Creating a strong vision and the strategy to achieve it
Creating a strong vision and the strategy to achieve it
Tutor:
Mary Wintershausen Aimed at senior management, this one-day event covers the development of a local vision for future council services plus the engagement, strategic planning and governance needed to make it happen.
The council of the future is going to be very different from what we know today. It has to be. How else can it meet the challenge of ever-rising expectations of service quality and value for money?
While there are massive opportunities to save using common approaches both within and across organisations, does this mean that one size fits all? Certainly not. No two places are the same. Each local authority (and locality) will need to determine its own future vision to meet the needs of citizens and to galvanise the energies of all contributors to achieve it.
This course is designed to support the development, launch and strategic planning of the implementation of your Council of the Future™ vision with a focus on critical success factors.
It looks at the various elements that make up a comprehensive and credible vision of the way that public service provision will look to your customers and citizens in three to five years time. It will examine possible approaches to visioning and strategy development and the continuous challenge of effective communication with everyone involved and everyone affected.
The course will equip you to kick-start or radically overhaul the planning process which shapes a strategy to deliver that vision as well as helping you to analyse your starting point.
This will be a highly interactive event, with a minimum of classroom style sessions. It will be led by an experienced facilitator, who will both inform and ensure that the experience of those in the room is utilised to best advantage.
Attendance will enable you to answer key questions such as :
- What are the outcomes that the new vision embraces?
- What will that mean for service recipients and providers?
- How will the desired outcomes affect delivery options and management approaches?
- What will be the impact on elected members and service managers?
- How can you communicate the new approaches in a way that brings your people with you?
- How can you ensure that every person in every part of your local community is able to benefit from the Council of the Future™?
The in-house option to meet your particular needs
While this course is being run as a public event it can also be adapted and/or extended as a tailored workshop for the management team of an individual authority or for a group of civic or local partner organisations. This could focus on local issues and circumstances with a view to developing a new draft vision and outline strategic plan. It could also be used to update or amend an existing vision
There are several possible variations such as :
- a single one day workshop;
- a pair of workshops with a gap in between;
- an internal workshop to develop a draft vision followed by another event involving partner organisations
To book online please select the course date from the table to the right or else contact us on 0845 241 2773.
Course Content
Context
- In what ways will the Council of the Future™ (and public services in general) need to be different?
- What are the implications of unremitting pressures on costs
- What types of opportunity might there be for service innovation and improvement?
Why a strong vision is necessary and the risks on not having one.
What makes a good vision?
- Longevity
- Allowing for flexibility and adjustment
- Achieving clarity regarding the outcome and also the journey
- The use of clear language and terms which are understandable by all
- Ensuring that the vision is meaningful and can be interpreted for different purposes such as strategy development, service impact assessment and service planning
Where are you starting from?
- Using the Council of the Future™ diagnostic to assess your organisation's current position
- How to judge and existing vision and the decision to replace it or develop it further
Measurement - how will you know when you have got there?
- Measurement of outcomes and of the journey
- Measurement of political capital and public value
- Measurement in terms that engage with and demonstrate value to all stakeholders
- Regular review and adjustment to the ‘new view’
Engagement ensuring ownership and commitment
- Who are your stakeholders?
- What are their priorities?
- Where are their ‘quick wins’?
- What are their longer term objectives?
- Where are the potential conflicts of interest?
- What are the risks and how can they be mitigated?
- How to maintain continuous improvement within ‘business as usual’
The development of joint visions across organisations and communities
- Leaders, followers and partners – how to manage relationships
- Recognising and addressing/managing culture differences
- Identifying shared and disparate customer groups and the approaches to market segmentation
- Identifying shared and disparate aims and the resulting tensions
- Identifying different timescales and potential points of conflict
- Identifying shared and disparate information bases with a particular focus on client consultation
Implementation strategy considerations
- Branding and reputation management
- Communication and marketing (internal and external)
- Impact on workforce planning and management
- Managing step-change and business as usual
- Governance issues
Implementation models, options and approaches
- Partners, pooling, sharing, joint management, budgets
- Use of the diagnostic to inform the choice of implementation approach
- Alignment issues
- Critical success factors
- Planning to realise interim benefits and savings
- Identifying and establishing change programmes
- Relationship to Information and ICT strategy development
- Relationship to customer service strategy
- Relationship to other service strategies
Who Should Attend?
- Chief executives
- Members of top management teams / corporate directors
- Elected members
- Corporate strategists
- Service heads
- Senior management from partner organisations
- Those responsible for developing and delivering Local Area Agreements
- Those responsible for community and economic development
- Managers and sponsors of high-level change programmes
Tutor
Mary Wintershausen’s 40 year career includes health, the private sector, 23 years in local government and 10 years as a consultant specialising in strategic development and transformation. Her local and central government clients have included the Cabinet Office, the IDeA and a wide variety of local authorities. She has represented local government in various national central / local forums. Mary is a highly experienced and highly regarded facilitator.
Pre-Event Activities
In order to get the most out of the event, delegates will be asked to complete the Council of the Future™self-assessment questionnaire.
Professional Skills for Government
This course will help attendees to develop and consolidate the required Leadership Qualities, especially :
- to provide direction for the organisation
- to build on the capability of the organisation to address current and future challenges
It will also develop the Core Skill of Strategic Thinking.
Course Locations and Dates
There are no scheduled occurences of this course
Your bookings
The cart is empty
Discounts
We are pleased to offer a discount off the full delegate rates for all our courses as follows:-
- Socitm Members - 20% reduction - quote the discount code SCMembership during checkout