It’s become a cliché that strategies often aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Why? Michael Lunn suggests that it’s because we don’t always understand what a strategy is for. Here are their five steps for writing a great sustainability strategy.
‘Strategy is not the consequence of planning but rather the opposite; its starting point.’ - Henry Mintzberg, Canadian business strategist
“Look around your office”. How many strategies do you have lurking in dark and dusty corners? If you are like most people they will be coming at you from every direction. Community strategies, divisional strategies, departmental strategies, communication strategies, corporate strategies, consultation strategies: the list seems endless. Yet, given the phenomenal amount of time and energy that is committed to producing all these strategies, when was the last time you heard someone say ‘‘Great, another strategy. That’ll really help me do my job.” Most of the strategies we come across seem to create confusion rather than clarity. I raise this issue because our feedback from a number of members getting frustrated in answering the question ‘How can we develop a great sustainability strategy?’– that is, one that adds clarity rather than contributing to the confusion.
What is strategy?
The first thing to make clear is that a “plan” is not the same as a “strategy”. The two words (strategy and plan) are often used interchangeably and this leads to confusion. The half-inch thick documents that gather dust on our shelves are not strategies. Strategy is always succinct. A good strategy can be digested in minutes and yet will enable decisions to be taken, plans to be judged, resources to be allocated and actions to be prioritised. That is not to say that the strategy does not need to be supported by analysis of the current situation and why the particular strategy has been adopted to deliver some change – but the analysis and rationale is just that, it is not actually part of the strategy. Strategy is the starting point for planning. It is about asking the most basic questions: what are we trying to achieve and how (in the very broadest terms) are we going to achieve it? It is a basic prerequisite of the planning process but it is not the detailed planning itself. The main problem with many of the strategies we come across is that they fail to answer (or even ask) these basic questions. They are simply plans without much strategy at all, or even worse they are information and analysis without much planning or strategy.
Five steps to produce a great strategy
So, you think you need (or have been told you need) a strategy – where do you start? We believe that there are five essential steps:
1. Agree a common language (Process)
2. Agree what the strategy is for (Purpose)
3. Analyse the way things are now (Current Reality)
4. Declare the way you would like things to be (Future Possibility)
5. Identify the areas of activity that you think will have the biggest impact on delivering the future possibility (Drivers of Change).
We explore each of these briefly below.
Step 1 – Agree a common language (Process)
One of the biggest areas of confusion in strategy is the language involved. Strategy is littered with jargon: priorities, actions, aims, outcomes, outputs, vision, issues, and objectives. You may feel that you understand how a strategic priority differs from an aim but do your colleagues and those reading the strategy share the same understanding? When preparing strategy it is essential to agree the language that is going to be used and to write a clear explanation of what the terms mean. The process of strategy development is underpinned by the language that is used. If the language is not shared you cannot be sure that you are working to the same process as your colleagues. Getting clear about the language rather than making assumptions that everyone understands the language in the same way will help develop a strong foundation for effective discussion about what is really important: the strategy itself.
Step 2: Agree what the strategy is for (Purpose)
‘What is this strategy for?’ doesn’t seem a very difficult question, though in practice it is a question that is rarely asked. It is critical before starting work on a strategy that its purpose is clearly understood. For example, suppose you are asked to produce a ‘sustainable development strategy’ for your organisation. What is the purpose of the strategy? Is it a strategy to ensure that the idea of sustainable development is embedded in the way the organisation works? Or is it a strategy to communicate the idea of sustainable development to your stakeholders? These are two very different strategies.
Step 3: Analyse the way things are now (Current Reality)
To use a navigational metaphor it is no help knowing where you want to get to if you don’t know where you are. This is where we use our “compass methodlogy” to give us a sign of direction. In order to develop a useful strategy you will need to understand something about the situation you are in. This is where our understanding of indicators come in. We have very poor knowledge of real information that can help us develop a really great strategy. Ideally this will include some understanding of how you got where you are now. What are the current trends? What are the activities that have created the opportunities you now have? What are the things that you are doing that are creating difficulties? What is the scale of the challenges and opportunities you face? This is the gathering of intelligence on which decisions can be made. There are many sources of intelligence from indicators of various sorts to personal experiences and knowledge of constraints and opportunities. All of these need to be assessed and discussed to develop as clear a picture as possible of the ways things are now. There will be gaps in the information you have, some information may appear contradictory and different people and organisations will have different interpretations of it. However, establishing a shared view of the way things are is an important step in developing a useful strategy.
Step 4: Declare the way you would like things to be
(Future Possibility)
Continuing the navigational metaphor, and to quote from Lewis Carol, ‘if you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there’. Agreeing the Future Possibility is about identifying where you want the strategy to take you. In answering this question we have found it useful to distinguish between ‘outcomes’ and ‘actions’. Actions are ways of achieving outcomes. For instance an action in a strategy on housing might be, ‘we will create 87 new units available at low cost’. By asking the question ‘why do we want to build these units?’ a clear outcome can be developed. This could be, ‘nobody will have to wait more than three months to be housed if they are homeless’. At this stage of strategy preparation people will often want to talk in terms of specific actions. However, it is important to translate these into outcomes. The future possibility can then be expressed as a set of outcomes. It is particularly useful if each of these is written in a way that enables anyone following progress to be clear when the outcome has been achieved. This process of declaring the way we would like things to be is an act of leadership.
The best strategies are those that set out to do the things we don’t yet know how to do. This is why it is important to clarify future possibility before agreeing actions. If we start with actions all we will do is what we know how to do already. The strategy will be in danger of being limited to ‘more of the same’ just arranged differently. The future possibility sets out a clear direction and provides a compass for those charged with delivering action to build their action plans. Establishing a clear set of outcomes is critical for a good strategy.
What is this strategy for? “doesn’t seem a very difficult question, though in practice it is a question that is rarely asked”.
Step 5: Identify the areas of activity that will have the biggest impact on delivering the future possibility (Drivers of Change)
The final step is to identify the Drivers of Change that will take us from the current reality to the future possibility. In this context drivers for change means the key areas where we can take action and that create real leverage in shifting from current reality to future possibility. Which areas of activity provide the biggest advantage in getting from here to there? In most strategies there are no more than a handful of important drivers of change.
As part of this process it is also important to recognise which of these drivers you can truly have an impact on. It is no good including ideas that you have no control or influence over. For each of the drivers of change it is essential to ask the question ‘do we have the control or influence over this driver?’ For example, we might identify legislation as a key driver of change in getting businesses to take environmental issues seriously. However unless you are working in partnership with the legislators you cannot really influence the legislation so there is no point including this in your strategy. Alternatively, you might want to enrol someone who does have the influence you need.
Towards a great strategy
The first three steps in strategy development are to agree a common language, clarify the purpose of the strategy and analyse the current reality. These steps are not the strategy. They are simply the groundwork that allows the strategy to be prepared. The final two steps are the strategy itself which consists of a declaration of the future possibility and identification of the key drivers of change. Of course, having the strategy is not the same as getting it implemented. As we said earlier strategy is not planning: it is what enables people to develop action plans that are consistent with the future that is being sought and acting in the areas where most advantage can be won. This is where one final step is needed – producing a plan!
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