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Results of our internal planning session

As I blogged earlier, we've been applying the 6x2 methodology to our own internal planning, to identify what we're going to be delivering over the coming six months.

In the end, it took us two days to work complete the process, which included evaluating 119 different ideas for activities or projects. It's proved to be a good process,and we've now got a clear list of activities, and a clear sense of direction.

As promised, I'm happy to share some of the details from the session...

Criteria

These are some of the criteria we identified to help us guide which activities to select:

• Generates income: as a consulting firm, a key consideration obviously has to be to generate income (to pay our wages!). The best ideas are therefore those that are both profitable for us, and beneficial for our clients.
• Builds our reputation: our success as a business rests on having visibility in the industries we work in, and a good reputation for our work. This includes having visibility on the global stage.
• Builds reputation of whole team: the goal is for every consultant to have a very visible role, beyond just James Robertson as the founder.
• Can be leveraged/built on: good ideas are those that lead onto further activities or opportunities, or support other initiatives we are already running.
• Supports personal growth: our activities must support the needs of our staff, giving them opportunities to further build their experience and expertise.
• Delivers value to clients/industry: a fundamental measure must be that our activities are benefiting or supporting the clients we work with, and the wider industry as a whole.
• Innovative: our business is built around innovating the fields in which we work, and innovating how we work.
• Builds working environment: as a growing business, our challenge is to sustain a productive working environment, while creating an attractive environment for prospective new staff.

Constraints

Here are some of the constraints that limit our activities:

• Staff time: our biggest limiting factor is the lack of staff time inherent in any consulting business.
• Consulting/conference/etc commitments: while client work is obviously crucial, it can make it hard to spend time working on internal projects and initiatives.
• Lack of technology: like most growing businesses, the challenge is to maintain the internal infrastructure in sync with the size of the organisation.
• "Growing pains": we are undergoing huge amounts of internal change, as we take on new challenges and opportunities. This generates "growing pains" for us to work through progressively.
• Lack of support services: without internal IT/comms/graphics staff, we need to build up strong support services to streamline delivery of our activities.
• Lack of desk time/collaboration time: with staff out on site or at conferences, it can be hard to get everyone in the room at the same time.

Chosen activities

Using these criteria and constraints, we evaluated each idea. By the end of this process, we had a long list of activities, with a mix of inwards-focused and outwards-focused items. Just a few of the items we identified (in no particular order):

• Client satisfaction measurement
• Workshop: Effective Information Management
• Build international networks
• Revamp of induction process
• Translation of products into other languages
• 10 year/new office party
• Incremental website improvements
• S2D team blog
• Develop 'chill out' area
• Intranet screenshot library
• Internal mentoring

(Plus much more, to be announced when it's ready. Watch this space!)

Summary

I've just finished writing up a "status sheet" for our internal use, allowing us to tick off items as they're done. The use of the 6x2 methodology has proven to be very effective, and it has given us a strong roadmap to follow for the rest of the year. Now that we've got the initial round out of the way, future planning processes should be both quicker and easier.

Posted by jamesr on January 29, 2007 10:59 AM
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