Strategic session - instructions for use. Strategic session as a business development tool holding a strategic session in the company

Group work aimed at the joint development of strategic-meaningful decisions of the organization, with the participation of key managers of the company.

Objectives of strategic sessions:

- Development of a company's strategy or a significant project.

Search and study solutions to exit a difficult situation (which happened or expected).

Ensuring a single vision regarding the situation, decisions, plans (cases where the strategic session is primarily aimed at the goal of the team formation).

The increment of knowledge about any matter or change in attitudes towards any topic (these are cases when the stroke is associated with educational or propaganda purposes).

Below are examples of the objectives of some specific strategic sessions.

1. "To make the leaders of regional representative offices (150 people) recognized that the quality of customer work is unsatisfactory, and that the responsibility for it lies on them themselves, and not on the management company. After stressing, participants should go with specific ideas and Plans, how to improve the quality of service in the representative offices, should sincerely want these plans to implement. "

2. "Find the ability to reduce the budget by 10% for the coming year and form an optimized plan for the development of the company."

3. "Develop a strategy and a plan for launching a new business line N, to ensure a single vision of a new business among all team members."

4. "To identify all duplicate each other (directly and indirectly) projects running in the company to ensure the integration of projects among themselves and with the objectives of the company, form a unified project program."

The results of strokes are usually:

Worked solutions and plans.

Broadcast important information or ideas (participants "fused" ideas).

Single vision and team spirit.

New ideas and alternative strategies.

The strategic session, as a rule, manages the moderator using, respectively, moderation and facilitation methods. The professionalism of this person depends on how successful the work of the whole group will be. Since in strategic sessions, managers and experts usually take part, the time of which is quite expensive, it is advisable to attract for the role of the moderator-facilitator of a professional. Otherwise, the stroke can turn into the "Congress of People's Deputies", a multi-chain, "transfusion from empty to empty", which is not leading to a single vision and solving the problem.

Moderation differs from facilitation by the fact that it has a specific clear algorithm for the group's work. And the facilitation is rather a set of various methods of group work, arranged at the discretion of the lead, no rigid universal scenario.

Why is the professional moderator, a facilitator is important (because you can assign someone from your managers or experts to coordinate the work of the group)? I will give the main arguments:

Professional moderator, the facilitator can initially develop the most optimal work scenario based on the goal.

It may pick up optimal tools and forms of work for each stage of stress, so that it was interesting to work, and at the same time, each minute of collective work helped to move towards the goal.

Able to manage the dynamics of the group, work with the resistance of individual participants, involve those who are not involved, neutralize the detestine-active participants, etc.

Provides effective visualization of tasks, fixing the group solutions (not easy to record smart ideas on flipchart, and provide structured entries that can and conveniently use in the future. The visualization itself is a whole art!).

He acts as an independent arbiter, ensures unpredictment and increases the chances of finding, to hear and work out, even if they are confirmed with the ideas of heads of participants in the participants of the Strocess (it is often that significant ideas do not appear for a simple reason, too much influence of the head for the minds of the participants of the Strocess This is if one of their own, and not an external expert moderator).

Here is an example of the phrase of the company's head for which I conducted a strategic session: "Why can't we ourselves, working together (at meetings, for example), to achieve the same results?! People the same, time as many initial problems and tasks are similar, and The result of collaboration is completely different. "

To assess the importance of attracting a professional, I propose to look at the examples of the objectives given in this article above. If you feel confident that we could provide the result for these purposes, for example, within 1 working day, perhaps the expert leading you, however, is not needed. But, as a rule, to keep in a limited time and ensure the result with the required quality, without the relevant expert cannot do.

Important factors affecting the success of the strategic session:

· Careful preparation (80% of time in relation to the time - each item must be thought out).

· Involving participants (using relevant technologies).

· Attention to details (the ability to hear weak signals about something important from the participants).

· Creative mood (out, as far as possible, from the framework ideas about the situation, problem, goals).

· Competent logistics (who, where, when, how much time, with what makes it).

· The formation of a common and individual intention to specific actions following the results of the stroke (not "simply agreed on something" - the session should end up worked out, felt deeply by each participant, and not a formal, action plan containing the results criteria, including intermediate ).

Approximate stages of the strategic session :

1. Preparation (creating a working atmosphere).

2. Goaling.

3. Analysis of the current situation.

4. Forecast.

5. Definition of alternatives.

6. Evaluation and selection of an alternative strategy.

7. Overlapping of the decision taken in detail.

8. Defining the criteria for the effectiveness of the selected strategy

9. Cascade of goals and objectives, forming an action plan.

10. Completion.

The most common difficulties in carrying out strategic sessions:

· Time limit.

· Low motivation of participants.

· Lack of source information for making decisions or its low quality.

· Conflicts, contradictions of interests.

· No conditions for the effective continuous work of participants (distractions, noisy room, not filmed stereotypical thinking barriers at the beginning and so on.).

All these difficulties professional moderator overcomes masterfully. Your key challenges, as a customer client, are reduced to put a goal for a strategic session and collect people at the appointed time.

Select moderator or facilitator is not difficult - look at the experience and tools that the expert uses. There are not much professional professionals, but enough, in order to find a "man".

Several tips how to choose a leading strategic session :

· It is extremely desirable that the expert is familiar with the classical moderation and facilitation tools, the appropriate training has passed (has a certificate), desirable, in Western masters or on Western methods. If you yourself passed training, for example, in the Germans, then you understand why this is important - they think over and unwind every "Chih" during the session, they have something to learn (compared to our domestic "creative" approach "dig about here" ). Receptions of visualization, technology formulation of reference issues, scenario algorithms - all these, invisible for participants, subtleties directly affect the result of the strategic session.

· Ask a potential lead to describe the scenarios of the sessions already spent and show the photos of flipcharts or other materials (it is not necessary that the topic of strokes will be similar to yours). Evaluate the logicality of the stages, the quality of visualization, the compliance of the algorithm of the session and the results of the target. If you have someone to choose, after reviewing three or four options for different leading, you can make a choice - usually a clearly naked eye is visible the difference of approaches and the depth of study. If you can get a review from companies for which one or another session was held, do it.

· Well, if the leading stress has a fairly complete idea of \u200b\u200bthe company's device, the main managerial introductory, owns the basic conceptual apparatus. It happens very funny when, for example, in the telecom-company, the leading session with the word "migration of subscribers" represents how physical people move from one territory to another and during the discussion asking questions based on this understanding (although there was a transfer of these subscribers From one system to another). There are many disputes about this, the opinions are common that the facilitator is not necessary to deal with the specifics of the topic of session and business features. And theoretically, I agree with this - if there is a good tool, the truth can not be understood. But practically, the insufficient level of the competence of the leading may lead to the fact that the session will not be perceived by the participants as a serious significant event (they will giggle among themselves or, worse, formally treat work).

· If the strategic session is large and requires the involvement of a large number of leaders, make sure that your applicant has experience in developing and transmitting scripts to others (so that it does not work "who in the forest, who is on firewood" when one working group does not hit the result The format of the result of another group).

· The person's leading stroke itself is important. On the one hand, this person should be perceived by top managers as a partner, his own man, and on the other hand, this is a "inconspicuous leader", managing what is happening at the session. Participants should have a complete impression that all work is done by themselves, there is not a single assessed, imposed idea or decision from the lead. This guarantees in the future the implementation of decisions made by the session participants with greater probability. In this sense, the charismaticness and brightness of the coach, demanded on the training programs, may in this case be a minus. Theoretically, the presenter can be a bright person, but in the conditions of stress, he must be able to keep attention on the task, and not on himself. This is a critical moment.

In order for the selection of the moderator-facilitator in the selection of its potential ability to be "gray cardinal", and not "Star22, pay attention to how the expert interacts in the negotiations. Report any problem that exciting you, and see the reaction of the potential lead. Does he do , during the conversation, self-optation (did not show himself as Narcissus? - The phenomenon is common among those who choose the profession to "steer people groups")? Or magically, imperceptibly for you, this person helped move in understanding and solving the problem.

· No matter who you attract - a large-scale contractor or freelance company who will collect the team leading to you independently. Look at a particular performer person, not on the brand and the company's regalia.

1. Make sure that the Contractor understands the context, why there was a need for strokes, what topical tasks are facing the company, as a task, the problem of strokes was decided earlier. Describe the profile of participants, their attitude to the topic of stress, the specifics of personal and professional.

2. Align the goals and objectives of the stroke.

3. Coordinate the logistics of the stroke (regulation of work, coffee breaks, dinners of movement, providing materials - who, when, where, with what makes). Often the third company is attracted to logistics tasks, well, if these two artists understand each other's tasks, their work will be agreed among themselves.

4. Coordinate the requirements for the premises or give the Contractor a detailed description of the available rooms, make sure that they are suitable. No matter how it seemed to be a banal, sometimes the room can destroy all the plans of the moderator.

For example, we planned a dealer conference with moderation elements for a large automotive company. We were given information about the premises, in the photo there were spacious halls, each of which could freely accommodate 2 groups for work. But in place it turned out that the halls are small (3 times less than we expected), the tables of two groups are facing each other. I had to quickly change the format of work, combine groups into one large on each site, change the script, give new instructions to all coaches.

5. Ensure a meeting of the provider with the internal customer (most likely it is the first person) to harmonize the goals and scenario of stress and providing support. Plus, as a rule, it is useful to meet with key leaders in front of the strategic session - discuss the goals of strokesia, their vision.

6. Match the reporting format from the provider (report structure, photo and so on.)

7. To coordinate the possible participation of the lead in further work after the strategic session (sometimes the intermediate post session is needed, both in the training, and well, if they are spent by the same person or company).

8. Discuss the strategic session scenario algorithm, help the provider pre-predict what the answers it will most likely receive on supporting questions in the current wording.

9. Provide moral and informational support to the Contractor. You work for one goal. If the artist was chosen, no longer need to check it "on weakly", ensure all the possibilities for its effective preparation.

In order to deal with what accompaniment is needed after the strategic session, let's figure it out why this is necessary.

The key objectives are the following :

·
Provide support for the implementation of decisions taken at sessions - sometimes there are new difficulties that require general understanding and study in a similar, but simplified format, as on a large strocessing. Sometimes it is an individual work "Ala-Coaching".

· Provide interim control of decisions taken. Then the facilitator is involved in the presentation process and discussion of intermediate results. This is not an ordinary meeting, but a milestone event, symbolizing the end of the key stage.

· Provide PR and promote post-sessive activities and solutions.

Total, according to the results of perennial observations, I can say that even successfully spent stress in itself is less effective in the long run, the weaker session, but included in some kind of holistic system of activities related to the development of the company. Roughly speaking, the strategic session is not a "fleeting vision", but an element of achieving specific goals and objectives of the company. It should not happen "suddenly" and not "because the time of the annual meeting has come," and due to the fact that there are significant issues that require joint discussion.

M. Ivanova, Business Coach, Consultant in project management, Moderator of strategic sessions.

What is a strategic session? (strategic planning session) - This is a method of joint work of top managers, managers and owners of companies with the participation of an external moderator (consultant for the strategy), in order to develop new strategies and prospects for the development of the organization. In the process of the strategic session, a new vision of the company can be created, strategic priorities in its development are identified, or an optimal organizational strategy is selected, which will be more effective than the company's strategy, and will allow the organization to be a leader for many years! While alone thinks about how to survive in the present and protect their positions, others are preparing for a breakthrough and seize markets and customers of the future. Do not wait for "black swans", do the future of your organization today!

Strategic sessions - program, and cost for 2019!

Does your company need a strategic planning session?
Want to form an optimal script for the company's development for the next 3-5 years?
Planning to organize a strategic session for your top managers?
Need help in identifying a new strategy?
Do you need new competitive advantages and missed vision?

We will be happy to help you! Consultants of the Time Management Company are preparing and conducting strategic sessions to order, have extensive experience with top managers and own an effective methodology that will ensure your business to achieve the goals!

For whom you need a strategic session:for top managers, directors, business owners, and key company executives. The recommended group size for the strategic session is not more than 15 people. The narrow circle of the main managers of your organization, on which its results depend on and its future!

What will happen and what will not be at the strategic session?

At our strategic sessions, we concentrate only on issues of the company's development strategy, its strategic goals and how to achieve them! We use only business tools from disciplines such as strategic management, risk management, change management, marketing, personnel management and many other necessary business disciplines!

We do not use the terms "personal growth", "Psychology", "Secrets of Success" and other popular words and expressions that are not related to a business strategy. At our strategic sessions you will not need to understand yourself, look for strengths and weaknesses in colleagues, engage in mutual assessment or publicly express your love for work in a team. If you still want this, it is possible to really better look for a psychologist or "release steam" in conflict resolution training. But this is quite distant to business and the new strategy. And our principal position to share these things! Personal growth separately, work on the strategy separately! Mixing these tasks you do not get a personal growth, nor strategy! And that is why it is so important to discuss in detail and agree on the purpose and objectives of the upcoming strategic session.

Need a consultation? Ask a question:

What questions we will discuss with you
during the preparation and at the strategic session itself:

1) Current status of the company:
- Strategic goals
- growth rates \\ market share
- 5 competitive forces
- Financial indicators
- SWOT and PEST analysis
- What do we want to change \\ improve?

2) Mission * and your company
(Is it? Is it necessary? Why is your company in addition to making money?)
- Causes of the organization's existence for its customers and partners
- unial traits of the company, and its differences from other players
- Scarlet and Blue Oceans Competitions: Ways of the Company's Development
- formulating the meaning of your business in an effective mission

* - There are many companies known for their mission, and many other companies that are sufficiently successful, but do not have and do not plan to create a mission. We will help you to evaluate how much the mission needs for your company, and decide whether to include this unit in the strategic session. And if organizations may exist without a mission, then not having uniqueness, they are doomed in the long term.

3) company strategy at the moment
- Effective and ineffective behavior of the company as part of last year
- Why did your customers choose exactly you?
- pros and cons of the current strategy
- Constants and variables for your new strategy

4) Scenario forecasting and development options:
- optimistic forecast
- Pessimistic forecast
- Realistic forecast
- Stress forecast (Evaluation of the Company's survival)
- key trends of the external environment and your business

5) Creating a vision of a company and new strategic goals
- the concept of "Vision" and the criteria for effective vision
- Key competencies of the organization (present and future)
- Creation of general vision and synchronization of the aspirations of top managers of the company
- awareness of own roles and opportunities, from joint activities
- Create a company "Dreams" or such a business that would like to study 10-20 years
- Checking the vision on the criteria for conforming to the expectations of all stakeholders

6) Formation of future competitive advantages
- spheres of the future influence of the company
- Review and potential of all possible competitive advantages
- Strategies for the development of new advantages of the organization
- Plan for the formation of future competitive advantages
- distribution of responsibility for the benefits between top management

7) Optimization of the Organizational Structure
- design of the organizational structure in accordance with the strategic goals
- Strategic vision of each division
- Synchronization of divisions
- Effective interaction of units under the new strategy

8) Corporate Values \u200b\u200b*
- declared and actual values \u200b\u200bof the organization
- current and future hierarchy of corporate values
- Transformation of corporate values \u200b\u200bfor a new strategy
- Corporate Code
- Implementation of corporate ideology
* - No matter how unites people as common values. Values \u200b\u200bmake it possible to make decisions in those situations when it is not clear what to do under the regulations when such situations did not occur earlier, or when employees face conflict of goals.
Nothing prevents the implementation of the new strategy as old corporate values, invisible sticks in the wheels of the company's top management intentions. After all, you either are a source and conductor of corporate values, or their hostage. If time allows, an audit and updating of corporate values \u200b\u200bshould be conducted at the strategic session. In the case when there is no such possibility, we recommend separately allocating time for this work.

9) Company development plan for 1, 3, 5 years
- How do we understand what implemented our strategy? Strategic goals and kpi
- How will we track movement to strategic goals?
- How to form a tactical plan and make a decomposition of strategic goals?
- Preparation, Protection and Approval of the Company's Development Plan
- Definition of responsible persons for each item of the new strategy

10) action plan to achieve results in this
- Creation of an Action plan for the development of the company for the coming year
- coordination of key business processes aimed at implementing the strategy
- formation of project teams, to relive intentions from the strategic session
- Building a Ganta chart to keep track of the implementation of an action plan

The results of the strategic session, which in the end:

Accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your company at the moment
New strategy of the company, which is understood and share key top managers
Company development plan for the coming years (3-5 years)
A strategy document in which all key aspects of the company's development are described.
Tree of strategic goals with decomposition at the level of divisions
Updated KPI key units affected by company goals
Report on the session and recommendations of our consultants

The cost of the strategic session depends on the desired results, the qualifications of the business consultant, conducted by the session, and on the role in which he acts. In the simplest version, customers need just a facilitator who will help the director or key leaders to build group work with their management team, and in conditions of limited time, have time to discuss all the necessary questions. This option makes sense to be used in the case when the company's management already has a clear vision and prospects for the development of the company, strategic priorities and strategic goals have been identified, and the strategy itself has been chosen to achieve these goals.

More time-consuming work at the strategic session is meant if the company has no clearly formulated strategy and goals, the planning horizon is uncertain, strategic priorities are multidirectional, and the company's mission is too general or foggy. In this case, the strategy business consultant is necessary in order to help analyze the current situation in the company, evaluate the pros and cons of the current situation, and help collect all the necessary information, thanks to which the top team has strategic alternatives to the company's development in the coming years, assessing which can accurately determine priority directions for development, and put new strategic goals. If you first order a strategic session for your company, you should also pay special attention to pre-prepare, and put realistic for the first time of the goal!

Ask a question about the strategic session:

To clarify the cost, please send a request by e-mail with an indication of the company's name, site and contact phones of your organization.We do not make price proposals on the phone! Thank you for understanding!

Timely strategic session will save the years of the company!

Any company is born and is derived to the market in order to profit through the satisfaction of some customer needs. However, sooner or later, the times of any company occur when a vector of development is coming, to form a new direction, or to smoke the team for conquering serious frontiers. One of the effective tools for generating creative ideas, to increase sales at times, is a strategic session. Regular holding of such events in the company helps to avoid stagnant phenomena, save and increase market share, sales and profits. Development of the company's strategy - work is a long, serious, requiring a professional approach.

What is a strategic session, goals and objectives

Strategy companies - It is its goals and objectives for a certain long-term period of time, guided by some principles and decisions. For the company's managers, its strategy is a set of specific rules for effective management, for owners - search for a reasonable way of development, for investors - the rationale for entry into a particular business. The strategic session is just helped in developing all these components of long-term management of the company.

The strategic session is carried out among the top managers of the company, shareholders and investors, while initiated by the owner of the business, or by the employee, the main leader. The strategic session is a group, active, this is not a seminar, not training, since it is not directed not so much on the training of participants in the event, how much on their involvement in the process, to find solutions that can increase sales, form a team, develop a plan to implement a specific business problem . Although after the session, it is most often not necessary to conduct training skills or team education, since collaboration shares, trains and gives practical experience.

The main goals of strategic sessions are:

Development, adoption of uniform strategic decisions and positions by all team members;

Development and adoption of documents that determine the work of the company for a certain period (quarter, month, year, long term).

Tasks for the development of the company's strategy:

Developing a corporate approach to solving complex tasks at a certain stage of the company's life cycle;

Business optimization taking into account the requirements of time, market and client needs;

Development, generation of specific ideas for the company's release to new markets;

Development of corporate culture management, cohesion of the team.

As a rule, a group of internal consultants is engaged in the preparation and holding of the session, or experts from trainings, coaching and consulting centers are invited.

The advantages of holding strategic sessions:

They are held by the forces of only interested employees;

During the events, "see the light" the most unusual ideas that are later undergoing the most thorough assessment;

During the implementation of consensus and mutual understanding on the main strategic issues of business and vision of business, the consolidation of the company's main players increases;

With the participation of third-party consultants, an objective assessment of the organization's internal policy situation is possible;

A team of like-minded people is formed, while all participants receive both theoretical professional knowledge and practical skills;

Owners and investors can appreciate the creative potential of employees.

How to hold a strategic session in the company

The strategic session plan consists of several pre-prepared stages.

Stage No. 1. Express diagnostics and fees to participate expectations. At this stage, those responsible for holding the strategic session of the person (qualified consultants) are preparing questionnaires, a set of participation rules in the session and task. Usually questions are collected in the questionnaire that can clarify the current situation of the company, its role in the life of the participants. In addition, questions may include issues of personal effectiveness of employees, to determine the motives, proposals for improving work.

The purpose of preparing and conducting this stage of the strategic session is to obtain information on the ratio of investors' expectations, shareholders and possible problem areas in solving such tasks.

At the diagnostic stage, a list of all participants in the session, which are distributed to the rules of participation and scheme, the regulation of its implementation are determined. It is advisable in these documents before starting the event to determine the basic concepts, to give a definition: what is the strategic session, what is the mission of the company, its market share in the segment, in which the company's ideology, which tools of strategic management and planning an enterprise operates. In addition, each participant before the session should understand what specifically the task is to put the company in front of him, which is expected from him that he should directly do during the strategic session.

Stage No. 2. Conducting the session. Usually the session is carried out within one working day, with coffee breaks and a full dinner. However, a series of strategic sessions is not yet raised if the issues raised on them require such a long time interval. In this case, the activities are appointed, as a rule, on the last working day of the week and are carried out with periodicity one or twice a month.

During the session, a group of consultants is initiated by a discussion of the following issues:

Place of company in the market, in a competitive environment (comparison matrix with competitors);

Determination of the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise and the product (matrix of threats and opportunities);

Identifying the competitive advantages of the company;

Discussion of specific activities for improving work, the formation of a single budget for this purpose;

Development of a mission and ideology of the company, adopting a plan of work on the nearest and long-term (up to 5 years) perspective.

In strategic sessions can be accepted specific development on narrow-productional issues - in the field of marketing, production, information base, finance, personnel, sales, logistics, and so on. The main achievement of this event should be the detailing of schemes of the main production process, the formation of all business processes in the company.

After discussion of all questions raised begins Stage of drawing up a liability separation matrix within the company: Who, for which and to what extent should be responsible for the implementation of all jointly developed solutions. In essence, this is an extended, detailed business plan for the long-term perspective, which must be brought to a logical completion in order to increase the profitability of the enterprise.

Step number 3. Summing up and preparation of documents. Immediately after the strategic session need to be issued Recommendations, conclusions, making them in separate work documents. At this stage, it may take from a week to month, depending on the size of the session and the complexity of issues raised on it.

Conclusions and analysis

After the session is carried out, it is necessary to structure all the collected information. The final documents are usually reports on the diagnostics, on the progress of the strategic session and the plan of measures to improve the work of the Company.

The results of the strategic session should be:

Development of a number of specific activities to determine the company's strategy for a period;

A deeper understanding of the issue of the company's strategy by all session participants;

Obtaining unexpected, creative, alternative ideas for subsequent implementation of their sales practice;

Formation of a strong, cohesive team capable of solving complex managerial tasks;

One understanding of tasks, plans and solutions by all session participants.

Tips for the effective implementation of the strategic session

1. Before the session in two or three days send each participant to the task with a specific description of the raised questions. At the same time, advise not to discuss these questions with colleagues, let everyone think independently over the help of what events can be improved by the company's activities, strengthen its position in the market. How he sees his place in an updated company. What company will be in a year, in five years.

2. Form "Right Composition" of participants, invite the business owners, leaders of all ranks, informal leaders who are able to influence the opinion of the collective.

3. Divide all participants into three groups: owners, investors and shareholders; Production officers, performers; Top managers implementing the product in contact with customers (Commercial Director, Head of Sales Department, Supervisor).

4. Best when the session takes part from seven to fifteen people. Such a number allows you to work quickly, simply, not spending time on the hearing of each participant, on uncontrolled discussions.

5. Do not use the marker board When conducting discussions, it is best to make questions about Watman's sheets that can be used to be used to analyze. It does not need a flip chart nor the projector, only paper and markers.

6. Do not raise many different questions within one event, take the rule: at one session - one question.

7 . Time to prepare the session should get away from one day to a week, no more Session itself - from one to three business days. Preparation of final documents usually takes three or five working days.

8. The introduction of a work plan for improving the company's activities should not turn into an empty formality. For this approve the responsible performers and the deadline for implementation.

What questions can be solved at the strategic session?

Below is a list of questions that were solved in practice in different years among various customer enterprises.

1. Building a self-developing sales department.

2. Development of a loyalty program for the company's target audience.

3 . Development of a new diversification area of \u200b\u200bbusiness.

4. Development of a subsidiary development strategy, affiliate program (discount center, retail network, etc.).

5. Building a marketing strategy aimed at improving the distribution of the company.

6. Audit of marketing strategy, direct sales strategies and sessions on the audit results.

7. Development of a mission, ideology and / or company strategy.

8. Development of a business plan before launching a new project.

9. Optimization of existing business processes.

10. Development of a management accounting and budgeting system.

11. Development of a material incentive and non-monetary motivation of employees.

12. The introduction of new information technologies.

13. Development and implementation of prospective positioning of the company in the market.

14. Development of cards of strategic objectives and a balanced system of indicators (to the upcoming meeting of the Board of Directors).

15. Determination of possible areas of synergies of action when merging large companies.

No business owner knows the nuances of all business processes in the company. Conducting such strategic sessions will help him better understand how power in the enterprise can improve the work of the company, increase profitability. Such events reveal internal conflicts that prevent the implementation of strategic plans, help include the team in the conversion process. None of the session participants can continue to say that this or that decision was descended from above, without his participation.

The strategic session is a modern flexible tool that allows you to optimize all business processes in the company, to quickly respond to a change in the market situation, pre-predicting possible threats to make weighted, verified, competent solutions for the adaptation of the enterprise in a changing business environment.

Zhanna Pyarikova specifically for business portal bzzN.ru

Strategy. Transformation of business. System of balanced indicators

Evaluation of the current strategic position, determination of possible business transformation options
Analysis of the development trends of the industry and the regional presence region
Evaluation of the current strategic position and major risks
Identification of strategic problems
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the organization of key business processes
Analysis of the options for the company's strategic development
Evaluation of development opportunities from the point of view of available resources and operating technologies
Development of strategic business transformation options
Business optimization in the conditions of stabilization of the market situation
Business compression with a sharp deterioration of the market situation
Active development on promising segments
Business reengineering when radical change strategy
Evaluation of the need and opportunities to apply innovative solutions
Structuring and formalization of the company's strategic goals in the logic of a system of balanced indicators
Analysis of available resources and key performance indicators
Transformation of strategic goals for the level of processes and projects
Interpretation of strategic goals for the level of financial perspectives
Detection of causal relationships between performance indicators

Business model. Strategic, tactical and operational management of business processes

Business model of the company in the presentation of a set of business processes
Determining the full set of business processes organization and their detail on components
Identification of non-optimality factors and inconsistency of business processes
Design of target performance indicators of each of its component (process)
Transformation of goals and levels of processes
Application of the distribution matrix of authority and responsibility in the business process management system
Synthesis of target (innovative) business models and business processes taking into account: development strategies, target performance indicators, available resources and operating technologies
The introduction of target (innovative) business models and business processes
Forecasting and planning (tactical, operational)
Synchronization of business processes through the development of the system of tactical and operational planning
Design and implementation of a system of interconnected planning: in bulk (quantitative), nomenclature, financial parameters
Determination of problem areas in the system of tactical and operational planning of its own organization
Design of the organization model in the form of "technological converters"
Transformation of strategic level plans on the tactical level
Synchronization of tactical and operational plans
Implementation of the system of interconnected forecasting and planning

Description, Regulation and optimization of business processes

Activity management forms, place of process approach
The concept of the client and network of processes. Main, auxiliary and managerial processes Workshop: Building a process landscape
Process description tools: from tabular format to process cards Workshop: Description of the process according to one of the formats
Process regulation and documentary support Workshop: Development of the content of the standard process regulation
Process owner and key performance indicators (KPI) Workshop: Development of KPI process

Strategic session - Business Development Tool (16: 30-19: 30)

Strategy and communications in the organization
- Distinctive features of a successful strategy
- Organizational Communications - Business Life Energy
Strategic sessions
- Objectives and formats of strategic sessions
- Stages of the strategic session
- Typical problems of strategic sessions
Results of strategic sessions
- Obstacles to the successful implementation of the strategy
- Results of the strategic session: how to implement them?

Project office and project portfolio management

Project Management Communities, Program and Portfolio
Design office. Development Directorate. Project teams of functional directions. Process office.
Typology of projects within the organization
Initiation and planning of the program / project portfolio based on strategy
Detailed planning of interconnected projects. Working with a corporate pool of resources. Methods of critical path and chain. Budgeting
Change management during project implementation. Adjustments of project plan / budgets. Working with risks.
Reporting under the project program. Types and frequency of reports. Examples of reports
Completion of projects and the transfer of their results to the business environment of the organization. Assessment of postponed effects. Quality and quantitative analysis

Strategic session - An integral part of the life of any company that takes care of a long-term existence. - Not only the process of analysis and formulation of goals, coordination of approaches. But, at the same time, to increase the involvement of employees and the transfer of responsibility.

We will try in this article to tell about the main features of strategic sessions, the process of holding and pitfalls, with which you can encounter when planning them.

What is a strategic session?

First, we will define the concepts. The strategic session is not something globally different from the meeting (or conference). This is a format in which participants listen, think discusses, make decisions. And in this regard, nothing to mystical and supervised in the organization of this activity.

We make a conditional separation of strategic sessions on:

Strategic Session (or Strategic Planning Session): Development of the Company's Goals

Really, strategic session - The process of analyzing the status of the company and develop solutions of the strategic (defining business life or with a large planning horizon). Such an event collects a large number of participants. As a rule, it is the owners / shareholders of business, top management. Often this meeting is preceded by some kind of foresight session.

Strategic session: Creating a vision

Forsyt session - Event / Discussion aimed at forecasting the situation at the macro level (country, world, industry) or in an attempt to predict the development / appearance of the so-called trends. For example, the emergence of new technologies, a change in sociocultural nature, etc. In essence, the visionary session. Such forecasting allows you to "see" the possibilities of further development of the company and in the subsequent strategic session to choose the right direction of development, put correct goals. Such an event (or process) collects experts from many areas, but may be quite compressed in composition and time.

Strategic session: Enhance the involvement

The strategic session can be a tool for increasing involvement, the transfer of responsibility to employees. And team education at the level of coordination and making goals and approaches to business, the distribution of tasks between functions. It is also possible to consider such events as one of the stages of introducing changes in the company.

In this case, the strategic session must be carried out with the involvement of the maximum number of employees (for example, all executives) on the format corporate Conference .

How to hold a strategic session so that it does not painfully hurt ...

For the time spent ... for the budget spent ... For spoiled relationships between colleagues ... for the lack of result!

The main problems faced by companies in the strategic session are standard:

miscellaneous understanding of the desired results is the lack of clear goals or their inconsistency;
lack of coordination procedure, approval of results;
output for the time frame due to the lack of culture or discussion skills;
the lack of participants in the proper level of information preparedness;
emotional resistance of participants, hierarchical barriers in the statement of their opinion;
the lack of the resulting results after the strategic session - talked, and "WHO and now there ...".

And the list can be continued infinitely. Some of the listed problems are solved by inviting third-party consultants. But not all. We'll have to sweat yourself.

Strategic session: Preparation Features

It is encountered "Let's invite the steep facilitator with a diploma so that he spent the strategic session." The strategic session is just a short-term event. In fact, such an approach often turns into the performance of a narcissistic monkey and lack of results. The strategic session must necessarily plan and prepare. Even if it is a strategic session of a small division of the company. And often you can do without inviting fashionable facilitator.

On the role of the facilitator at the strategic session

The task of the facilitator (or moderator) to ensure comfortable conditions for achieving the objectives of the event. This may be in working with a group - building the regulations, management discussion and the activity of participants, the proposal of formats for developing and coordinating decisions. In essence, the facilitator is the organizer of the procedure. And a group psychologist. Because an important task for the facilitator is to maintain the atmosphere, tracking the group speakers.

If there is a person in the team (even - not even a representative of the unit), which, distanced by the discussion and hierarchical position in the company, will be able to take on the role of a leading such meeting, it is worth seeing to him. But…

... But in some cases it is impossible to do without a third-party specialist (s). For example, the status of the participants does not allow inviting the internal facilitator ... or this is a corporate conference, where a large number of groups should simultaneously move on a previously developed program ... or a high level of resistance / conflict of session participants is expected ... There may be many situations.

How to choose a leading strategic session?

First of all, it is a person who has experience in developing and carrying out such events. To do this, it is enough to look at the summary and at the first meeting ask questions about those tasks that have had to decide.

To estimate the answers, the STAR model used will help to be very helpful. The more fully, your candidate describes the situation, tasks, its actions and results (even failures), the more trust it can cause.

The second important point is an understanding of the context of the business, the processes occurring in companies. An optional consultant must thoroughly know your business. But the experience of working with similar companies is desirable. Very will be management is useful (which is sometimes lacking "book" coaches).

The third moment - how comfortable in communications With this person. Especially the first persons of the company with whom he will have to work tightly in the preparation of the program. Also important is the most "consultant" position - an understanding of its capabilities and, in some cases, the unwillingness to go on the client (but only for his own good). As far as the affiliate and confident position (this is not self-confidence) in communicating with this specialist. After all, this person work with a group and smoothing possible intense moments.

If there is a need for the work of the whole team of facilitators, it is not bad to make sure of their competence. The main leading at the same time should have experience in the "large coach" - to be able to transfer the developed program / technology to coordinate the work of several specialists.

All of the above can be found in the first meeting with a consultant, at the time of discussion of the goal and the tasks of your strategic session.

How to spend a strategic session? Start with the plan

Let's try to briefly designate the key points of the strategic session plan. This small list can be used as a check-sheet (of course, the addition and adaptation under your conditions is welcome.)

Strategic session plan

The strategic session plan is answers to the first three points. After understanding the number of topics / tasks and approximate evaluation of them in time, you can make the first version of the program. And responding to subsequent questions, detail and fill it.

When planning the time of each block, it is useful to lay 10% more than it seems at first glance. It should also be remembered that the formats requiring the coordination or involvement of participants take more time. For example, a series of cascade working groups should end with the presentation of the results of their work (series of presentations), and then with information in a single document. And it takes a lot of time, but without it in any way. Because if the episode of the performance of the results of all will be "swallowed", in the next step in the group there may be resistance or a decrease in motivation may occur.

The obligatory element of the plan of the strategic session should be activity aimed at work with the emotional state of the participants. At the beginning, the middle and completion of the day / event. And this is also required time - mental energy can not be ignored.

Use of visualization methods in the strategic session

As you know, most people living on earth are visuals. It once allowed humanity as it seems to survive. So, that the strategic session also had a chance to "survive", do not dry in debate or, on the contrary, in the absence of dynamics, you need to think about visualization. Graphs of financial indicators are good. But you need something more.

Standard strategic session tool - empty tables that set the group discussion structure and its result. More advanced option - "Business Napkin" - A special form in which the stimulus information is also present, and the structure seems to conduct participants to the planned result.

Strategic session preparation stages

All we want to offer below is based on our more than 10 years of experience. Particularly close attention is required to develop a program and prepare reports. Often incorrect planning or desire to make faster, led to ineffective implementation of the strategic session.

1. Formulation of the purpose and tasks of the session. Determination of the desired results and their formats.

Not less than 1.5 months before the session.

2. Determining the date and venue. Pre-selection platform. Acquaintance with candidates for the role of a leading strategic session.

Not less than 1.5 months before the session.

3. Final choice of the candidacy of the lead. Defining the program blocks and the necessary reports. Formation of the first draft program. Booking premises.

Not less than 1 month before the strategic session.

4. Education of the program at the level of discussions and plenary sessions. Determination of the output format after discussions. Preparation of reports and speakers. Determination of additional blocks of the program - buffet, thymbynding, etc.

2 weeks before the event.

5. Formation of lists of working groups. Preparation of internal or invited facilitators. Working out key activities on focus groups (if required). Printing materials.

7-4 days before the session.

The remaining time to spend time on spa treatments and moral training. Joke! But in the reserve for some changes there should always be a couple of days.

When and where to conduct a strategic session?

When? Not exactly at the time of the company's crisis, when there is a question of survival, or the reluctance of the owners to look into the future. It is also not recommended to develop a strategy in the conditions of extreme instability of the external environment. Difficulties cause start-up cases - absolutely new products / services with a non-deformed market - difficult to predict.

In all other cases, regardless of tasks (developing goals or enhance the involvement), the strategic session is possible to plan and implement.

Duration of the strategic session

It is worth counting on a duration of at least 1 day. This time allows all participants to immerse themselves in the subject, develop and coordinate optimal solutions, draw up road maps, distribute responsibility.

Sorry, but in some cases, leaders intend to operate only by short-term tasks. Therefore, for companies that will first conduct a strategic session to schedule in the program modules for immersion in the process, addictive to what you need to look into the future and conduct system analysis. Yes, and analyzing / prediction tools (for example, SWOT or PEST analysis) cannot be implemented in an hour.

Also, the development of strategic goals is often accompanied by a discussion of corporate culture and. Because corporate culture and strategy of the company, like Yin and Yan, are interrelated and interdependent. And the time is also needed.

We more often accounted for 2-3 days of day sessions. A larger number of days affects the dynamics in the group involvement of participants. Therefore, with a large number of outlined discusions, it is better to defeat them into separate strategic sessions.

Where to spend a session of strategic planning?

The choice of embodiments is limited only by appropriateness and budget.

First of all, we turn to the goals of the session. If the development and coordination of decisions, the setting of goals occurs in a narrow circle and in a short time, then the place is the Cabinet of the Director-General or convenient negotiation. And such sessions in our experience were quite effective. The advantage of such a decision can be considered efficiency (including with obtaining the necessary information) and low costs.

If there is an additional task (command formation, increasing loyalty, giving the significance of the event, the need to organize a joint recreation - choose any), there will be a large number of participants or you need to distinguish from a familiar activity, then planning the session is better at the departure. Recent hall, boarding house.

Unusual places for strategic sessions

In our practice there were corporate departures abroad (Montenegro, Georgia, even Thailand - in the framework of the departure we also conducted a quest on the ground). For lovers, exotic can be organized - a strategic session combined with tourism.

What after the strategic session?

The strategic session is a responsible project that must be a prototype or metaphor of the entire company. From how it will pass, and the most important thing that will be with its results, the future of the company depends.

In our practice there were several cases when a successfully spent session (talented solutions were developed, the participant was involved and distributed tasks) did not "continue" outside the event. Banally, at the level of execution of solutions. Or developed decisions caused employee rejection.

Therefore, the main tasks after the strategic session are the final details and performance of all solutions, as well as broadcast and involvement of the company's entire personnel in the implementation process. And this is already management of changes.

So there is a topic for the next article.