We used to be clients ourselves. Getting objective input so that we didn't solve the wrong problems really well was almost impossible. Not much has changed. Too long and too expensive. I had problems to solve and opportunities to exploit. The process for each was a struggle. Snake oil salesmen, biased advisors - all of it was expensive to get wrong. Very expensive to get wrong.

We've figured out, in around 3000 assignments so far, that being able to describe the REAL challenge in a sentence or two is at least 50% of solving the challenge itself. We call it the exam question. Armed with such a question we can develop a rapid program that actually tackles it in an holistic fashion.

Unlike most methods we don't believe that spending months analysing the situation beats a few days getting under the skin of our clients. Sure we need to know what's happening but valuable work only starts when we figure out where we want to go. We can only learn so much from where we've been - we need to be outstanding at where we are headed.

Well we set a number of things off at the same time. Thinking hard about what we find, asking questions from an objective and impartial point of view, listening to what we are not hearing, creating a hypothesis or two to bring to bear, build a program that will get us there without boring the threads off everyone. Managing the expectation for some face time. Being very clear about what the purpose of it all is.

It's no good us being smart and building a plan for the future. What's important is giving the confidence and fluency to the team that's going to execute. True we will build many tools and share many techniques but in our experience that's only half of it. The engagement and ownership needs to be sustained and the new behaviour of the people involved is the vital deliverable.

That's not a trivial idea. We have proven beyond any shadows that this is the tough stuff. What we've also proved is that it will only happen if we can prove value and inspired agreement to the individual. Call it motivation, call it enlightenment but without that no long term value will emerge.

We try to stay attached but we also aim to be remote and not an overhead. So we are imagining tools. We've built some too. Online platforms, social and collaborative systems, remote coaching and mentoring, refreshing milestones and a series of retreats.

This works. But this also varies depending on the maturity and commitment of the clients and their determination to make things happen. We would love to talk more about it.

john@grouppartners.net

The Rest Of The Story - http://beta.myalbum.com/artofstrategy