Products: how we can help you

Products: how we can help you

INNOVATION PRESENTATIONS PLANNING WORKSHOPS SCENARIOS ADVICE DEBATE FORESIGHT

We can help you in two ways. First, we can help you with problems that you may have. Second, we can deliver training in methodology. We discuss training in a subsequent section. Problems usually come in one of three forms:

• Organisations may have an uneasy sense that the ground is moving under their feet. They know that they need new insight, but are not sure how to achieve this. The deliverable is usually informed minds, backed by a plan for taking action as a result of this, ideally supported by a longer term process aimed to maintain this level of insight.
• Organisations may have a clear sense of the challenge that they face. However, finding how to make this tractable to analysis proves to be difficult. It is frequently the case that one part of the organisation recognises issues that others do not, or anyway discount. The organisation needs not only analysis, therefore, but also internal conversations that will take it towards a shared view of how to progress. The deliverable will, in this case, depend on the nature of the problem, but is less focused on content and more on process than the previous example.
• Many organisations find it difficult to discuss the longer term with their stakeholders. It may be that what one sees as a conclusive answer the other perceives as a re-statement of the problem. It may be that the stakeholders are too eager to leap to closure at the first hint of insight, as with market analysts or political commentators. Our methodologies create a framework in which dialogue can be taken forward in a privileged environment, in which a part of the rules of the game is to avoid premature closure. We are frequently engaged in peace making processes, for just this reason. The deliverable can be designed to meet the needs of the situation.

With this in mind, we offer the following standar products, each of which are usually tailored to individual needs. The approximate time budget for Challenge Network staff ("Days") varies considerably with the scale, location and ambition of the project. We charge a standard day rate, plus direct costs. More about workshops here.

Training

We offer modular training in scenario planning techniques. We stress the need to integrate these disciplines with the overall planning processes of the organisation. The standard training modules take two full days to deliver, which can be an extremely concentrated bolus of information. It is preferable to extend such a course to three or even five days, by having the participants engage in a abbreviated scenario planning exercise under our guidance.

Publications and presentations

We offer a range of standard presentations. The current scenarios are supported by a two hour, extremely high quality presentation. This can be combined with a workshop, as above. Our presentations are widely respected for their high quality, evidence base and flexibility. An example of such a talk is available here.

We have published annually, but this web site has superseded paper publications in an attempt to keep up with the pace of change. Frequent visitors will note that it changes regularly.

Innovation and strategic change.

More on workshops here.

Complex organisation cannot change in a purposefully unless they understand the dynamics which shape their operating environment. How is one to think about the 'knowledge' and the 'electronic' economies, for example? Are they identical? Is the 'e'-phenomenon dead? Are these the right things to be thinking about? More to the point, how is this understanding to be attained?

The people who know parts of the larger picture are usually those who are exposed to the raw forces of change. They work at the 'coal face', where they also encounter the raw options which the organisation might eventually exploit. It is usually the case, however, that these human antennae are ill-informed and under-trained; and inadequately exploited as a resource. Each of these limits prevents the organisation from "seeing" properly, and from achieving its potential.

How are they ill-informed? Chiefly, because the organisation either does not have a clear picture of what it is trying to do - beyond cutting costs and increasing its scope - or if it has such a picture, it is not shared with these individuals. Where such sharing does take place, communication are ineffective and generic or conflicting messages are passed which cannot be made operational. Where a clear message does get through, there may be reward systems which oppose its implementation. If even this is in place, the machinery which is needed to make use of ideas and options which are surfaced may be absent.

How are they under-exploited? If the huge skill base of an organisation is deployed on a few repetitive tasks, and if people labour in "silos" where the larger picture is not discussed, if as already discussed, they are under-informed, then they are plainly not delivering their full potential. Senior management is usually decades away from technical training and field experience, yet if they try to solve the world without dialogue with those who do have these insights, then much potential will be lost.

How are they under-trained? It takes a particular set of skills to recognise crucial information as apart of a larger picture. If one does not understand economics, then the meaning of a crucial indicator will pass one by. Trained staff recognise weak signals that matter, assemble insights from partial information, notice options for the organisation and are in other ways able to suggest innovations.

Elsewhere, we show that patterns of knowledge represent around half of all business output. Badly constructed processes of enquiry make up around half of all project costs in manufacturing. It was once the case that a tiny group directed the efforts of a multitude, who did what they were told. The new model is quite different: firms have both a much larger professional cadre and a far wider reliance on the knowledge base of of partners than ever before. Making use of this network in repetitive, managed processes of enquiry and communication is the only way in which modern firms can guarantee purposeful, resilient adaptability.

Strategy processes

Understanding and enquiry are best managed through inclusive, gradual and purposeful programs. Not to do this is to waste talent and to force the firm to rely on external sources of insight that are available to everyone. To get incisive strategy, one has to do it for oneself, and one has to do it repeatedly. These processes are often difficult to get going, often for political reasons as much as all of the problems associated with inexperience. The main menu offers guides to scenario and strategic planning, showing where these complex procedures interlock. It is, however, one thing to read about such a process and quite another to do one for the first time, or to set up a cycle of planning in an organisation.

Organisations have unchallengeable knowledge about their own operating environment. They may, however, find it hard to grasp the language, team cohesion, tools and processes which are needed to give structure to this. In addition, forces which operate from outside of their traditional areas of concern may be gathering in strength, or changing in impact. The Challenge Network has great experience both in designing processes and in bringing to bear a structured understanding of these outside forces. We help organisations to see what might be, and to define mechanisms that will take them where they want to go.

We offer a wide range of help in designing strategic processes and, of course, in conducting them. At a lesser, or perhaps introductory level, however, we have a wide range of very high quality presentations which many find helpful in triggering such events. We also offer help in 'selling' ideas back into the organisation as a whole, and in shaping these for external consumption. We can also undertake one-off studies and scenario exercises, either in the public domain or on a confidential basis. We are particularly experienced in activities multi-stakeholder exercises which span public-private sector concerns.

The Challenge Network has accumulated the tools and insight that are needed for strategic adaptability and innovation. We have published a number of guides but these are, inevitably, relatively unhelpful without the personal skills that are needed to use them. We can offer this skill transfer.

Scenarios

The idea of scenarios is virtually synonymous with "futures studies". This is not, however, our primary aim when we help people to develop scenarios. A well-studied future is not of itself very helpful. One cannot predict events or even ranges of events. It is clear that we can, however, understand and react to the forces which create change. We can shape our own future, and make ourselves more alert, more adaptive and more ingenious than we would otherwise be. We can even save money in the process.

We tend to take a long view with our clients. We do this in order to point up the profound, often intangible forces that are in fact already running in the world. We deploy many perspectives in order to achieve this. The Challenge Network has, therefore, created an extensive framework within which complex, specific problems can be set into context. This web site explores some aspects of this knowledge base. Plainly, however, the process of making it relevant, and of developing the practical deliverables that any client expects, is a procedure that requires experience and skill.

Scenarios do, however, have an independent utility of their own. People find scenarios as helpful ways of summing up and communicating a complex world view to people with limited time: to partners, regulators, line managers, shareholders. They are often a very useful interface with marketers and advertising companies. Scenarios also have a way of becoming internal shorthand, where people suggest that this or that measure would work in - for example- New Deal.

Additionally, scenario planning allows one to test plans for their plausibility to alternative futures. As a central feature, however, their internal coherence in respect of present realities has a way of unraveling plans which do not similarly robust.

You will find much more about scenario planning under the Methods section of the main menu.