How to Hack Your Next Planning Session

It's tough out there and getting ahead is part art, science and experience combined. I see many similar scenarios over and over again so I wanted to write a series of blogs to give you all a head start at your next planning day, strategy session or project meeting. Really this is a collection of hard earned observations and learning that hold true in almost all organisations I've either worked with or within.

From right back at its inception IT was heralded for being a force-multiplier in science, business and innovation. This heralded rapid investment and adoption and even decades on is still a significant budget item for most organisations. I often ask organisations "what isn't IT" within their organisation or to put another way, "who/which department wouldn't be affected by an outage". This simple framing is often enough to get people thinking critically about IT delivery rather than seeing it as a cost centre given how pervasive it is.

Its therefore no surprise that I term technology in business as the 'critical enabler' and absolutely necessary to get right for your survival. So why then is Digital Disruption even a thing. Aren't we doing it already by default, adapting and evolving? Well yes and no and therein lies the rub.
As I've mentioned, early technology was a force-multiplier giving you speed, agility and efficiency over and above your competitors. It was a strategic competitive advantage for early adopters and fast movers. However now days the vast majority of tech in business is table stakes. Even the latest accounting system, newest firewall, unified comms platform or other such item is far from offering a competitive advantage. At best you are just a fast follower.
To gain a competitive advantage from tech today requires thinking differently, new business models, fresh strategic approaches and true innovative thought on how to solve today's problems and opportunities.
So how do you achieve this? Well there are few key tricks I'll cover in upcoming blogs headlined:
- How to write strategy
- Achieving agility
- Embracing learning from your mistakes

It won't be waffle. It'll be stuff you can use the next time you even get near a whiteboard and you know ow w all love a good whiteboard session.