Strategic Planning the Genuine Contact Way

The Invitation

You are invited to learn strategic planning that includes learning about  the development of a strategic plan AND what needs to be in place for the strategic plan to be successfully implemented. 

You’ll learn about the development of a strategy focused organization including a strategy focused culture. 

Having a plan isn’t enough. Researchers, including Norton and Kaplan at Harvard, have found that 70-90% of strategic plans fail to be executed. We did our own research, studying within that small percentage of organizations that successfully execute their strategic plans. Strategic Planning the Genuine Contact Way was developed based on what we learned needed to be in place for success with strategic plan execution. 

Leaders, managers, and organizational development consultants will learn how to turn great ideas in their organizations into outstanding results by creating clarity, alignment, and a systematic approach to evaluating and managing organizational performance in relation to strategic plan execution.

Throughout this learning program, you will learn:

  • the critical ingredients for developing a strategic plan that actually gets implemented instead of just sitting on a shelf gathering dust
  • Simple processes you can use to engage your organization while developing the plan to tap into the collective wisdom of your people for innovation, wise action, and extraordinary results
  • how to develop the strategic planning process to create join-in from the beginning rather than trying to convince your people to buy into the plan once it’s done
  • The value of a collaborative approach throughout the organization in the development of the plan
  • Skills, knowledge, confidence, and commitment to lead this work masterfully

Summer Academy Welcome Circle

Why Use This Approach?

This approach avoids common mistakes in the strategic planning process. Common mistakes lead to strategic planning exhaustion; the futility associated with strategic plan implementation; the challenge of creating buy-in to a strategic plan; rigidity in the plan that doesn’t take a changing environment into account; and the most common mistake of having people feel as though they are doing their jobs plus having to work on the strategic plan implementation.

Strategic planning the Genuine Contact Way is rooted in what works. This approach:

  • keeps strategic plan implementation at the core of the strategic planning process rather than limiting the work to just creating a strategic plan
  • engages people without leaving them exhausted;
  • involves people throughout the organization, developing an understanding of what is in the plan and why, as the plan develops so there is no need to expend energy to get people to buy in to a plan; 
  • innovation is built into the plan as an essential part of the functioning of the organization; 
  • monitoring for the purpose of timely adjustment is built in; 
  • periodic strategic plan refresh is built into the planning to keep the plan alive, viable, and relevant to the environment.

We keep it simple, with simple tools to handle complexity. We recognize that change is constant and any planning needs to take into account a changing performance environment. We recognize the value of conversations and collective wisdom gathered in participatory meeting processes to come up with the best plans, the best way of closing the gap between potential and results. 


Who Needs to Be Involved?

Ideally, everyone affected by the strategic plan and those responsible for implementing it are involved in strategic planning. Some organizations use a whole system approach to involvement, figuring out who has a stake in the strategic plannning, inviting a broad spectrum of stakeholders. 

Formal leaders, managers, and consultants have clear roles in preparing the organization as a strategy focused organization and leading the strategic planning with that intention in mind.

Breakout groups learning together

How Does It Work?

Learning in this module is offered through 6 phases of learning, based on the Evolutionary Spiral. One of the multi-use tools that make up the Genuine Contact Toolkit, the Evolutionary Spiral offers a roadmap of your learning and development. Every phase provides the tools and tips for taking your organization through a Strategic Planning process the Genuine Contact Way.

  1. Discernment: You will begin by establishing working definitions that capture your perceptions of what strategic planning is and is not. You’ll establish your concept of a strategy focused organization or culture, developing clarity about what you need to set up for successful strategic plan implementation. You will be presented with five beliefs for the purpose of considering their implications for your strategic planning efforts within the performance environment of complexity and constant change.
  2. Readiness: In this phase, you will learn what you’ll need to do to ensure sufficient readiness in an organization for strategic planning. You’ll be guided in developing a readiness checklist complete with actions that you can take towards readiness for the strategic planning.
  3. Engagement: You will be taken through a series of activities to engage you with the art of strategic planning. You’ll increase your confidence and  capacity for leading strategic planning and working with the strategy focused organization. In this phase, you will  learn the tools that you will use during construction of your plan. You’ll come to a new understanding of working with the weaving together of people with process with strategic planning technology.
  4. Construction: In this phase, you practice taking a group of people through constructing a strategic plan with the tools and tips you have learned. You’ll come through this phase with increased competency in leading an organization through strategic planning. You’ll create a presentation to orient teammates to the way you want to do strategic planning, a presentation that will become part of your own toolkit for your work in the future.
  5. Implementation: Through role play, you’ll have the opportunity in this phase to explore what is necessary for implementation of a strategic plan, exploring obstacles and opportunities. This phase provides clarity about what needs to be put in place for successful implementation of a strategic plan. You will add a presentation about implementation to your toolkit for your work in the future.
  6. Monitoring and Adjustment: You’ll look at the difference between performance management and monitoring & adjustment. In this phase you will identify what monitoring needs to include and why. If monitoring shows that the implementation of the strategic plan is off course, adjustments will need to be made. You’ll learn what is meant by a strategic plan refresh if the decision is that the plan itself needs adjusting.

The module is designed with follow-on facilitated peer-with-peer mentoring circles to support your ongoing learning with Strategic Planning the Genuine Contact Way. These mentoring circles include group discussions facilitated by a Genuine Contact Trainer about what has been learned while applying your learning so far.

 

Next Learning Opportunity: Winter Academy 2024

January 8-12, 2024 for all participants + January 13 for GC Trainers only | Online

This module is being offered as the annual Genuine Contact Winter Academy. Join international participants for a week-long online learning intensive in Strategic Planning the Genuine Contact Way.

Your complete learning package includes:

  • Self-study materials to orient yourself to Strategic Planning the Genuine Contact Way prior to the workshop
  • 7 4-hour sessions of real time learning plus 2-3 hours of homework daily
  • Post-workshop learning through implementation and follow-on mentoring circles

Self-Study +
Real-Time Online Learning +
Mentoring Circle

Early bird rate available until December 15, 2023. Regular registration of $2,200 applies thereafter.

Your Facilitators

Birgitt Williams, Workshop FacilitatorBirgitt Williams, is an international management and organizational solutions consultant, author, meeting facilitator, teacher, keynote speaker and executive coach. Her business focus is to assist leaders in closing the gap between their own potential and results, and closing the gap between the potential and results in their organizations. She is an advocate of creating and nurturing a culture of leadership in which every individual and every team works from their authority to carry out the responsibilities that they are accountable for. Birgitt has mastery in possibility thinking and in working with the full potential of both tangible and intangible assets in organizations of all kinds including private sector, public and government sector, communities, consortiums, and strategic collaborations. She is skillful at system change, team cohesion, strategy focus, multi-disciplinary teams and cross cultural work.

 

Birgitt is a creator of the  Genuine Contact program, Co-owner of the Genuine Contact Group, LLC., President of Dalar International Consultancy, Inc., and author of The Genuine Contact Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadership.

Rachel BoltonRachel Bolton, Workshop Facilitator is a senior consultant and coach with Dalar International Consultancy, Inc. She specializes in and loves work with Small Businesses, Solo Entrepreneurship, and  Start-Ups. She has worked with leaders, consultants, and their organizations around the world to develop strategic plans using our Genuine Contact Way processes and brings this wealth of experience into our workshop.  Her unique blend of coaching and Genuine Contact training bring high-level insight and practical suggestions to this work. 

Supporting Learning in Teams and Groups

At Dalar, we are big believers in whole teams and groups learning together. To support group learning, we are pleased to offer the following team discounts:

  • 20% off for 3-5 participants
  • 40% off for 6-10
  • groups of 11+ to be determined based on groups size

Project, intact, cross-functional, and leadership teams, small organizations, boards, and volunteer groups are some examples of the kinds of groups eligible for these discounts. Contact Rachel Bolton for registration details.

This offer is applicable to Early Bird and Regular Rates of registration. It cannot be combined with any other discounts available (i.e Genuine Contact Organization member discounts).

This is a Genuine Contact Way Workshop

Birgitt Williams, Ward Williams and Rachel Bolton of the Dalar team have created these Genuine Contact Way learning modules with a focus on creating and nourishing a culture of leadership in organizations. We believe that when a culture of leadership exists in an organization, productivity increases, employees work both more effectively and with greater satisfaction on their own and in teams, and the organization thrives. Every Genuine Contact Way module provides participants with a complete skill and knowledge set that is beneficial used on its own. Every module is also designed to be part of a multi-purpose blended approach for leadership and organizational development. You may find added benefit to take this module in conjunction with other Genuine Contact Way modules as well as modules of the Genuine Contact ProgramContact us to find out what the right ‘bundle’ is to meet your unique leadership and organizational development and business goals.

Terms and Conditions of Registration