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THINK like a system, ACT like an entrepreneur – Learning your gorilla dance steps

THINK like a system, ACT like an entrepreneur – learning your GORILLA dance steps

Format: 90 minute keynote

This program is perfect for:

CEO, Innovation Lead/Manager. intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs
Team leaders, innovation teams

The audience will leave with:

How to figure out what makes one idea more likely to succeed than others?
Practical tools to manage the innovation process from ideation to commercialisation

Entrepreneurs are commonly associated with visionary ideas, a future-focus and risk-taking. How do they know where to look for ‘the next big thing’ and how do they figure out what makes one idea more likely to succeed than others?

How we think influences how we make judgements and thus take action, which in turn affects the results we get.

Clever entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, consciously or not, apply a systems-thinking approach to every new venture. They become architects of the ascent rather than the defenders of the decline by recognising the environments they work in as innovation ecosystems that are constantly evolving in response to threats and opportunities.

You are asked to create a strategy – now what do you do?

Calling all strategy facilitators looking for a tool to help facilitate strategy that sticks!

Format: 180 minute breakout

This program is perfect for:

Workshop Facilitators and chief strategy officers
Senior Management and team leaders

The audience will leave with:

How to facilitate high impact strategy sessions
How to apply The Systems Thinking Approach to meeting facilitation and improve the outcomes of strategic planning and strategic management discussions.
Increased understanding of effective group facilitation: purpose, concepts, approaches, techniques and parameters (what – why – who – where), etc.

Well, that was a royal waste of time! How many times have you left a meeting and either thought this yourself or heard another say it aloud? Meetings ARE a waste of time . . . IF they are not effectively guided through a series of important processes that ensure group input is focused and balanced. Unfortunately, facilitation skills are seldom taught intentionally, seldom studied and implemented with finesse, and usually ignored as a field of study for strategic planning and change. Yet, it is one of the most important and powerful tools research managers can use to lead and manage research strategy in a disruptive world. C.K. Prahalad identified three strategic actions of managers: Managing the Present, Selectively Abandoning the Past, and Creating the Future. How can a research manager guide this critical work with a research team if (a) a single voice dominates the conversation, (b) hostility overtakes content, (c) the focus becomes blurred, or (d) there no is cohesive structure and process to ensure success? Applying The Systems Thinking Approach® to facilitating strategy dramatically improves outcomes!

Avoiding strategy ping-pong: Defining the board’s role in strategic planning

How your board can avoid strategy ping-pong

Format: 90 minute keynote

This program is perfect for:

Chairpersons and board directors
CEOs, Executive Team members

The audience will leave with:

Effective practices to guide the board’s engagement
The best use of the board’s time in relation to strategic planning
How to engage board members in the planning process

The people sitting around the board table have the capacity to be the sail that helps drive a nonprofit organization forward, or the anchor that holds it back. The way in which the board of directors engages in the strategic planning process can have a significant impact in defining just which direction the board, and the organization, goes. Many nonprofits, and many nonprofit board members, have no or limited experience with strategic planning. What should they consider before starting the process? What resources or tools might be helpful to them?

The Carver Model of board governance has been interpreted by some to suggest that boards are responsible for setting the strategic direction of a nonprofit organization, and staff is responsible for implementing that direction. Others strongly disagree and believe this is a misinterpretation. Whether you’re an adherent of Carver or not, the bottom line question is: what is the board’s role in defining strategy, and what is the staff’s role? Should one “voice” be louder than the other? What do you do if board and staff have differing visions of the future and how the organization should get there?

Strategic Innovation for Leaders

Strategic Innovation for leaders

Format: 90 minute keynote

This program is perfect for:

Chairs and board directors
CEOs, executive teams, business owners

The audience will leave with:

How to anticipate shifts in market, client and industry needs and to be agile enough stay “just ahead” of the innovation curve.
How to clarify and communicate the value proposition for the customer as the foundation for a learning how to identify and comprehend market forces, consumer trends and shifts in demand.
How to integrate and leverage change that ensures longevity in the marketplace.
How to show how established businesses can use it to align themselves to take full advantage of disruptive changes within the market landscape

1. Understand how to leverage your ecosystem in order to anticipate market, client and industry change.

2. Translate the emotional intelligence and customer savvy which exists, within the founder to enable it to be integrated into effective strategic innovation

3. Understand the value of a “strategic innovation culture”

4. Exposure to case study in the application of strategic innovation

Top 12 Most Common Mistakes in Strategic Planning And How to Avoid Them