Eavesdrop on E and O’Neil

Magate Wildhorse Soundcloud channel, audio stories for businessGo undercover for learnings in strategy execution and performance management on Magate Wildhorse Soundcloud Channel this May.

Eavesdrop on O’Neil at the office after dark and later on his date with E. Find out how they’ll tackle the problem of understanding the strategy and deciding on the extent to which the organization had made progress in realizing its desired advantage since the last strategic plan.

Don’t miss-out on the intimate journey of the forty-something year old executive in his effort to deliver the ambitions of his company.

We believe, taking the position of the fly on the wall won’t hurt if learning how your organization could benefit from a self-assessment; and what to include in your request for a similar solution is what you’ll gain from eavesdropping on E and O’Neil.

It’s Caribbean flavoured with just enough spice for global appetites.

Follow us on Soundcloud and be first to listen to their story.

https://soundcloud.com/magatewildhorse

https://soundcloud.com/magatewildhorse

 

 

rethink May on Magate Wildhorse

magate wildhorse youtube channel, new learning, interviews, stories entertainment for strategy, performance management, marketing, canada, caribbean, entrepreneurs May 2018, celebrating 6

 

Coming this May, 2018

New learning videos on Magate Wildhorse YouTube Channel.
fun plus learning, Subscribe today to ensure you miss none of what’s in store for you.
Find out More about the Magate Wildhorse YouTube Channel below.
The Magate Wildhorse ℠ Channel showcase our promotional videos about our upcoming workshops, events, research, and services, stay tuned so you don’t miss out.
We will share some of what we have learnt in the form of educational videos developed by the Magate Learning Institute.
You will find content on topics such as corporate strategy; strategic planning; marketing; social marketing; social media marketing; monitoring; evaluation and organizational assessments. International development, food safety, environment, entrepreneurship, business, trade, export, and retail will also be featured here.
No, we will not re-invent the wheel, so we will share interesting videos created by others that are related to our main themes and interest; that we believe you might find useful.
From time to time we hope to entertain you with a bit of related trivia.
Magate Wildhorse is a Toronto based Strategic Management and International Development Practise.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkt3MD_s2n2_VDJtJoucsrg/featured

#magatewildhorseonyoutube

Sixth Anniversary Message

The Noësis: Double-Blind Peer Review Guidelines

doubleblindreviewnoesis The Noësis professional magazine and journal, double-blind review process, magate wildhorse, strategy and performance magazine

We’ll be using a double-blind review process for articles submitted to The Noësis.

This means the author will not know who reviews his or her work and the reviewer will not know the identity of the author of the piece he or she is assigned to review.

As an author or contributor, we ask that you prepare your submissions in a manner that conceals your identity.  Here’s how, submit your name and the title of your piece in a separate file. You should repeat the title on the file that contains the work intended for publication. Submit both files with one Email and two attachments.

  • If you refer to yourself please use [Anonymous].
  • To cite previous works, you must blind that reference in your reference list. For blinding in the reference list, please use the phrase: ‘[Anonymous 2018] Details have been omitted for double-blind reviewing.’.
  • Besides self-references please include details of other references
  • For figures and illustrations that you have created or adapted please use “[Anonymous] Details have been omitted for the double-blind reviewing.
  • Ensure any author identification such as name, institution, phone number or email address are not contained in the document with the work for review.
  • All submissions must be made in an MS Word document.

Should your submission be accepted you will be provided with the necessary feedback and comments for updating your article or submission. During that process you will replace [Anonymous] or ‘[Anonymous 2018] Details have been omitted for double-blind reviewing.’ with references to you or your affiliate as appropriate.

For questions and comments please click the contact us link.

Warm and Up-Close Remote Strategic Planning

remote strategy planning, remote corporate strategy planning, corporate strategy planner, Toronto, Strategy Planning, virtual planning strategy workshops, strategy facilitator

“Remote strategic planning? Hmmm… I’ve got to say I am doubtful about that one. Strategic planning is too expensive, time consuming and important for me to risk on getting it done virtually”.

If that’s how you feel about remote strategic planning we couldn’t fault you for sharing that sentiment. Strategic planning is serious business and you would be foolhardy to take such an important risk with little information on how remote have worked for planning, or the advantages and drawbacks to it.

Moreover, when you are embarking on the strategic planning journey, both you and your team need a warm interaction with an expert who will do more than facilitate planning. You are likely looking for an expert in strategy as well as a facilitator who serves as an objective advisor. One who ask heads-back and chests-forward incisive questions for helping your team to rethink strategy, goals, objectives and actions. And by doing so ensures what your plan is doable, positions your organization for growth and account for risk. You also want someone to lead your team into reflecting on its history and results to date.

Today, 99% of strategy solution sponsors expect their investment to include an external sounding board, researcher, coach and mentor for helping their team to grow planning skills, experience and knowledge. With such a long wish list hinged on relationships, expertise, experience and time management it is easy to see why to someone unfamiliar with remote strategy planning would perceive it to be too cold and distant to deliver their expectations.

But as William Yeats (The Irish Poet, W.B. Yeats) says— “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”  Remote strategy planning is one such magic thing waiting to help you grow a stronger organization.

Though odd, this open secret—fear of the unknown and failure is still a hidden factor that have dogged and crippled the leadership of many organizations when it comes to pursuing growth-focused innovation and strategy execution.  Making strategy planning happen when teams are scattered or budget is tight is not excluded from that scenario.

I’d say it’s a sad state of affairs that can be easily fixed. Do not allow fear to limit the impact of your leadership or options for developing and executing your strategy. Explore the exciting opportunities presented by low cost technology for remote planning and other strategic management activities.

Technology have come a long way in providing the virtual platforms that allows individuals and organizations to deliver face-to-face, warm remote interactions. Not to mention, the variety of software and applications that allows for democratic and group processes, stakeholder consultations, interviewing, surveys, data capture from social media and mobile engagement.

All of which provides for deeper learning, expanding knowledge and improving the quality of data on which to make predictions for developing your strategy, plan and related logic.

By now I believe you can see at least a glimmer of how strategic planning could work in a remote environment?

Our ability to gather information on context, clients, customers, suppliers, industry—you name it in addition to internal information for guiding decisions relating to the what and how for advancing your mission and delivering your vision have been enhanced exponentially by remote research capabilities.

On top of that opportunities for your team members to revisit planning sessions individually in their own time for increasing understanding and reflection are tremendous.

Cost is another big factor that have led some organizations to take the “do it yourself”, less objective and less effective though better-than-nothing approach. Others have sadly chosen to skip planning on a flawed assumption that they cannot afford it. International development agencies and large charities have come to see the benefits and cost savings that are available through both remote strategy planning and organizational performance evaluation.

They have come to see the benefits of leveraging technology to connect remote communities and entities with limited resources to top-notch talent.  Talent has come to realize the cost savings and value-added they can deliver through extended capacity to reach customers and stakeholders in faraway places in addition to those nearby.  Big business and organizations in large cities are increasingly turning to the use of remote planning solutions in order to save while including participation by team members in other towns, countries or cities.

You’ll find that UN organizations (United Nations) are among the large NGOs and intergovernmental organizations that are seizing such opportunities. So, what’s holding you back?

If you lack experience that’s not a problem, you must start somewhere.  If you fear it might not be right for you then, you have two options research to find out more then decide, try and see or both.

We understand that remote planning might not be right for every team, so we are willing to help you decide if it is right for yours.

We bring almost two decades of strategy and remote service delivery experience to helping you to decide.

What Goes into The Remote Planning Exercise

When planning with us the steps we’ll take will vary depending on the following: the experience of your team with strategic planning, remote planning, the stage of development of your organization, motivation to and purpose for planning as well as where you are on the strategy process continuum.

As it relates to the strategy process continuum it could be that you are in need of your first corporate strategy plan; or you are at a milestone and need a new strategic operational plan? It is also likely that you have come to the end of the implementation period for a program or a 3-5yr corporate strategy plan and is now in need of a strategy solution for developing the new plan.

In that case you may need an organizational self-assessment for assessing how you did in the past, strategy development, evaluation and planning for creating the new corporate strategy plan that will guide your next strategy execution period. Most organizations, experienced in planning would also invest in the combo of corporate strategy plan, operational plan and performance management tools (For guiding monitoring and evaluation during strategy execution).

Your Solution Unwrapped

Note: The following is not a step-wise process as the steps will depend on where you are on the strategy process continuum.

Depending on what’s right for you we put technology to work with human care and intelligence to take you through processes such as:

  • Eyeball-to-eyeball virtual meetings, conversations and document reviews for understanding your context, wants and needs;
  • Strategic identity creation, clarification or update (For ensuring mission, vision, values etc. are clear, relevant, inspiring and impactful);
  • Identification of your core resources, competence, aspirations, challenges and capabilities;
  • Strategic analysis, drawing on qualitative and quantitative research methods and tools for better understanding your external environment. At the end of which we will better understand how it will or could impact your organization in addition, to how your organization might influence the environment.

We do that by conducting an external environmental scan (PESTLE, STEEP, STEEPLE, SKEPTIC etc.). Having identified trends related to regulation, inflation, ecology, customers, competitors, stakeholders, suppliers among other things we revisit your strategic intent and organizational capacity (Your SWOT plus analysis) to determine the new competencies that will be required in order to get the job done. Technology comes in handy for helping us to engage in rich conversations with your customers, clients and partners live, or to through anonymous sharing— irrespective of distance.

  • Getting to an organizational development plan for you, here again we draw on the technology to present you with a user-friendly document plus face-to-face conversation that enables your leadership and management team to respond to our findings, recommendations and proposed strategy options for delivering your desired competitive edge. This forms part of your planned strategy formulation process.
  • During planning, remote technology enables us to create interactive tools for illustrating and sharing your strategy framework and strategy— articulated into your position, and objectives. From Board to staff will be able to tell what kind of strategy framework you have chosen (Ansoff Matrix, Stakeholder Model, Values Discipline, McKinsey’s Strategic Horizons, Balanced Scorecard or your own blend). Strategy and logic maps can be adjusted in real-time as your team think and re-think your objectives. Best of all they can be made available in a virtual room 24/7s for comments and ideas as they flow to and from your team.
  • Planning remote allows you even more time for bringing leadership and execution teams to a meeting-of-minds as they review scenarios, assess risks and assumptions and decide on trade-offs during the strategy evaluation and strategy elaboration You won’t miss out on live group brainstorm sessions, team building games or pictures of your team working together.

You’ll have plenty of opportunity to share what is working for your team during the planning process and to work out adjustments if necessary.

You may have noticed that we have covered several steps and activities before touching on strategy elaborationthe step or sub-process where the strategy gets translated into plans and workplans (Your plans will include strategic objectives, goals, indicators, quality measures, outcomes and outputs aligned with strategic intent, effort, timelines and resources).

Once the plan has been completed we will help you with the initial stage of communicating your plan. However, if we are engaged to assist with performance management and measurement we support you with full plan communication, additional help with identifying your emergent strategies, analyzing your performance results and triggering strategy update.

Challenges of Remote Planning

In exchange for deeper learning and broader participation your team will need to prep ahead for remote planning. This means using online time converters and e-calendars (outlook, yahoo and or google calendar) for scheduling.

In some instances, you and/or your team may be required to learn new skills for working in virtual planning rooms, accessing web conferences, participating in e-groups or completing online surveys.  Most teams we have met have enjoyed learning those skills. Older Board members might be averse to using some e-tool, depending on their experience with technology. Nonetheless we have been able to include technology challenged individuals in remote planning sessions.

The planning process may be stretched over a longer period of time. Some groups can manage a typical 4-hour virtual planning workshop (Plus lunch and refreshment breaks) while some can only manage two hours.

You may need to check on computers, microphones and plan seating arrangement for you team ahead of the session depending on the set up we agree. It is possible to have a session without you having to consider seating or computers. But we will guide you in setting up your room as the facilitator would have if required.

Love your flipcharts? We will tell you how to make that happen during remote planning.

Expect a session or two where technology might fail and a reschedule maybe required.

Discipline for completing related assignments is required.

You may need to plan and secure refreshment and meals for your team.

Could It Be Worth Your Investment?

We believe that the challenges above are small compared to the benefits of having a plan that includes:

  • a clearly articulated strategic intent,
  • is easy to use for guiding the delivery of the results you planned,
  • makes performance management easy,
  • is doable, affordable and communicates the what and how of your strategy effectively both internally and externally.

When a solution is designed to fit your needs and budget and still allows you to access the expertise and help of a strategy expert, facilitator, strategy analyst, strategy finder, sounding board and performance improvement catalyst, we believe it’s worth the while.

Still on the fence?

Schedule a remote face-to-face connect and clarify session today!

Ccontact us, let's talk remote strategic planning, request remote long-range planning, submit your virtual planning needs, schedule remote corporate strategy planninglick the “let’s talk button” to submit your needs, name of organization, location and three possible meeting times.

Meegan Scott is a strategic management consultant with almost two decades of experience in strategy and remote (virtual) service delivery.

 

Copyright © 2018 Meegan Scott
All Rights Reserved

 

Remote Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation & Coaching

Need remote organizational strengthening solutions?

  • Remote Strategy Planning
  • Remote Corporate Strategy Planning
  • Remote Strategy Communications
  • Remote Strategic Facilitation
  • Remote Strategic Market and Marketing Research
  • Remote Environmental Scans
  • Remote Project or Program (Programme) Evaluation
  • Remote Organizational Assessment
  • Remote Team Prep for Strategic Planning
  • Remote Program Monitoring
  • Remote Program Director
  • Remote Coaching for Strategy Execution and Change Management

Playing the role of CEO’s helper comes easy for us!

Take  a mini tour of the possibilities— click this link to see how we can keep your back covered.

Ask for your own possibilities—and have your wishes come true.

Get in touch today!

Message us, include your needs and 3 best times to meet during the course of this week.

let's talk, book free consultation, remote project planning, corporate and program planning help, marketing, research, toronto strategy planner, program evaluation, program coordination, contact us

Click contact us to leave your service request.

Thank you for having stopped by and for the invitation to discuss your needs.

Available in Canada and internationally!

Meegan Scott for Magate Wildhorse Ltd.

Business People Can Set Social Change in Motion

Today, I read an interesting article by Richard Straub of the Drucker Society and formally of IBM.

What does it take to cause something big about a community to change — something that no one individually has much power over, even something as big as a prevailing mindset? We know what it takes: a social movement. And social movements aren’t only the domain of community organizers and college students. Business people can set them in motion, too, as we are seeing right now”.

What Straub said was not new thinking to me, it is a belief that comes as naturally as breathing.

I have seen others with the same belief within and external to the Caribbean Community at home and abroad and I admire them for it.

However, during the past weeks while sharing information related to the Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the OECD and other diaspora markets I was asked questions which made it clear that many in our community still believe that such initiatives are the purview of Government, NGOs or donor agencies.  I also experienced this very sentiment while serving another initiative for change in our community.

It is high time that we realize that business people do have a role in setting such change in motion.

Big business in the community also have a role to play in benefitting from while supporting the growth of smaller businesses. Smaller businesses have a role to play in providing cost effective and relevant solutions that will help bigger businesses with their overall objectives for growth and disruption.

A true entrepreneur recognizes the role of business in providing solutions; and that not all should not be for profit. A business is an individual and like human citizens has a civic role to play in society. We take that role very seriously at Magate Wildhorse Ltd.

I remember years ago serving as marketing manager for an industrial equipment sales and manufacturing entity that suffered regular break-ins at its warehouse located at the border of an inner-city community.

When I suggested to the owner and CEO that we establish a Corporate Social Responsibility programme and engage in dialogue with the community as well as help their students he did not hesitate.  Needless to say, the break-ins ceased— at least for as long as I was there.

I don’t take all the credit for that kind of think for myself; I also thank the Government of Japan and the World Bank for my first scholarship course in Corporate Social Responsibility that served to plant that seed.  I very well had it when it came to volunteering, government, NGOs and donor agencies, but I certainly learnt and have rallied teams to have it entrenched in every entity that I served since 2003.

The Black and Caribbean community must waste no opportunity to seize and run with our freedom and independence as a community— that means coming together to lead the change we want to see.  That means we must engage in strong, persistent actions and create more symbols of the practice of freedom, independence and power of a people and community to chart its destiny.  And in addition to charting its destiny position itself to be a high demand demographic or group within society. I do not propose alienation from other groups in society, I am speaking about moving to fix our big problems in society and positioning for a different future.

I also take this opportunity to challenge all our Alumni Associations to ensure playing a role in advancing the economic outcomes of our graduates is a primary objective your organization. The school ran one leg of the relay, the student and parents did one and our Alumni Associations must wake up and understand this fundamental role of our Alumni and Past Students Associations.

Our community and businesses must wake up, expect and accept the role of businesses and business people to set change in motion.

Meegan Scott                                                                                                              Magate Wildhorse Ltd

Copyright © 2018 Meegan Scott
All Rights Reserved