Strategic direction begins by digging deep
Strategic planning consultants have a bad rap for spending a lot of client time (and money) bringing themselves up to speed on their client's business model and work. So when we tell a client our first phase of work is a Discovery Phase, we typically hear that they either don't need it or want us to skip it and get straight to planning. And that’s where strategic planning goes awry.
We’ve seen what can happen when strategic planners cut corners in a planning process and when the focus is purely on taking action – but not taking time to address underlying issues and the actions most effective for tackling them. We founded Mapt Solutions to bring a different approach, and our three-phased strategic planning process is tailored to reflect our client and their needs.
We start all of our partnerships with a Landscape Review and Strategic Assessment. During this initial phase, we do a deep dive to analyze data, interview internal and external stakeholders, challenge and validate assumptions, and explore the broader environment and dynamics of peer organizations. We don’t stop until we and our clients fully understand their organization’s current state and the world within which it operates. Reviewing the outcomes of this work is one of our most meaningful touchpoints with our clients. It offers them insight and often an invaluable perspective into how others view them, as well as opportunities for growth and ideas they can implement from their peers or other sectors.
Then, once we fully understand where they are, where they’ve been, and what challenges and opportunities they face, we shift to strategic planning. The result: Clients walk away with three high-value, tailored deliverables, including an assessment that helps to ground internal stakeholders, a strategic plan that sets the stage for their work over the upcoming years and an actionable plan to guide their team in getting started. We also help organizations communicate this work with internal and external stakeholders and plan for change management efforts.
Take Mapt partner, Indiana Afterschool Network (IAN), for example. IAN works to advance opportunities for learning beyond the school day. IAN leaders initially came to Mapt for support in developing an internal capacity-building plan that would allow it to expand its reach and impact. Mapt saw a deeper opportunity for IAN, however, and ultimately worked with the organization to not only build capacity but a greater strategic focus to ensure the capacity it was strengthening worked to support its future goals. We shifted in real time to help IAN through its pain points, and the organization benefited from a complete exploration of its strategic direction – action catalyzed by the way Mapt approaches its initial phase of work.
“Mapt leans into years of experience to provide practical advice on our most complex challenges,” said IAN CEO Lakshmi Hasanadka. “IAN partners with Mapt because they deliver honest advice that addresses the root causes of our challenges. Mapt has helped us to see opportunities for our organization and how to achieve success in those opportunities. They have guided us through implementation with high-quality deliverables that we actually use.”
Taking time to analyze where clients are and the full range of opportunities that exist for them, allows us - and more importantly, then - to build alignment, dream new dreams and realize new possibilities that would not otherwise be possible. Whether you work with us or not, you should be giving yourself this advantage to better understand who you are, where you are and what possibilities exist for tomorrow.