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SFR:
A Shot in the Arm for Your Company
SFR stands
for Strategy Focus Review and if your company hasn't had one recently,
you're overdue. You'll find it makes a huge difference in keeping you
on track, productive and growing.
When I conduct a Strategy Focus Review, it's both a process and an event, involving evaluation, pre-work and follow up. I collect data, run an organizational audit scan, as well as modify and refine as the action items are implemented.
SFRs start with a fair amount of pre-work because I need to get an accurate picture of how a company is functioning before we begin. Most organizations already have a vision/mission, along with a working strategy to meet their goals. There needs to be a common understanding of both recent history and current issues. This means I'll interview customers, employees, and executives, always on the lookout for open issues and lurking opportunities. You get a fresh set of trained eyes looking at problems so ingrained that they've become part of the corporate culture.
During the Focus Review itself, I meet face-to-face with the business owner or an executive team in sessions as short as three hours, or as long as a day. Together we take a critical look at the vision and mission, personal objectives and your congruence with both the larger organization (or industry) and specific markets. We examine current operations, asking pointed and sometimes difficult questions. What still fits? What doesn't? What needs to be discarded, modified, shifted or distilled? What needs to be added?
The essential follow-on phase of the process is the time when we shift to new work and discard the no longer essential activities. No plan is so fool proof that we don't need to fine-tune, change, modify, and/or refine various components during implementation to ensure real changes take place.
The Strategy Focus Review process is robust enough to be effective with small or one person, professional services businesses - as well as service businesses, and units within very large organizations. Here's how it works.
In the one person, professional service business, a SFR is a very close-up and personal process, focusing on the client's personal and professional challenges in reaching a pre-determined goal. Conflicting opportunities can be identified and put in proper perspective before outlining defined action steps.
In the mid-size service business the process has a larger scope. For instance, in one company there were two principal executives, one holding a supporting role to the other. The pre-work phase of the process demonstrated clearly neither felt the current structure worked well but they were reluctant to discuss it. We looked at the problem as a business issue, asking if the current structure was the best way to meet the vision, achieve the mission, and make best use of the resources? How might a change of structure create a better working environment? Quickly, the conversation changed to how a parallel structure, with each contributing to the big picture, would not only be more satisfying but more profitable. From that point on, they were able to easily and quickly implement the necessary operational changes - and remain friends in the process.
As for large companies, in a recent Strategy Focus Review with a division executive of a major corporate entity, we defined three new initiatives that would significantly move the organization forward. Because at the time of the SFR they were involved in finishing a major project for the company as a whole, we agreed to hold off on the new work until the beginning of the next quarter. An impartial outside observer was able to show how this averted what would have been a disruptive and unfocused attempt to accomplish too many projects at the same time.
Strategy Focus Reviews are designed and implemented with one goal in mind: Where are you focused and are you doing what you need to be doing to ensure your mission will be successful? The size of the business, the products and services aren't the key factors in successfully staying on track - or getting back on track if you've drifted off. The key factor is to do right now whatever makes the biggest difference in reaching your goals.
Conducting a Strategic Focus Review can be the shot in the arm your company needs to boost employee commitment, focus, and teamwork, to enhance project development, put a new spin on customer service, and get you ready for a healthier and more prosperous year ahead.
__________
Since 1986, Patricia Wiklund, Ph.D. has helped some of America's largest, and smallest, organizations resolve expensive and troublesome people problems and conflicts by leveraging the strategic power of soft skills®. A former mental health professional, she is as comfortable on the front line, as on the shop floor, or in the corporate executive suite, and also works effectively in government and educational settings. Call her today at 415 641-5997, or email her at pat@patwiklund.com to discuss how she can help you put your people and organizations back on track.
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Copyright © 2005 Patricia Wiklund, Ph.D. All rights reserved.