Advanced Strategic Thinking

Overview

🕮 Off the shelf (OTS)

A half day workshop for experienced policy professionals wishing to extend their strategic thinking skills. This event will help policymakers feel more confident using their strategic thinking skills to guide decisions and actions despite uncertainty, build greater support for their initiative and more opportunities to make progress, and develop system-wide approaches which will help sustain strategic thinking and improvement for the long term.

Objectives
- Establishing your strategic approach. The importance of framing your policy challenge and desired outcomes as a guide for prioritisation, communication, decision-making and future action. Based around the Double Diamond or similar policymaking model, delegates will explore different levels and pacing of strategic thinking and how to switch between these to secure progress.

- Strengthening strategic alignment. Delegates will use Force Field analysis or a similar tool to review how policies nest within a wider system, explore the relational, structural and cultural factors which may support or resist change, and plan how to increase the alignment and opportunities needed for progress.

- Building strategic value. Using a Sailboat Review or similar, delegates will explore the potential barriers to strategic thinking within and beyond their departments. They will consider ways to adapt both their personal leadership and their policy design to respond to or remove barriers and build capacity for strategic reflection and improvement.

Target Audience includes experienced policy professionals who wish to deepen their knowledge, understanding and application of strategic thinking. Likely to be at or near Level 2 policy profession competence.