“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work” – Thomas Edison
As organizations embark on their business growth and expansion, inevitably there will be new challenges and requirements placed on the organization’s design and structure. The designing process is a challenging task in that an organization has to balance various factors, competing elements and also the different agendas to develop a structure that will achieve the design objectives and purpose.
There are no less than three key elements to be considered for the any organization design namely: structural framework, management system including the organization’s strategy, customers and competition and thirdly, key roles and reporting relationships for accountabilities and value creation.
An organization evolves through a number of stages as it adapts to the changing market forces and the environment. In the process issues and challenges relating to how work should be better organized, the need to create a more open problem solving practices, a more conducive work climate and other workplace matters will need to be initiated and managed.
Organizations need to have a planned and sustainable group wide OD program with the principle aim of creating a more effective workforce and organization.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” – Ghandi
As we witness growth and constant changes in the business environment the issues of corporate culture becomes relevant and significant to an organization’s performance. It therefore becomes urgent and critical for leaders to determine if the “way we do things here” are supportive or hindering the organization’s effective progress.
Culture is significant since it can exert a strong influence on one’s thinking, mindset, assumptions, attitudes and belief systems which could be a deterrent. To change or transform such ineffective culture would entail un-learning of the existing ways as well as a re-learning and‘re-culturing’ of new ways of thinking and working. All are changes needed to ensure progress of the organization.
Various competencies in leading transformative change, managing change efforts and dealing with the stakeholder’s resistance to change are required of the change leaders or change agents. Change management is a fundamental competency that is needed by all who are in apposition to make things happen.
The impact of effective leadership in business today is highly regarded and valued. In the context of this challenging role it is imperative that the leader needs to integrate a number of factors such as strategy, structure, systems, human capital and other assets to create a viable and sustainable organization.
The leadership role and purpose in the current organizational scenario embraces three critical elements to merge and become what can be termed as an ‘Integrated Leader’. They are Personal or Self Leadership (Intrapersonal) qualities which comprises elements of personality characteristics, strengths and weaknesses and personal values.
Secondly Leading Others (Interpersonal) including influencing and communication skills, ability to win the hearts and minds of others to embrace change and get commitment. Thirdly, Organizational Leadership which provides a clear strategic direction and agenda on what needs to be done to make the business viable and sustain growth.
Leadership effectiveness in any given situation can be achieved when these three leadership elements act in combination and interact harmoniously with each other.
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston Churchill
Organizations today are witnessing a major shift in the business landscape through intense competition, economic and financial crises and unpredictable social patterns. All these have resulted in a greater urgency to deal and cope with such drastic changes in an organized manner with strategy as the pre-requisite.Clear strategies are the only option for organizations to remain viable.
A well crafted strategy will help to address the “What” of the organization’s direction and be able to create winning strategies that will outperform the competitors. An effective strategy will in turn determine the “How” that is frequently regarded as the planning to progress towards the desired direction and achieve the vision set by the strategy.
In order to manage the various changes resulting from the business irregularities business leaders need to sharpen their strategic thinking skills so that they can effectively support strategy development, planning and execution of the various strategies in the organization.
It is a truism that the future is unpredictable. However, its development can be better anticipated through developing and using scenarios. Scenarios are stories about different and plausible futures that can be created using the powerful scenario thinking and planning tools. They assist the decision makers and business planners to be more anticipative and adaptive to the changes and critical uncertainties impacting their businesses as they navigate the future.
Programme Objective
Understand the concepts and processes of scenario thinking and planning and their uses in decision making
Understand the benefits of using scenario thinking to challenge “business-as-usual” thinking and mental models and stimulate out of the box thinking,
Understand the application of scenario planning to enhance quality of decision making processes and
Acquire knowledge and basic skills of building scenarios to address future uncertainties and risks.
Make better decisions about the future by avoiding bad decisions through recognizing warning signals early and evaluating unfolding developments.
Integrate scenarios into the strategic business planning process for the company.
Methodology
The 2-day interactive programme is designed to expose the participants to a comprehensive overview of scenario thinking and planning; the process of building scenarios and understanding their value and applications to business decisions, strategy development and organizational learning.
Participants will also learn how to craft scenarios and integrate scenarios into planning through a hands-on experience in working on a real “mini scenario” exercise – an integral element of the course.
Who Should Attend?
The workshop is designed for CEOs, Managing Directors, Senior Managers, Risk Officers, Corporate planning Managers and Managers who manage and operate business operations.
