working with grouppartners
Maki ng the de cisio n to adopt this a ppro a c h
First engagements with us can feel a
little alien and esoteric. It is quite hard to do justice ahead of time to an approach that is based on an open, objective and creative process – but we know that you need assurances that this is right for you and that you are investing wisely in this programme.
It’s as important to us as it is to
you that this is the right approach to take, so our initial conversations will be a mixture of taking the brief and determining the value that we can bring to you. If we feel that we are not best placed to help you we will explain why and may suggest alternative approaches where we can.
P r inciple s  led We work to a set of principles and values that serve us well at every stage of our engagement with you and they start with the way that we construct our programmes and proposals. We work primarily to a value and outcome philosophy that is wholly focused on what it takes to deliver the result you need. From a commercial perspective that means we avoid wherever humanly possible getting caught up in rate card discussions and any other process that might motivate us in the wrong way.
This is a model that requires trust and belief and
the start. From the first conversation we will be shar useful to you whether or not we proceed with Our preference is to tell you what it will take to deliver this, break down the programme into meaningful chunks and allocate a fixed cost to each chunk. We know what it takes for the various types of engagement we deliver and unless there is a material change we hold to that cost. We always over deliver because we want to achieve a great outcome and we value our relationships. There are one or two more complex programmes of work that we have to approach differently, but they are rarely introduced at the entry level and so if they become relevant you will have a much better appreciation of what we can do by then, and we shape those programmes together.
so we invest heavily in the relationship from aring insights and providing input that will be this engagement.
YOUR PROPOSAL
Through our initial discussions and your briefing we will reach some programme principles that allow us to move into the fine-tuning and actual delivery. This foundation will evolve as we move towards intervention and will be sufficient for us to start our preparation and context development. Because our approach demands absolute impartiality and neutrality we simply cannot assume too much until at least the first intervention so exact details and deliverables are not locked down at this stage. We will have a good idea of the general requirements and these will have been included in your proposal.
If we are currently discussing an opportunity to through some of this already but it is worth need to share our proposal with others. Having made the commitment, there are always a number of phases to delivering any programme that we recommend and they are broadly the same in every case. It is the way that we deploy them, the tools that we use, the degree of face to face time vs. remote delivery and the depth that we go to that create the variability and allow us to tailor it to work in a way that is best suited to your environment and exam question.
We will have chosen the governing framework/s that we want to use – but not necessarily the supporting tools, that is part of the first phase of delivery.
S h a pin g  you r  pro gram me
work with you we will have been repeating here, as you will
F ine tuni ng t h e p la n s
A number of activities will have kicked off by the time the programme is formally started. These will typically relate to the Intervention phase and in particular around the logistics of the workshop.
A number of activities will have kicked off by the time the programme is formally started. These will typically relate to the Intervention phase and in particular around the logistics of the workshop.
The timing and venue are critical to get confirmed as soon as possible so we’ll be discussing these in parallel to closing down the proposal details in many cases. We can provide support and advice when it comes to finding the right venue. It always helps to get some photos of the layout of any suggested room; we have a few ways of dealing with those less than ideal rooms that we can discuss with you. If we agreed that it made sense to speak to selected stakeholders ahead of a group workshop we will be establishing the schedule for that and deciding how these will be conducted – typically through a schedule of calls and sometimes with the addition of remote discussion via our collaboration platform. Co-creation is a significant feature and strength of this approach and we always encourage continued collaboration across the team. If you already have a tool that works well for this we are happy to provide the necessary input so that it can be populated with the outcomes from the session for ongoing maintenance.
If we agreed that it made sense to speak to selected stakeholders ahead of a group workshop we will be establishing the schedule for that and deciding how these will be conducted – typically through a schedule of calls and sometimes with the addition of remote discussion via our collaboration platform.
Th e exam
q u e stion In parallel with these activities we’ll be checking that we have a clear exam question. We’ll start this off at the proposal stage and will typically suggest a starting hypothesis that we develop together and confirm with the team on day one of the session. This is a key component of our approach and is effectively the first ‘question’ of many that we’ll be asking through the use of our frameworks. It’s important to give this early attention as it will guide the way we approach everything from this point on – and this is especially critical when it comes to the start of the development of context – we are literally wiring our thinking into this exam question as we move into the next phase.
Moving in to del ivery
Once the programme is confirmed we’ll start work pretty much immediately by starting to gather information that we will use ahead of the workshop. Data gathering is the first step in the delivery of a 4D™/SVT™ engagement and it continues all the way through. We use the information that you provide in a number of ways and for a number of reasons that vary depending on when and how we are using information. Before we break our process down across the phases, it’s important to explain what we are NOT doing as well as what we are doing with the information that we capture and develop through every step of the programme. WE ARE NOT Using information to form opinions or pre-empt the conversations we will have as a group. Using information to assess the health – or otherwise – of the business through a form of SWOT analysis. Using the information to simply play back what you provide to us in an attractive form.
WHAT WE ARE Passionate about is making sure that we understand the dynamics of your business. While every business basically conforms with a common ‘blueprint’ – one that is recognised and applied by enterprises across the globe – you are still unique and we need to get a little inside your heads so that we understand some of the pressures, the environment and culture, the ambitions of the business and any work underway already that contributes to the exam question we will have tentatively agreed. Putting Intention, Capability and Organisation into a meaningful and relevant context. We will take a very wide perspective as we work on this context, one that is representative of the way we believe businesses need to think about strategy in the 21st Century. In this we will also bring insights from the many engagements across the world and across all forms of business and organisation. This is a delicate balance for us – knowing too much, or the wrong kind of information is not a good place for us to be and we treat this phase very seriously and sensitively. Our objectivity and ability to step back and scan the entire ‘system’ that represents your business calls for us to be very disciplined and critical in our thinking and action.
We have been developing this part of the Practice for many years now and have become very quick and adept at rapid assimilation of context. While not absolutely essential, it helps us to maximise your outcomes by accelerating thinking and appreciation of opportunity. For many businesses the work that we bring into the first intervention represents the first time they have been able to see their organisation as a complete entity – a living system with all its complexity acknowledged and connected.
Disciplines aligned to the needs of the 21st century. Our two practitioners work in different, sometimes overlapping, but always complementary, ways. The disciplines we practice are hard to describe sometimes as they do not sit naturally within the conventional consulting toolkit. We bring a mix of capability and experience that can best be described as follows: Facilitation, Framework Construction and Dynamic Visualisation. Facilitation for us is not simply about moderating a good group discussion. We want to end our time together having energised the team and instilled real belief and conviction for the vision and strategy that will have been co-created over the days together. We want the team to have discovered a new way of thinking about solving problems and dealing with touch challenges, and we want the team to be starting a journey better equipped than when they arrive on day one of the workshop. This requires us to be able to test the realities and assumptions of today, to break a few mental models, to stimulate new ideas and to inspire attendees to come up with opportunities previously not imagined – to really set the bar high, at least to begin with – so that our final conclusions represent the best and most considered options for the business overall. Critical Thinking. All of this means that our facilitation works best when not constrained and when allowed to ask the ‘innocent’ questions, to be completely unhampered by reasons why something may not be possible. The framework that we apply will ensure that reality and capability are not ignored and that decisions are made for the right reasons. And above all, the intention at all times will be to get to the root cause of any issues or challenges and to overcome differences caused by semantics.
in to prac tic e
P uttin g this
In most occasions it’s the simplest of questions that generate the biggest insights and ideas. Guiding the discussion at all times is the Exam Question and the logic of the framework that is being developed. The timing of the discussion with regard to the area of the framework being addressed is key; this is the emergence of an integrated view of the strategy and the sequence of build is very deliberate. Framework and Systems Engineering. We look at everything from a holistic perspective and also from a fully integrated perspective. In our view addressing the underlying systems and their construction is at the heart of a sustainable outcome for the business. Our core frameworks force us to look at strategy in a connected and continuous manner fitted for thinking about the future and across the modules of the frameworks there is a simple yet powerful logic that governs the entire process. We can’t think any other way so the context development work that we started when we initiated the programme effectively continues all the way through the engagement and shows up at every stage of the process. That means in the workshop, while the framework is being developed in front of you, we are continuing to build connections, spot gaps and inconsistencies and unearth any clues that will either help us sustain the outcome or prevent us from tripping up over issues that haven’t been completely surfaced. Creativity. Manifested in many ways throughout the programme – with the maximum impact being experienced in the group workshops. It’s incredibly hard to define and there are many interpretations of the word, but for us creativity is a part of our DNA. It’s what keeps us fresh and constantly exploring new techniques and concepts and it’s what we bring to every step of our engagement. You will see it in the expressions that we use to help you describe a better future, you will see it in the way we push you to a higher level of ambition and you will see it most clearly in the way we bring your vision to life visually.
D4 frameworks
D1 Discovery
D2 Development
D3 Decision
D4 Deployment
Dynamic Architecture
Th e dyn a mic s
o f the
programme
The use of visual devices is a major part of the process at each stage. They help us to organise and present complex situations in a more ‘consumable’ way and in a way that creates shared understanding very rapidly. The context that we bring into your first session will be our interpretation of what we see based on what we have learned and observed, and based on what we believe you are trying to achieve. This will show up in a number of ways potentially and we will combine our knowledge and experience of similar scenarios with your context to decide the best input for the discussions – at this stage the primary focus is to bring in stimulus to help the discussion and thinking. During the workshop the emphasis moves to the co-creation of the core framework/s. In all engagements we start with Discovery and Development – although sometimes the Discovery aspects are covered through preparation only. This is a vital phase in any programme as this is where ownership of the vision and strategy is established. In the majority of our engagements we hear that this is the first time a discussion of this nature has taken place with all of the leaders together at the same time. It’s impossible to overstate the significance of that fact. At the end of the workshop we will have agreed some immediate next steps – for us and the team – and will have clarified the exact deliverable required to support work beyond this phase. After the session we start to consolidate and refine everything that has been done to date. As a minimum this means getting the framework and supporting tools into a format that allows reuse in multiple ways. Additionally there will almost always be a supporting narrative, sometimes focused mostly on communicating the vision, in other cases a much deeper translation of the context and the use of the framework. This then leads to the production of the formal deliverables which will be managed by our studio under the direction of the Practice Team. We will confirm timings for this although you can expect to start receiving outputs within 48 hours of the session completion – and we will work to meet any critical deadlines for the more detailed deliverables.
T h e c r i t ic a l i ty o f p e r s is t e nce By the end of our engagement you will be equipped with a foundation for your strategy – one that contains all the critical context to explain the vision and direction and that highlights the challenges that need to be addressed and the implications on your operational model. There will be more to do and often the initial fear is that this is simply creating yet more work for overloaded people. It’s vital that this is not seen as another initiative, the context within the framework should be the primary focus, it is the direction of the business and while there will always be ‘business as usual’ to deal with, the conclusions in this framework should become the way of operating in the future. Some specific initiatives will be required to get to a new model for business as usual, but everything in that framework represents what you SHOULD now be doing. If our collaboration platform has been adopted we will continue to make that available and we can offer support and moderation services as needed.
It’s easy to associate rigour and logic with safety and familiarity, that’s why the same old processes have been around for years
Strategy development doesn’t have to be boring or predictable
Group Partners 32 St James’s Street, London SW1A 1HD
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