Delano Williams, Senior Consultant 3237 Ramsgate Road, Augusta, GA 30909 bobrow-williams-group@comcast.net Cell: 706-833-6396

These materials are Copyright by Ed Morrison and distributed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. You are free to copy, modify and distribute these materials, provided only that you include this copyright notice in your slides.

This Strategic Doing Pack is designed to guide discussions in a Strategic Doing Workshop. It represents a set of exercises that can help you keep your discussions focused. These exercises are tied to Strategic Doing, a practice of thinking and acting strategically in open networks. At the end of the workshop, you should have touched on all of the topics needed to compile a Strategic Action Plan. Before you begin, you should pass around a sign in sheet to make sure that you have captured all of the participants and their e-mails. You should also designate one or more people as your Knowledge Keeper. Capturing the key points of your discussion is vitally important to moving the conversation forward. As you put these notes on the web, it enables people to reconstruct the history of the conversation and to join the conversation at any point. Ed Morrison of the Purdue Center for Regional Development prepared this Strategic Doing Pack. You can contact him at edmorrison@purdue.edu. Please include the following notice in your slides: These materials are Copyright Ed Morrison and distributed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. You are free to copy, modify and distribute these materials, provided only that you include this copyright notice in your slides.

Overview

Step 1: List the names of people at your tableName e-mail

Step 2: Pick a scribe to distill your conversation (Someone who writes clearly)

The Strategic Doing cycleWhat could we do together?

How will we learn together?

What should we do together?

What will we do together?

The Strategic Doing cycleExercise 1: Opportunities What could we do together?

Exercise 2: Outcome How will we learn together? Exercise 5: Learning Process What should we do together? Exercise 3: Initiative

Exercise 4: Action Plan

What will we do together?

Exercise 1: OpportunitiesFind opportunities by connecting assets Opportunities describe a transformation made possible through collaboration. An opportunity is something meaningful we can do together, that we cannot do individually.

Focus on connecting assets: What if?

Opportunities emerge when we connect our assets. Focus on What if? scenarios that connect the assets shared around the table. Look for patterns and connections.

What is an asset?

An asset is something that participants are willing to identify and share. Assets can be experience, skills, networks. Assets can be organizational or personal.

Exercise 1: Opportunities

Exam p le sWhat are the opportunities we see when Who are the partners that could be we connect these assets? engaged in this opportunity?

What are the assets you can contribute or share?

Example: Network of professionals committed to youth initiatives

Example Opportunity 1: We could conduct monthly webinars to inform us of the innovations taking place in the region.

WIB, 3 key service providers, the community college

Opportunity 2: We could create weekly WIB, library system, community college forums to keep people informed and build our networks...

Exercise 1: Opportunities

What are the assets you can contribute or share?

What are the opportunities we see when Who are the partners that could be we connect these assets? engaged in this opportunity?

Exercise 2: OutcomeDefine a Strategic Outcome with 3 Characteristics A Strategic Outcome describes your destination: what success looks like. If you want people to help, you must give them a clear outcome. Think in terms of defining your outcome with 3 characteristics, 3 features that people can see in their minds eye. A characteristic describes a feature. It answers questions like Who? What? When? How? Think about describing a quality car. You could describe it with three characteristics like: 1) a four door sedan; 2) that gets 30 miles to the gallon; 3) has a sunroof.

What is a Characteristic?

Exercise 2: OutcomeWhat does success look like? Define 3 characteristics of your Outcome

Exam p le sDefine a way to measure this characteristic

Example: Creating a nationally recognized Characteristic 1: Active on-line community workforce summit that regularly pushes of innovators innovative initiatives to address the challenges of at-risk youth.

Metric 1: Number of people engaged in our on-line network

Characteristic 2: Strategy teams that engage at-risk youth as members

Metric 2: Number of at-risk youth participating in our strategy sessions

Characteristic 3: Example: Regular webcastsMetric 3: Number of webcasts; total number of webcast participants

Exercise 2: OutcomeWhat does success look like? Define 3 characteristics of your Outcome Define a way to measure this characteristic

Exercise 3: Initiative

Define a Strategic Initiative (project)

Strategic Outcomes are just words until we describe what we will actually do to achieve our outcomes. Strategic initiatives (or projects) describe what we will do together. We still need to be more specific though. We need to mark the path forward with some SMART goals -- or road markers.

Use 3 SMART Goals to define your initiative

SMART Goals provide clear ways to define our strategic initiatives. They are goals that are Simple, Measurable, Aggressive, Relevant and Time sensitive. They are milestones to mark our path. So a SMART Goal might be: By June, we will set a baseline to determine the number of current students going to postsecondary education. In this exercise, focus on defining your initiative with 3 SMART Goals.

Exercise 3: InitiativeDescribe your initiative: Define 3 SMART Goals

Exam p le sBy this date... We will do this....

What are you going to do to achieve your outcome? Example: Building an innovation network focus on the challenges of Disadvantaged Youth

SMART Goal 1: By September 2009 We convene a core team of professionals in the region engaged with at-risk youth to complete budget and agenda for summit

SMART Goal 2: By December 2009 Complete funding our budget

SMART Goal 1: By March 2010

Launch summit promotion

Exercise 3: InitiativeDescribe your initiative: Define 3 SMART Goals

By this date...

We will do this....

SMART Goal 1:

SMART Goal 2:

SMART Goal 1:

Draft an Action Plan for the next 30 days

An Action Plan clearly outlines who is going to do what by when. Focus on the next 30 days. If you cannot complete an action plan for th enext 30 days, drafting an action plan beyond that time will not matter much.

Why we need Action Plans

Action Plans are important for three reasons: The force us to make clear, personal commitments; They help us keep track of complex projects; and They help us make fast adjustments when inevitable changes arise.

Exercise 4: Action PlanAction Steps: Responsible: To move our project forward over the next 30 days, we will take these action steps:

Exam p le sBy When: Mary Next week

Assemble a list of professionals engaged in disadvantaged youth

Research social network tools (Twitter, blogs, etc.) we could use

Bob

30 days

Date: Questions? Contact:

Exercise 4: Action PlanAction Steps: Responsible: To move our project forward over the next 30 days, we will take these action steps: By When:

Date: Questions? Contact:

Define a clear Learning Process

A Learning Process usually includes three key steps: Putting your Strategic Doing Pack on the Web, so your team can review it; Converting your Strategic Doing Pack into a written Strategic Action Plan, so you have a document to revise that reflects your current strategy; and Deciding when you will come together again to share whats working and revise your Strategic Action Plan

Why we need a clear Learning Process

We need a Learning Process for four reasons: We need to learn what works and expand our successful initiatives; We build our relationships and the effectiveness of our networks by sharing what we learn; We can establish a convenient, simple library of what we are learning, so that we can pass on our best lessons to others who follow; With a clear process, people can participate in our network at any time. (We avoid the problem of going back and

Exercise 5: Learning ProcessKey elements of our Learning Process: Answers:

Exam p le s

Who will compile notes from the Strategic Doing session?

Bill

Who will post these notes to the web? Where, how and by when?

John

Who will draft and revise our Strategic Action Plan?

Bill. John, and Beth

What is the plan for the group to come back together to revise the Strategic Action Plan and continue the learning process?

We will meet again in 30 days. We will also launch a blog to keep us up to date with each other.

Exercise 5: Learning ProcessKey elements of our Learning Process: Answers: