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DAVID SIBBET

Strategic Visioning Bringing Insight to Action

One of the more difficult lessons to learn is to recognize current reality as it now is, which often is different from what you think it is supposed to be or how you want it to be.

—Robert Fritz

Real-Life Story

The Save the Redwoods League (SRL) is a California-based organization committed to preserving some of the oldest—and tallest—organisms on the planet. SRL has a long and successful history of preserving old-growth redwoods since its founding in 1918. Although skillful in its efforts, the league had never developed a formal strategy, and external factors began to make the need more evident. The election of a new board president and appointment of a new executive director—combined with growing public misperception that its mission had largely been accomplished—led the league’s directors to undertake a process to chart a course for the next five years. It was important to them that the process lead to a strong consensus among key stakeholders, resulting in a compelling vision linked to actionable strategies, and that the process be able to handle the complexity of the issues.

SRL chose a Strategic Visioning process, a highly visual method that uses large graphic templates to guide people through the different perspectives needed to do good strategy work. The league process involved three one-day sessions with key stakeholders over three months. League staff, board, and council members and other stakeholders participated. A key step was creating a graphic history of SRL, understandably important to everyone concerned. This was analyzed to better understand the guiding principles and processes that had served it best over the years. The Strategic Visioning process then took everyone through a graphic review of the current environment, a mapping of current strengths and weaknesses and opportunities at SRL, and some in-depth visioning about the future. This culminated in identifying specific initiatives and game plans.

The process incorporates many methods from traditional strategic planning, but uses large Graphic Guides (wall-sized templates) to capture and organize information. This allows everyone to visualize what they are saying, and to develop a panorama of charts that support taking a systems-level view. This was unexpectedly important for an organization with many members formally trained in ecosystems thinking and management. The imagery also supported more robust visioning in the projective parts of the process.

The process brought the group to agreement on three key initiatives, and an overall game plan (figure 1).

Figure 1. Save the Redwoods League Strategic Plan

SRL’s purpose, guiding principles, and strategic initiatives were then integrated in a graphic depiction of the organization’s vision that notably enhanced the league’s ability to relate its vision to others (figure 2).

The vision and game plan provided the organization with a clear and compelling framework for its efforts. The documents were touchstones for direction setting and frequently referred to at board meetings, committee meetings, and annual board and council meetings to help chart their progress. By the end of a five-year period, nearly all of the original objectives had been accomplished, and the league undertook another round of Strategic Visioning. This second round involved more people, a full gathering of an advisory council with many notable environmental experts. The earlier success helped directly in gaining trust.

Frequently Asked Questions

WHAT IS STRATEGIC VISIONING?

Strategic Visioning as a term arose among planning professionals because “planning” in a traditional sense—creating a precise blueprint for moving forward—is not possible in a dynamic social and economic environment. Combined with a strong, shared vision that catalyzes learning and innovation, it can work; thus, “Strategic Visioning.”

Strategic Visioning integrates two additional methodologies—large-scale group process and graphic facilitation—making the process robust and customizable for nearly any kind of organizational planning, from teams to entire enterprises.

By working with large-scale graphics and being attentive to the frames and metaphors involved in strategic communication, Strategic Visioning complements traditional, analytical planning. It achieves a holistic integration of the intuitive, emotional, intellectual, and physical, creating a framework for effectively involving diverse stakeholders.

Figure 2. Save the Redwoods League

Strategic Visioning’s seven steps fall into three major phases: Developing Hindsight: Embracing Current Realities, Projecting Foresight: Evolving a Shared Vision, and Bringing Insights to Action: Executing in the Present. It is best illustrated in figure 3, which shows the whole flow, shown against the background of a meeting room with charts.

Think of the top of the diagram as representing overview and intuition, and the bottom as the ground of practical reality. The process systematically connects these levels, resulting in a creative tension that catalyzes action. The process also connects the past, future, and present perspectives. The figure eight reminds users that Strategic Visioning requires repeated rounds of work, each one deepening insight and strategic learning. This conceptual model becomes the orienting frame for a design team when developing initial planning offsite meetings, cascade processes that involve large numbers of stakeholders, and review processes downstream as implementation begins. Each of the steps is accompanied by a set of customizable Graphic Guides that visually frame the work of that step, two examples of which are shown in figures 4 and 5. Figure 4 shows a Context Map for environmental scanning; and figure 5, called “Five Bold Steps,” is for mapping the shared vision and key strategies. There are 18 Graphic Guides in the system that can be sequenced in different ways, depending on the duration and complexity of the planning process.

Figure 3. The Strategic Visioning Process

Figure 4. Context Map

Figure 5. Five Bold Steps for Mapping

Table of Uses

About the Author

David Sibbet (www.davidsibbet.com) is an organizational consultant who, since the early 1980s, has facilitated strategy and visioning sessions around the world for large and small organizations. He is a master of graphic facilitation, process design, and experience-based learning for leadership. David is founder and president of The Grove Consultants International, an organization development consulting firm focused on visualizing change. He is a central author for The Grove’s tools for managing group process.

Where to Go for More Information

REFERENCES

The Grove Consultants International. Strategic Visioning Process Model, Overview and Leader Guides for Corresponding Graphic Guide Templates. San Francisco: The Grove Consultants International, 1996–2004.

Sibbet, David. Best Practices for Facilitation. San Francisco: The Grove Consultants International, 2002.

Sibbet, David, and Ed Claassen. Team Leader Guide: Strategies & Practices. San Francisco: The Grove Consultants International, 2004.

INFLUENTIAL SOURCES

Dannemiller Tyson Associates. Whole-Scale Change: Unleashing the Magic in Organizations. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2000.

Porter, Michael. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York: The Free Press, 1998.

ORGANIZATIONS

David Sibbet—www.davidsibbet.com

The Grove Consultants International—www.grove.com

1. SWOT analysis is a process sometimes used in strategic planning. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.