Strategic Planning and Implementation Training Course

Participants can define the strategic intent and decision boundaries for a planning effort.

• Mission, vision, values and mandate differentiated for planning purposes
• Strategic intent expressed through ambition, boundaries and time horizon
• Clarify non-negotiables imposed by regulation, shareholders, funders or government
• Decision rights mapped using RAPID roles for major strategic choices
• Material stakeholder expectations translated into planning design requirements
• Draft a concise planning mandate with explicit success criteria

Participants can identify external forces that materially affect strategic choices.

• PESTLE analysis focused on material drivers and plausible implications
• Porter's Five Forces used to assess industry profit pools
• Market structure assessed through customers, substitutes, entrants and suppliers
• Regulatory scanning identifies policy changes, compliance burdens and permissions
• Competitor intelligence distinguishes stated plans, capabilities and likely moves
• Trend evidence separated from weak signals, speculation and management opinion

Participants can analyse stakeholder influence and build engagement priorities around strategic decisions.

• Stakeholder mapping using power, interest, legitimacy and urgency criteria
• Ecosystem actors mapped across partners, regulators, customers and communities
• Identify stakeholders who can block, accelerate or reshape implementation
• Engagement strategies matched to stakeholder influence and decision timing
• Customer and beneficiary needs converted into strategic design inputs
• Political and institutional constraints documented as planning assumptions

Participants can diagnose organisational capabilities, resources and performance gaps relevant to strategy.

• Value chain analysis identifies activities creating cost, quality or differentiation
• Capability assessment tests people, process, technology, data and governance
• VRIO analysis distinguishes strategic resources from ordinary operating assets
• Performance trends segmented by customer, product, geography and channel
• Root-cause analysis separates symptoms from structural performance constraints
• Baseline metrics establish current position before setting strategic targets

Participants can convert diagnosis findings into evidence-based strategic issues and assumptions.

• Evidence register records source quality, confidence and decision relevance
• Assumption logs distinguish facts, forecasts, estimates and management beliefs
• Strategic issue statements identify tensions requiring leadership choices
• Problem trees trace outcome gaps to drivers, causes and constraints
• Materiality tests rank issues by impact, urgency and controllability
• Synthesize diagnostic findings into a concise strategic position statement

Participants can develop scenarios and use them to test strategic resilience.

• Scenario axes built from high-impact, high-uncertainty external drivers
• Four-scenario matrix develops distinct yet plausible future operating conditions
• Wind-tunnelling tests strategic choices against each scenario's assumptions
• Signposts identify observable indicators that signal scenario movement
• Contingency triggers specify decisions, thresholds and pre-agreed responses
• No-regrets actions selected for value across multiple plausible futures

Participants can generate distinct strategic options rather than incremental activity lists.

• Choice cascade frames winning aspiration, where-to-play and how-to-win decisions
• Strategic themes grouped around outcomes, value propositions and competitive position
• Generate options through growth, efficiency, partnership, capability and portfolio choices
• Business model choices examine customers, revenue, costs and delivery channels
• Blue Ocean value curves reveal differentiation and elimination opportunities
• Option narratives state target outcomes, logic and required strategic moves

Participants can compare strategic options using transparent criteria and decision evidence.

• Decision criteria weight impact, feasibility, risk, affordability and strategic fit
• Multi-criteria decision analysis scores options using agreed evidence standards
• Sensitivity analysis tests decisions against changing assumptions and weights
• Real-options logic stages commitments under significant uncertainty
• Risk-adjusted option comparisons expose downside exposure and mitigation costs
• Recommendation papers present alternatives, trade-offs and required executive decisions

Participants can translate strategic choices into objectives, outcomes and causal logic.

• Strategic objectives written as outcome-focused statements with defined direction
• Theory of Change maps interventions, outputs, outcomes and assumptions
• Outcome chains distinguish activities, deliverables, capabilities and realised benefits
• Objectives tested for coherence, mutual reinforcement and manageable scope
• Strategic themes converted into a limited set of priority objectives
• Cause-and-effect maps expose dependencies between customer, process and capability outcomes

Participants can create a concise visual strategy that communicates choices and priorities.

• Strategy-on-a-page structure connects purpose, choices, objectives and measures
• Strategic narrative explains why change is necessary and what matters
• Priorities limited through explicit stop-doing, defer and divest decisions
• Visual hierarchy distinguishes outcomes, initiatives, enablers and operating commitments
• Executive audiences receive decision-focused messages rather than planning detail
• Consistency checks align strategy wording across plans, budgets and communications

Participants can design performance measures that track strategic progress and outcomes.

• Balanced Scorecard perspectives adapted to commercial, public and mission contexts
• Objectives and Key Results connect ambitious outcomes with measurable results
• Leading and lagging indicators balanced across each strategic objective
• Measure definitions specify formula, owner, frequency, source and target
• Targets set using baselines, benchmarks, capacity and strategic ambition
• Metric trees trace executive outcomes to operational performance drivers

Participants can prioritise initiatives and align resources with the approved strategy.

• Initiative charters define scope, sponsor, benefits, milestones and dependencies
• Portfolio matrices compare initiatives by value, risk, urgency and feasibility
• Benefits maps link investment decisions to strategic outcomes and measures
• Resource demand assessed across funding, talent, technology and leadership capacity
• Zero-based prioritisation challenges inherited projects lacking strategic contribution
• Capital and operating expenditure aligned with strategic initiative requirements

Participants can build implementation roadmaps with sequencing, ownership and decision points.

• Roadmaps sequence initiatives through mobilise, build, deploy and sustain stages
• Critical path analysis identifies time-sensitive dependencies and decision constraints
• Milestones framed as verifiable deliverables rather than calendar dates
• RACI matrices assign accountable owners, contributors and approvers
• Stage gates establish evidence requirements before further investment decisions
• Integrated plans reconcile operational continuity with transformation delivery demands

Participants can establish governance arrangements that support timely strategic decisions and delivery.

• Governance design assigns forums, mandates, membership and escalation routes
• Steering committees focus on decisions, risks, benefits and dependency resolution
• Accountability maps connect strategic objectives to named executive owners
• Delegated authorities clarify which decisions require board or executive approval
• Decision logs document rationale, commitments, conditions and follow-up actions
• Governance calendars align strategic reviews with budgeting and performance cycles

Participants can integrate strategic risk management into planning, implementation and review.

• ISO 31000 principles applied to strategic risk identification and treatment
• Risk appetite statements define acceptable exposure for strategic objectives
• Risk registers connect causes, events, consequences, controls and owners
• Bow-tie analysis maps preventive controls and recovery measures
• Emerging-risk indicators trigger reassessment before strategic damage occurs
• Business continuity assumptions tested against priority service and delivery commitments

Participants can build change and communication plans that support strategy adoption.

• Stakeholder narratives explain strategic choices, impacts and expected contributions
• Kotter's eight steps applied to mobilising strategic change programmes
• Change impact assessments identify role, process, capability and system effects
• Sponsor coalitions built across executive, operational and informal leadership networks
• Communication plans match messages, channels, timing and stakeholder concerns
• Resistance patterns addressed through involvement, capability building and visible decisions

Participants can run strategic reviews that convert performance evidence into corrective action.

• Quarterly business reviews compare outcomes, measures, risks and delivery commitments
• Performance dialogues distinguish variance explanations from management actions
• After-action reviews capture evidence, decisions, lessons and revised assumptions
• Strategic control systems monitor premises, implementation and special alerts
• Corrective actions assigned with owners, deadlines and verification criteria
• Refresh triggers identify when strategy requires revision rather than execution repair

Participants can communicate strategy recommendations clearly to boards, executives and delivery teams.

• Executive storylines lead with decision, evidence, implications and required action
• Pyramid Principle structures strategic messages for senior decision-makers
• Board papers distinguish recommendation, rationale, risks and requested approvals
• Strategy visuals communicate choices without overloading audiences with planning detail
• Objection handling prepares evidence-based responses to predictable executive challenges
• Briefing packs align spoken presentations, scorecards and supporting analysis

Participants can build, review and present a complete strategic plan with an implementation case.

• Assemble strategic diagnosis, choices, objectives, initiatives and performance measures
• Complete a strategy-on-a-page with explicit causal and implementation logic
• Finalise roadmap, resource assumptions, governance arrangements and risk responses
• Prepare executive recommendation with decisions, trade-offs and funding requirements
• Peer review tests evidence quality, coherence, feasibility and stakeholder relevance
• Present the complete strategic plan and respond to challenge questions