Advanced Public Sector Strategy

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to understand:

• The reasons public and non-profit organisations (collaborations and communities) should embrace strategic planning and management as ways of improving their performance.
• The elements of effective deliberation and deliberative practices.
• An effective strategic planning and management process for public and non-profit organisations that has been successfully used by many thousands of public and non-profit organisations around the world – the Strategy Change Cycle.
• How to apply the process including information on specific tools and techniques that might prove useful in various circumstances within organisations, across organisations, and in communities.
• The major roles that must be played by various individuals and groups for strategic planning to work and how the roles are played.
• The various ways in which strategic planning may be institutionalised so that strategic thinking, acting, and learning may be encouraged, embraced, and embedded across an entire organisation.
• Many examples of successful (and unsuccessful) strategic planning practice.

CONTENT

The Strategy Change Cycle

• A ten-step strategic planning process
• Tailoring the process to specific circumstances

Initiating and Agreeing on a Strategic Planning Process

• Planning focus and desired immediate outcomes
• Desired longer-term outcomes
• Developing an initial agreement
• Process design and action guidelines
• Have realistic hopes for the process

Clarifying Organisational Mandates and Mission

• Mandates
• Mission
• Stakeholder analyses
• The mission statement
• Process design and action guidelines

Assessing the Environment to Identify Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges

• Purpose
• Desired immediate outcomes
• Longer-term desired outcomes
• External environment assessments
• Internal environment assessment
• The assessment process
• SWOC/T analyses: an example
• Process design and action guidelines

Identifying Strategic Issues facing the Organisation

• Immediate and longer-term desired outcomes
• Examples of strategies issues
• Eight approaches to strategic issue identification
• Process design and action guidelines

Formulating and Adopting Strategies and Plans to Manage the Issues

• Purpose
• Desired immediate and longer-term outcomes
• Two approaches to strategy development
• Strategic plans
• Plan adoption
• Process design and action guidelines

Establishing an Effective Organisational Vision for the Future

• Desired immediate outcomes and longer-term benefits
• An example
• Process design and action guidelines

Implementing Strategies and Plans Successfully

• Desired immediate and longer-terms outcomes
• Programmes and projects
• The special role of budgets
• Process design and action guidelines

Reassessing and Revising Strategies and Plans

• Purpose and desired outcomes
• Building a strategic management system
• Process design and action guidelines

Leadership Roles in making Strategic Planning work

• Understanding the context
• Sponsoring the process
• Championing the process
• Facilitating the process
• Fostering collective leadership (and followership)
• Using dialogue and deliberation to create a meaningful process
• Making and implementing decisions in arenas
• Enforcing norms, settling disputes and managing residual conflicts

FOR WHOM

Chief executive officers, chief administrative officers, chief financial officers, chief information officers, Executive directors, deputy directors, and unit directors.

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

The training methodology combines lectures, discussions, group exercises and illustrations. Participants will gain both theoretical and practical knowledge of the topics. The emphasis is on the practical application of the topics and as a result participant will go back to the workplace with both the ability and the confidence to apply the techniques learned to their duties.

DATE:

1ST BATCH:              14th – 17th April, 2020                     

2ND BATCH:             5th – 7th August, 2020          

3RD BATCH:             24th – 27th November, 2020