Quick Strategy Episode: 6-Questions To Make Your Growth More Strategic

This week is another quick strategy episode. I’m sharing a powerful strategic framework that organizations use to anchor and align their growth: Intentional Design.

What You'll Learn:

1. The difference between Referential & Iterative and Intentional Design approaches in strategic planning.
2. How to define and analyze your organization's focal problem for clearer vision and impact.
3. Steps to develop a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) and align your activities with your Theory of Change.

Key Takeaways:

1. Understanding the two basic strategic approaches: Referential & Iterative and Intentional Design.
2. Importance of clearly defining the focal problem your organization aims to solve.
3. Insight into leveraging your unique understanding of the problem for strategic advantage.
4. Crafting a BHAG to guide your organization's strategic direction.
5. Developing a Theory of Change to choose the right strategies for impactful change.

Step-by-Step Process:

1. Identify the Focal Problem: Define the specific problem your organization aims to solve, in simple terms that a 10-year-old could understand.
2. Problem Analysis: Gain clarity on your unique insight into the problem and identify leverage points in the system.
3. Set a BHAG: Define what 'moving the needle' looks like for your slice of the problem.
4. Develop a Theory of Change: Determine the best strategies to achieve your BHAG, focusing on general approaches rather than specific activities.
5. Outline Activities: Once you have your approaches, decide on the specific activities within each approach.
6. Infrastructure Assessment: Evaluate what internal and external capacities, budget, staffing, networks, and systems are needed to scale your activities effectively.