Sometimes the most valuable learning comes in unexpected ways. One of the unanticipated consequences of our work on the Strategy Formation project, which involves research into alternatives to traditional strategic planning, has been the many ways in which what we have learned has become integrated into our own strategy work with clients.

As we discuss what we are learning in staff meetings, and as several staff are directly involved in piloting efforts with numerous nonprofits, it has made sense to change our own approaches to strategy, continuously, as our thinking develops.

Recently, these incremental changes in method and thinking reached a level where we noticed that our approach to strategy work with clients had fundamentally changed.

We are beginning to catalog and review both the nature of the changes in our process and the many ways that these adaptations have developed.

Here’s just one example: Instead of conducting environmental scans or market research near the beginning of an engagement, as is traditional, we are now doing this a little later, when we know the client better and can focus more closely on the issues of greatest importance.

I’ll continue to keep you posted as we document our learning.

Tags: nonprofit

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Consulting for Nonprofits, Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.