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Editorial
The
beautiful, messy stuff of doing strategy
June 27, 2003
If
asked to articulate their strategic plan, many organizational leaders
are likely to don a
look that says both ‘what on earth are you talking about?’ or ‘where
do you want me to start.’
In OMNI’s case that’s okay. It means the strategy is
working.
Noted business writer Henry Mintzberg co-authored The Strategy Safari
with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel a couple of years ago.
They have done us the favour of outlining 10 different ways organizations ‘do’ strategy.
One of the oldest, least flexible of the bunch was one called, wait
for it . . . Strategic Planning.
The names of the other strategy schools they discuss are revealing
as well. Check this – Design, Planning, Positioning, Entrepreneurial,
Cognitive, Learning, Positioning, Power, Culture, Environmental, and
Configuration.
At the end of the book the authors suggest it probably makes sense
to use some of the ‘ways to do strategy’ all of the time,
maybe mix them up, to create the right response for the time.
OMNI has been built from the ground up. Its history borrows from a number
of ways to do strategy. Much of that strategy emerged, similarly to the
learning school of strategy. These days you can see the markings of a vision-focussed
entrepreneurial culture. Sit in a meeting or read these editorials and
you will see smatterings of the power school (this just means people work
with people they agree with to bring about change). A values-based culture
is taking shape within OMNI before our eyes, another element of how to
do strategy.
It’s a complex, system for responding to big sector changes.
Map it? Schedule it? Plan it?
Elements of it yes, but you can’t plan emerging organic responses
to rapidly changing environments.
What you can keep clear however is a strategic framework in which all those
exciting, dynamic movements can channel themselves.
OMNI’s framework has two clearly discernable components – an
intellectual framework, and an organizational framework. All
the rest is the fun stuff, the soul liberating stuff.
Here’s the structure. The intellectual framework is represented
by the Mission, Vision and
Values, and the key objective areas – to
be the employer of choice, home of choice and to change long-term
care.
It is these things that enable the organization, and anyone working
within it to make decisions about what to do and what not to do.
The organizational framework – the logistics, pockets of organized,
but different activities – currently looks like this.
Administration – it begins with the support functions that
OMNI home office does, obvious ones like the work Glen Boyd and
his team
do. In time
it will be clear that HR fits here too.
Operations – OMNI has two operations representatives who
act as mentors and accountability watchdogs for each of the homes.
If you
wanted
you could
group this role under Admin, but right now the role is a little
different. That could change.
Portfolios – These are senior executive leadership roles to manage
long term programs directed straight at OMNI’s objective areas. So
far we’ve got Supportive Measures under Shawn Riel’s enthusiastic
and inspiring leadership, Education guided by Pat Power’s
steady hand, Nutritional Care being driven by team mates Leah
Poirer, Aimee
Merkely and Tanya Nichol. An argument can be made that Evaluation
and Ambassadorship
should be added.
Communities of Practice – This movement is sweeping through
OMNI quickly. Communities of Practice are connecting people in
like roles
from all OMNI homes.
They are building the networks needed to pool knowledge
and experience to come up with new ways of doing things from ground
up. These communities will channel and prioritize emerging activities
on the
basis of what those who know best see as important.
____________________________________________
R E L A T E D A R T I C L E S:
Village Green, Maplewood excited about
'communities of practice'
Recruitment and retention tied into
communities of practice
Administrators' first gathering
a lively one
OMNI’s soul about to be liberated
____________________________________________
Projects – Innovations
to be investigated, piloted and implemented will soon be vetted through
a central projects committee.
That group has already overseen Fraser’s ongoing recruitment and
retention campaign, multidose, and the Tena incontinence
system. Trimming
up its terms
of reference and assessment process, this home office organ
will set the
pace for the
future.
____________________________________________
R E L A T E D A R T I C L E S:
Projects to sink
your teeth into
New projects will keep people
engaged, says Fraser
____________________________________________
Home Hierarchy – Each
home is administered under much the same organizational framework ensuring
lines
of communication,
responsibility
and authority
are orderly and well functioning.
The intellectual framework has provided all members of the
OMNI community the tools necessary to make focused, consistent
decisions.
The organizational framework is the way OMNI has organized
its activities along the lines of the objectives and directions
set out by the intellectual
framework.
All the rest is the beautiful, messy stuff of doing strategy.
So next time someone asks you what OMNI’s strategy is, it’s
okay to screw up your face and look at them funny.
Two questions to pose to your questioner will help you
along. ‘What
particular part of the strategy are you interested in,’ or ‘Where
do I start?’
Or you could copy this page and say, ‘here, read this, I’ve
got strategy to do.’
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