Developing an Organizational Strategy that Works for You!
Long-term strategy is often cited as the single most important aspect yet most often often overlooked by most organizations. The most likely reason for this is that actually developing a strategy that works, that fits well with the organization’s assets and resources and that can be realistically implemented is not an easy task. Developing and maintaining a strategic direction requires a commitment from all those involved, and a will to make it work. Underlying this is the requirement for buy-in from the different sectors of the organization, and an opportunity for everyone to contribute to the strategic process.
SYM proposes a wide range of tools to identify, elaborate and harness the powers within an organization to develop strong long-term strategy. These include the following workshop-style exercises:
1. Strategy development Workshop
2. Converting long-term impacts into strategic opportunities
3. Maximizing positive impacts
Strategy Development Workshops
“Where is our organization going?”
“What do we represent?”
These are only a few questions commonly heard among organizations, both new and established alike. Often, management recognizes such fundamental problems, but can’t seem to figure out how to attack it while still attending to their daily duties. Unfortunately, no organization can elude the fact that, sooner or later, lack of a clear strategy will come back to haunt them.
Yet, building a strategy can be one of the most exhilarating, creative and collaborative process an organization does. Sym proposes a simple 1 or 2-day, 6-step process geared to unlock the potential already found within an organization. It is based on the assumption that people within the organization know, deep down, what strategy works best for them, but are often constrained by artificial and, ultimately, resolvable issues. Because people work best when they are at ease, the strategy development process is done in a retreat-style setting, and each step is designed to ensure a safe and collaborative process between actors.
The following steps make up the basic SYM Strategy-building process. The process culminates in the “Final Commitment”, a final step in which all those involved become accountable to their peers to ensure that the outcomes of the process translate ultimately in tangible actions to make the strategy a reality.
Converting long-term impacts into strategic opportunities
Large-scale development projects often implicate large residual impacts that forever change a landscape, but also large influxes of capital that can be leveraged to effect positive social change. Converting the negative into positive is the fundamental challenge to making any project socially acceptable.
SYM proposes a process by which organizations identify their assets, resources and strengths so that they are prepared to take on large projects as early as possible, allowing them to mobilize and, ultimately, benefit from as many opportunities it presents.
Converting long-term negative impacts into something positive will depend on the ability and speed of organizations to recognize and act on the opportunities that present themselves. Choosing which opportunities requires a careful evaluation of internal capacity and a will to mobilize those resources in the same direction.
The diagram below summarizes the approach. SYM will accompany the client through the major milestones of strategy development, through the development of programs to implement the strategy, ending in evaluation to better understand the impacts, to learn from the experience and, ultimately, to improve the strategy.
Maximizing positive impacts
In the world of capital markets, individuals and organizations with access to money, mostly through savings, transfer these to organizations in need of money so that they can develop their ideas into actual products to be used by consumers. If these products are financially successful, gains come back to investors in the form of a financial return. In the world of social programs, funds are invested to develop initiatives that respond to a specific social problem. In this case, success benefits the collective as the social problem is effectively addressed. These are often referred to as social returns.
In the last few years, the worlds of capital markets and social programs have converged through “Impact Investing”. This is the allocation of investment funds towards initiatives that still have the potential to generate a financial return that is mediated by its additional potential social return. The ratio of financial to social return can vary widely between programs, and so will largely be defined by the objectives of the individual investors. According to the Global Impact Investing Network, between 2015-2018 alone, the sector grew by five times!
Impact Investing has revolutionized social programs. Although social programs were always seen as investments, their horizons and desired outcomes were not always clear. This has often resulted in the use of inappropriate metrics to truly measure success. With rigorous planning and quarterly reporting, programs have become far more accountable, ultimately for the benefit of all investors. Furthermore, applying a financial return to a social program allows them to become self-sufficient over the long-term, thus not perpetually dependent on external funding.
SYM advocates the use of the “Impact Investing” model for all social programs that it helps develop. It can help in the development of social programs from the development of ideas all the way to implementation. It utilizes over 15 years experience in the development of programs in the following areas: sustainable development; research and training. Furthermore, because social problems are almost always complex, it will work in developing partnerships with different organizations to attack the problem from different angles, thereby ensuring its long-term success.
