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Assessing potential opportunities is the first of two external assessments in the strategic assessment process. The reason for having a strategic plan is to allow everyone in the organization to focus on the most important things that help achieve the mission and vision. There are lots of shiny objects to chase. Only a few moves you in the direction you want to go. Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome by assessing available opportunities early in the strategic planning process. This helps organizational leaders identify which opportunities to pursue, which ones to leave behind, and create peace with those choices.
When I first became an Executive Director of a small nonprofit several years ago, I expected to be given a list of priorities to pursue. The direction I was given from the Board Chair was, “Go down there and take charge. I’m sick of hearing about all the problems!” The only direction I could find from reading Board minutes was to move the organization to national accreditation. I recognized this void of strategic direction as an opportunity to meet recognized industry standards, and improve the way we worked. There were lots of directions I could have led the organization, so knowing this goal was important. Accreditation provided a clear framework, allowed me to ignore those shiny distractions, and recognize real opportunities. While not a formal strategic plan, accreditation was our strategic goal. Opportunities are everywhere, but they are not all created equal. Knowing which ones help achieve organizational goals is important for success.
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Sources of opportunities
During this assessment, look everywhere for opportunities. Remember, as you develop your strategic plan, opportunities will present themselves in the future you cannot even foresee today. Many of the jobs today didn’t even exist a generation ago. Capture those opportunities that are easy to see and also stretch yours and other’s imaginations about opportunities you can create or may exist in the future.
When Bill Bratton became Police Commissioner for New York City, he created a system to identify crime hot spots and focus police efforts in those areas (yes, eventually COMPSTAT became synonymous with racial profiling, but Bratton began the program looking at crime data and patterns, not race. He worked with marginalized populations because they were the most affected by crime). The impact COMPSTAT had in reducing crime in NYC caused the trend of violent crime across the nation to decrease. When he became Commissioner, he promised to reduce crime. He found his opportunity in instant crime data, something that really did not exist at that time. He created his opportunity.
In his book, Good To Great, Jim Collins talks about three areas organizations can mine for opportunities. The first area is identifying what things your organization does that are great. Next, identify passions of the organization. Finally look at the activities that provide your operating revenue.
How to narrow opportunities
If you lead discussions about opportunities well, you will find you have far more opportunities than ability to follow. Collins discusses examples of companies redefining themselves broadly or more narrowly. Use the opportunities you identified in the three areas exercise, create a Venn diagram, one circle for each area. The opportunities that overlap are likely keys to achieving your organizational values, vision for changing the world, and achieving your strategic goals. The opportunities that are common to each of the three circles is the starting point for developing your strategic opportunities and goals.
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Refine your opportunities to match current or future strengths. As you look at opportunities for the future, identify strengths are you lacking and how you will fill those need. Identify the current strengths you do have to leverage, acquiring those you need. As you match strengths to opportunities, find those that create synergy. Synergistic connections excite your client base, your employees, and your investors.
Narrowing the field of opportunities is important because chasing too many, causes the organization and the people in it to lose focus. Depending on the length of your timeline, you should limit your strategic goals, based on opportunities, to one to five. More than five, and everything seems important. When everything is important, then there is no focus on what actions, tasks, purchases, training, hiring, and similar activity has the priority. You end up chasing every shiny object and fail to make progress on any of your goals. One big goal that is achieved, is better than five super sized goals that never become reality.
Narrowing down your opportunities to a strategic few helps everyone focus on the most important things to achieve success.
Review
Identifying opportunities is one half of an external assessment in a strategic evaluation. In this process, examine lots of opportunities. Use the model of your passions, greatest qualities, and revenue drivers to list opportunities. Narrow your list by finding common opportunities in each of the three areas. One to five opportunities are ideal to pursue. These become your strategic goals. Failing to focus on only a very few opportunities causes people in the organization to be confused about priorities. Not every opportunity is right for your organization. What you will find, with disciplined focus and priorities, is you will easily recognize strategic opportunities that emerge along your path and propel you forward, passing shiny objects become easier. Successfully completing this part of your strategic assessment improves focus and success.
References
Good to Great
Flawed
Turnaround
Roger Williams University Executive Development Seminar
He told his classmates he devised a simple system using spreadsheet software to track employee issues. Every morning he made a list of people to contact to follow up on those issues ensuring they were addressed. His actions allowed employees to focus on their work, not their problems. His habit of tracking people’s problems and checking with them periodically, resulted in a reputation of being a compassionate leader. He only spoke with others who had a reason to know about the problem in order to provide support to the employee or help resolve the problem. He did not gossip. His habit of keeping his mouth shut gained him the reputation of being trustworthy. His habits and actions told others the story of how he felt about resolving people’s problems, not a speech delivered from a soapbox about being there to help his people. His character was defined by what he did, not what he said.
Power is commonly obtained in one of a few ways. The first is positional power, that which an organization give an individual in supervisory positions. Another is expert power. If you are an expert by means of knowledge on a topic, or possess a critical skill that you use and share. You sway others by your expertise. A third source of power is attraction. That ability some people have to draw the positive attention from others and to make others want to be liked by them. Often called charisma, it enables those endowed with it to influence people by bestowing attention on those seeking their approval. A final source of power is reward and punishment. This sounds like something a boss can do, such as providing a wage increase, or dismissing an employee. In this example it is not someone in a position of authority. People who use rewards and punishment for power include people like playground bullies, or a grass roots community activist. Each finds ways to reward and punish people they influence outside traditional organizational structures. Some example include using force in the case of the bully, or endorsing a political candidate in the case of the activist. These rewards and punishments lack official sanction. The power comes from the personal traits of the individual such as strength or speaking ability. 
Learning to develop power across several sources is a skill necessary to influence others. Each has benefits and limitations depending on the skill of the wielder, the situation, and the audience. Each is a tool. One cannot build a house only using a saw; likewise, one cannot lead well with only one source of power.
This story illustrates the importance of knowing your audience and the message they need to hear. As the instructor pointed out, if the message is what the candidates needed to request to install a flagpole, the communication is different than directing a Soldier to emplace the flagpole. Of course if the Soldiers were less experienced than the Platoon Sergeant, the instructor needed to provide more direction. The senior person in the story understood he was directing another experienced person to complete a task. Detailed instructions were not required.
confronting unacceptable behaviors and addressing uncomfortable truths, such as failures to reach revenue expectations. Setting standards is action. Leaders execute by jumping in, getting their hands dirty and shoes messy. Doing something dirty is action. Leaders develop power and influence by doing things; acting, not just talking and planning. If you are not doing, you are not leading. Leading is a verb. Verbs are action. Actions, executed properly at the right time by the right right people result in success. You can plan. You can talk. You can be virtuous. You accomplish nothing until you act.
Rules tell each employee what to do and what not to do in a given situation. The problem with rules is no organization can write a rule for every situation, and organizations like the VA have tried. Often rules conflict in a given situation. When faced with a situation not covered by a rule, or one where the rules provide conflicting guidance, people have to make decisions. That is why guiding principles are necessary.
instead of rules that fence in options. Guiding Principals develop effective organizations. They create a climate for employees and junior leaders to safely take risks within established areas. Leaders use mistakes as learning opportunities for the employee and others. Employees respond to increased trust by finding improved ways to accomplish the organization’s mission. All stakeholders receive the results they expected. By using guiding principals, people find their own route to success within establish boundaries. Now is a great time to review your organization’s principals and determine how you can improve them for increased success in the coming year.
