Strategy Formulation
Results Focused
Disruption from competitors, community expectations, court cases, enquiries, or even changes to collaborators business models affects operations. Resilience and adaption strategies are a key part of good governance. To be effective, strategies need to be developed and tested against a realistic framework. Most experiential learners create plans (desired outcomes) but do not test this against forecasts (what will occur). Forecasts are based upon causal drivers. Court cases and inquiry findings are known. However, competitor and collaborator changes often occur with little warning. The key is developing the right forecasting model/s that aligns with the relevant causal drivers and are also aligned with the risk tolerance described in the organisational risk culture statements for various dimensions (cost, production, safety, environment, supply chain etc) and any changes resulting from organisational maturity. Once these are determined effective strategies can be developed.
What We Offer
Business Transformation
Business transformation is the orderly re-connection of the organisations neural pathways whilst maintaining all performance indicators. The key productivity aspect is integrating change (continuous improvement and stepwise change) within and between each affected business function (management, production, administration, financial, marketing, provision of technical services). DTD approach is describe in our quality statement and represented by the Platinum People logo.
Feasibility Studies
Feasibility studies can be conducted at any stage to develop strategies through to optimising plans. They should only be sufficient to assess the practicality of a proposed plan or method of forecast. DTD feasibility studies integrate the task, organisational capacity, intended benefit horizon to determine the practicality. Practicality is often determined not by an organisation’s capacity but supporting key resources in a timely manner. DTD feasibility studies also identify implementation issues.
Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder engagement commences with a causal diagram of each role on the achievement of organisational outcomes. The contribution of the project is then assessed to determine the most appropriate engagement methodology. DTD then develops SMARTs that ensure that appropriate stakeholder is engaged and commits to the agreed timeframes. DTD develops individual alignment to other people in the organisation and the shared purpose. This is represented by our logo of people connections with everybody connected to a shared purpose and moving in the same direction.
Future History (Strategic Business Advice)
Future histories is the client or sponsors unconstrained and non-judgemental view of the desired outcomes. DTD then backcasts to determine the sequence of key decisions and events that led to the future. This is designed to help contextualise stakeholder identification, inputs and create bite-sized work packages that can be reviewed for realism. Key outcomes include feasibility studies on particular elements, readiness assessments and initial forecasting methods to test solutions.
Workshop Facilitation
Workshop facilitation is a key enabler in strategy development and implementation. Workshops are often required when there are information gaps between key decision-makers or actions are not similarly valued. DTD structures the workshop to illicit the desired outcome. Outcomes could include new concepts for strategy consideration, investigating portfolio risk, culture alignment or eliciting moral responsibility for actions. Almost all workshops have an (organisational) culture – (individual) emotional – task alignment.
Cultural Assessments
Organisations, often for good reasons, have limited neural diversity. At times they can be surprised by disruptors (competitors, third parties, society etc). Cultural assessments are designed to identify blindspots and impediments to achieving their strategy. DTD uses a range of quantitative and qualitative tools to assess the change readiness and resilience. This assists Boards and executive management in determining the appropriate rate of strategy implementation to preserve (at least) and enhance productive outcomes.
Organisational Capability and readiness Assessments
As a sub-set of cultural assessments, organisation capability assessments have many facets including: behaviours, traits, resilience, management systems, skill-sets, resource models, third party agreements etc. DTD uses a range of qualitative and quantitative tools to develop a maturity model and assess the rate of change possible for strategy implementation. Also included are leading and lag indicators to assist management and governance in evaluating strategy implementation.
Human Factors in Decision-making
When strategy fails it can often be traced to a decision-makers cognitive dissonance (discomfort when a person simultaneously holds contradictory beliefs). Key decision-makers often find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort by deferring decisions, inappropriate delegation, implementing delaying actions such as feasibility studies or further consultation. DTD provides the initial understanding at the proposal stage to identify dialogue hooks at start-up and then agrees strategies. A common tool is coaching or mentoring. Less common is the use of delegation instruments.
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