Integration with internal processes is essential to scenario relevance and organisational action

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of John Murrell, who sadly passed away in June 2016. John was President of the Public Libraries Victoria Network from 2009 to 2016 and was much loved by the Victorian public library community, for whom he has created a lasting legacy.

I first met John Murrell in April 2012 during the interview phase of the Victorian Public Libraries 2030 project. A quietly spoken and unassuming man, John made an instant impression with his thoughts on the possible futures of public libraries. It was John who introduced me to the concept of recording studios in Scandinavian public libraries I mentioned in chapter 8. As President of the Public Libraries Victoria Network (PLVN), the peak body for Victoria’s public library sector and a co-sponsor of the project, John was respected throughout the industry and was a leader who influenced through collaboration.

While he was a significant contributor throughout the project, it was during the execution phase of the strategic framework that John’s leadership qualities came to the fore as an internal driving force behind implementation of the framework’s recommendations. In developing and assessing industry project initiatives, John would insist that the framework was used as a constant reference point, ensuring that Victorian public libraries were taking a consistent and coherent approach to the future, and that any projects supported the long-term vision for public libraries. As a consequence, the VPL2030 strategic framework underpinned all PLVN planning and project development from the time of its launch.¹

The implementation leadership shown by John and his executive team at PLVN helped to set a cultural standard for strategic planning that runs throughout the public library sector, and in 2018 the framework continued to be used as a constant source of reference and guidance, both externally (‘Are our assumptions about future societal developments still valid?’) and internally (‘What initiatives should be prioritised and funded?’).

To step inside a Victorian public library today is to see the unfolding strategic visions for 2030 come to life: language classes and digital literacy workshops; accredited courses, innovations labs and entrepreneurial co-working spaces; art classes and youth engagement programs; recording studios and editing facilities; recreational groups using the library as a meeting space, and vibrant cafés offering the opportunity for people to gather and connect.

In my experience, no industry or organisation has made better use of a scenarios-based strategic framework than the Victorian public library sector. Their constant reference back to the framework as a guide for strategic direction, prioritisation and implementation has been exemplary and provides a benchmark for other industries and organisations to follow.

The success of this implementation demonstrates, in particular, the power and importance of an internal driving force — someone to pick up the baton and turn a theoretical strategic framework into practical outcomes. Such an advocate is most important when there is no formal plan to support implementation of the broader strategic framework, as was the case in this instance. Ideally you want both.

Without either an influential internal advocate or a shorter-term implementation plan, any strategic framework will always struggle to make an organisational impact — a point that became obvious to me over the course of subsequent projects.

Back to earth

Buoyed by the success of the Victorian public libraries project, I thought I had cracked the code to linking scenarios to organisational impact: a long-term strategic framework with a compelling corporate vision supported by relevant strategic objectives was the essential output for driving organisational action. Or so I thought.

Over the next couple of years, I undertook two other major projects where the intention was to design long-term frameworks to guide the client’s future strategic direction. Both of these projects had goals, processes, timelines and participation similar to those of the VPL2030 project, including:

• positioning the clients for sustained future success
• 12-month projects with 10-year scenario horizons
• 20-plus senior managers involved.

In one project the client was a large multinational firm; in the other, a group of industry leaders looking to co-design a strategic framework to guide their individual businesses. The impact with both of these clients was not nearly as great. This had nothing to do with the quality of the scenarios, which continued to be legitimate references for decision making. Nor were the strategic positioning or strategic objective recommendations any less substantial. Still, something was missing.

What this ‘something’ was exactly was made all too clear to me when I checked in on the participants from the second, industry-wide project, 12 months later. When I asked for a show of hands from the executives to indicate those who had taken action relating to the framework, only two participants responded positively, one of whom seemed a little hesitant. As for the others? Nothing. Just a wall of silence and what seemed like the deliberate avoidance of eye contact.

The reason for this lack of action became apparent during the lunch break when I overheard the comment, ‘It’s just too vague; how can you act on it?’ It seemed I was back in the world of scenario ineffectiveness. While I had taken a step forward from ‘what’s next?’ to address the client’s ‘so what?’ challenge, there was still another important step missing. I hadn’t addressed the final managerial concern — namely, ‘Now what do we do with it?’

Without an internal driving force to carry the work forward, the strategic framework, which had been the result of an eight-month collaboration, remained on the shelf for these senior executives. What was missing was a shorter-term strategic plan to give operational meaning to the framework and provide a direct line of sight between the longer-term outlook and the organisation’s more immediate priorities, something to drive action and introduce accountability.

Linking the strategic framework to organisational action

The strategic plan takes the earliest period of the strategic framework and fleshes it out with specific details, including:

• strategies, objectives and actions — to support the strategic framework
• responsibilities — which individuals or business units will do what?
• timings — when will the actions be completed?

In doing so, the shorter-term plan achieves several purposes:

• Integration. The strategic plan completes the integration of the scenarios with the organisation’s established planning and operations processes. This integration is achieved via the strategic domains and objectives from the long-term strategic framework, which are then used to drive development of the shorter-term plan (see figure 12.3, page 249). This linkage provides a direct line of sight between the scenarios and the organisation’s day-to-day operations and priorities.
• Alignment. The strategic plan ensures business unit activities align with broader corporate direction and goals.
• Impact. The strategic plan introduces accountability for impact by including responsibility and timing for actions. These inclusions clarify expectations and accountability, and visibly link individual and business unit performance appraisal with organisational priorities.
• Efficiency. The strategic plan ensures cohesive and efficient organisational transition. Developed within the broader context of a strategic framework, strategic plans effectively take on the role of transitional strategies, introducing a series of innovation segues to cohesively transition the organisation towards its future vision.