Every year NWES holds a "Strategy Week" where all of the staff members within the company are involved in helping set our strategy, objectives and action plans. We have just completed this years'. Many people and organisations wonder why we:
1. Allow staff a say in the strategic direction of the company
2. Spend a week a year on it
3. Bother having a strategic plan
To me the idea of involving everyone in helping set strategy is common sense. It harnesses the thoughts and ideas of everyone not just a chosen few, there is a greater diversity of opinion and those operating "on the ground" know just where strategy falls down! This is the most important week in the year as far as I am concerned as we have the chance to analyse what works, what does not, what we can change and what we should leave well alone.
Spending a week a year is only 2% of the annual time available and this means that we do not have to spend copious amounts of time, energy and cost in communicating our ideas to all of the staff members - value for money!
Without a plan the business drifts and having firmly driven NWES to the top of our profession I have no intention of letting us drift anywhere!
We have finished the week with a set of organisational strategic objectives, team action plans to deliver those objectives and most importantly the desire of the staff to achieve them. I do not set any targets - the teams do that themselves and they invariably set levels at the top end of expectations, and yet they always deliver.
I will return to this subject in more detail in future posts explaining what and how we do during this important week. It's great having wonderful staff!
