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A
strategy should not be confused with a wish list. Good strategies
are always the product of practical thinking and tough choices. |
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The
need for effective strategic planning is felt most acutely during
a crisis, but good strategic thinking is just as critical during
regular planning cycles. Through custom analysis and skillful facilitation,
GivingWorks helps organizations build a shared understanding of
where they have been, where they can go, and how they will get there.
Our relentless focus on tangible impact builds a base for clients
to communicate their impact to stakeholders.
GivingWorks
is committed to helping organizations develop clear, relevant, high-impact
strategies. We start with a situation
assessment that brings together information from internal and
external sources. We then model the
external environment to discover connections to larger systems,
risks, and opportunities. Finally, we facilitate retreats
and workshops to help you turn your strategic insights into
actionable next steps
Our
strategic planning services can help your organization develop a
shared understanding of its situation and key challenges, define
clear priorities, spell out tangible next steps, and create tools
to credibly measure and demonstrate the impact of your work.
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Every
organization has an untold story of how and why its processes have
evolved. Strategists frequently err by either unquestioningly accepting
the way things are, or by trying to start as if from a blank slate.
Situation assessments by GivingWorks bring together information
and perspectives from disparate sources to understand where an organization
is and how it got there. This situation assessment pools organizational
memory among management and staff to develop a holistic
understanding of the organization's past and present.
By
grounding strategic planning in an honest and balanced assessment
of the organization's evolution, our retrospective analysis ensures
that future solutions push beyond the status quo while building
on the strengths and lessons of organizational history.
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Highlight:
Bridging the Gender Gap in the Auto Industry
For an average American family, the purchase
of a vehicle is a major financial undertaking -- and it is a transaction
that can frequently go astray. Research undertaken for this project
showed that women in particular perceived themselves at a disadvantage
during the car purchase process. Half of new automobile buyers in
the United States are women - but women only make up 7.4% of the
staff - and 2.0% of the owners - of auto dealerships. In addition,
the peculiar cultural values and behaviors common in this female-absent
environment exacerbated the discomfort and disrespect that many
women feel when interacting with a dealership. We worked with a
major American automobile manufacturer to understand how it could
address this inequity, and improve its ability to connect with female
employees and buyers. Our unique blend of rigorous quantitative
and anthropological market research revealed the magnitude of the
change impediments, but also clearly quantified the long-term financial
and reputational consequences of not making the needed changes.
Armed with a strong ethical and business case for change, we worked
with the client to design and launch multi-pronged efforts to improve
the gender-equity in its retail network, marketing communications,
and its own staffing practices.
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Public
interest issues are larger than any one organization. The environment
for organizations that work for the public benefit is highly complex.
Strategic planning must consider peers, beneficiaries, supporters,
and often opponents.
GivingWorks
draws from a broad toolkit incorporating scenario planning, systems
modeling, cause mapping, and competitor analysis to create a dynamic,
big-picture view of your external environment. Through a combination
of analytic rigor and creative exploration, GivingWorks helps clients
think through their position in the field, interpret risks and unintended
consequences, and identify potential alliances.
Environmental
scanning can be undertaken to understand an organization's overall
impact in the field or to inform an impending strategic decision.
Often, GivingWorks develops custom tools to address a client's specific
issues.
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Highlight:
Uncovering Challenges and Opportunities for the U.S. Postal Service
With the advent of email, proliferation of
private delivery companies, plummeting price of telephone communications,
and mounting concerns about postal terrorism, the U.S. Postal Service
finds itself at a crossroads. GivingWorks staff worked with the
USPS to identify the key drivers of its business and public service
success, understand the role of each element in the USPS service
portfolio, and develop a systems view of its environment. The tensions
between the public service role of the Postal Service and the need
to be financially viable were discussed from a new perspective.
The report highlighted some of the untapped potential of the USPS
and the need to adopt a more systematic and analytically driven
portfolio perspective of the entire business. A year after its initial
preparation, the report was also utilized by the Presidential Commission
on the Postal Service.
Download
the Report: Challenges and Opportunities at the U.S. Postal Service
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Highlight:
Charting the Future of Multimedia and Society
In 1995-1996, when the term "multimedia"
was new to the English language, and connection speed to the internet
was predominantly 14.4 KBS, we were asked to help make sense of
how these emerging technologies would affect might affect society.
Working with a consortium of private, public, and nonprofit groups
that included NASA, Hewlett-Packard, the Federal Communications
Commission, and several advocacy organizations, we took a look at
how multimedia technology will affect the way we live, work, and
play in the future. The five scenarios that resulted were used by
each stakeholder to project and interpret the plausible changes
in its role in society. Our analysis concluded that multimedia technology
is largely "values-neutral," and therefore its social
consequences are determined by the political and economic framework
in which the technology operates. This exercise foresaw the growing
importance of privacy, equity, and transparency legislation. We
also foresaw the growth and unintended consequences of infotainment
on the internet, as well as the rise of telecommuting and electronic
surveillance. By bringing together diverse and formative perspectives
from technology leaders, policymakers, and advocacy groups, clients
were given a unique preview of social changes propelled by technological
diffusion. This exercise was carried out by Nazir Ahmad and Eva
Miranda for the Bay Area Multimedia Technology Alliance.
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“GivingWorks
played a useful catalytic role in helping us to think differently,
to overcome sectoral parochialism, and to help us concentrate
on delivering results rather than inputs. They were skillful
in creating a non-threatening, evidence-based, decision-focused,
and intellectually lively environment….GivingWorks
helped lay the groundwork for the difficult discussions
on choices and trade-offs that are hallmarks of a sound
strategy."
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Darius Mans, World Bank Country Director, January 2004
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Board,
management, and staff retreats are opportunities to step back and
make strategic, long-term decisions, unimpeded by the immediate
pressure of day-to-day concerns. But poor facilitation can leave
practical concerns behind, producing "strategies" that can't be
implemented. GivingWorks provides skillful, engaging, and informed
facilitation that helps you create bold and innovative strategies
that are relevant to the real world.
GivingWorks
recognizes that retreats concentrate the organization's senior people,
sometimes at great cost, to make its most critical decisions. GivingWorks
uses careful preparatory work, skilled facilitation, and thought-provoking
questions to create a space for constructive discussion of difficult
issues. Just as importantly, we help you maximize the value of your
retreats by quickly and efficiently guiding the team towards making
key decisions, ensuring that discussions yield tangible, useful
results. GivingWorks retreats create shared understanding and ownership
around an action plan that lays the groundwork for implementation.
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Highlight:
Setting Portfolio Priorities for World Bank Country Teams
The World Bank manages a portfolio of different
programs in each developing country that address its objectives.
Every year, a number of lending projects and programs, analytic
and advisory activities, and technical assistance engagements of
varying cost and duration begin and end. Country teams must consider
not only the effectiveness of individual interventions, but also
how results aggregate across the portfolio as a whole. Through astute,
informed facilitation, GivingWorks has led numerous country teams
through strategic and portfolio decisions to craft judicious and
effective results-based programs.
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