Organizational Leadership Coaching(R), LLC

Strategic Planning & Facilitation Skills

Planning is imperative to the accomplishment of Bold Visions. We devote much effort to facilitate people and organizations in the achievement of long term goals and milestones.  We employ a customized process to assesses current organization reality, generate and mind-map future trends and opportunities, then produce a written step by step (target - milestones included) plan that assigns responsibilities and accountability.  The following are elements of our planning tools and process:

• Hoshin Strategic Planning Process and Method
• Plan - Do - Study - Act (PDSA)
• Process Planning Tools
• Total Quality Manangement (TQM)
• Vision Casting and Development Coaching
• One Page Business Plans - Jim Haran
• Facilitation Skill Training

Hoshin Strategic Planning

In Japanese, hoshin means "shining metal," "compass," or "pointing the direction." Kanri means "management" or "control." The name suggests howhoshin planning aligns an organization toward accomplishing a single goal.Hoshin kanri is a method devised to capture and cement strategic goals as well as flashes of insight about the future and develop the means to bring these into reality." Also called policy deployment, hoshin planning, or simply hoshin, it is a strategic planning/strategic management methodology based on a concept popularized in Japan by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa in the late 1950s when he said, "Each person is the expert in his or her own job, and Japanese TQC [Total Quality Control] is designed to use the collective thinking power of all employees to make their organization the best in its field." This is the fundamental principle of hoshin kanri. In Professor Ishikawa's words in his book, What Is Total Quality Control?, "Top managers and middle managers must be bold enough to delegate as much authority as possible. That is the way to establish respect for humanity as your management philosophy. It is a management system in which all employees participate, from the top down and from the bottom up, and humanity is fully respected." Adaptations of the concept have since been developed by many, including Dr. Yoji Akao, that use a Shewhart cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) to create goals, choose control points (measurable milestones), and link daily control activities to company strategy.

The discipline of hoshin kanri is intended to help an organization

• Focus on a shared goal,
• Communicate that goal to all leaders,
• Involve all leaders in planning to achieve the goal, and
• Hold participants accountable for achieving their part of the plan.

It assumes daily controls and performance measures are in place. "With hoshin kanri... the daily crush of events and quarterly bottom-line pressures do not take precedence over strategic plans; rather, these short-term activities are determined and managed by the plans themselves." Click below to observe more concerning the process and to see an example of developed written plan.

Total Quality Management 

TQM is an integrative philosophy of manangement for continuously improving the quality of products and processes. TQM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM requires the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations. The methods for implementing this approach come from people such asPhilip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran. Using TQM methods the GCP Group helps organizations move to higher levels while modeling a system of functioning that emphasizes continuous improvement and future strategy development.

The One Page Business Plan

Tim Clauss, Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work  says "The One Page Business Plan is an easy-to-use process that helps you capture your vision and translate it into concrete results. Jim (author of One Page Business Plan) has truly streamlined a tiresome, complicated chore. With a return to simple values, simple truths, planning can be fun and creative. A little chicken soup for busy minds and tired souls..."
 If you are responsible for founding or managing an organization... Now you can easily draft a plan on a single page in just a few hours, not days or weeks! Thousands of businesses have already successfully written and implemented One Page Plans with this simple and effective planning methodology. The One Page Business Plan has been called "The One Page Promise" because it helps directors, boards, management and volunteers clearly define and live up to their promises at organizational, departmental, project and program levels... all in fast, easy to communicate and actionable terms! Let us lead your team through a planning process and integrate every level of your organization into the plan and vision.

Facilitation Skills Training

The definition of facilitate is "to make easy" or "ease a process". What a facilitator does is plan, guide and manage a group event to ensure that the group's objectives are met effectively, with clear thinking, good participation and full buy-in from everyone who is involved.

To facilitate effectively, you must be objective. This doesn't mean you have to come from outside the organization or team, though. It simply means that, for the purposes of this group process, you will take a neutral stance. You step back from the detailed content and from your own personal views, and focus purely on the group process. (The "group process" is the approach used to manage discussions, get the best from all members, and bring the event through to a successful conclusion. How you design this depends on many factors, and we'll explore this in a little more detail later in our training options. The secret of great facilitation is a group process that flows – and with it will flow the group's ideas, solutions, and decisions too.)

Your key responsibility as a facilitator is to create this group process and an environment in which it can flourish, and so help the group reach a successful decision, solution or conclusion. Click below to choose the session that best fits your facilitation training needs.