One of the challenges my General Manager put on my plate, was to tell a simple story, as simply as possible, about the essence of doing Enterprise Strategy.
Here is what I ended up with:
The way I told the story is …
- We use scenarios to scope meaningful chunks of change (vs. boil the ocean)
- Big scenarios are actually chunks of organizational change.
- We drive a program of change using a repeatable formula: Current State, the desired Future State, the Gaps, the ROI, and the Roadmap for Business Capabilities, People Capabilities, and Technology Capabilities.
- The value is in the change, and this connects business and IT in a significant and meaningful way.
He loved it.
I elaborated.
I shared a simple Workstream Frame to show how when we drive Enterprise Strategy, we can use the following canvas as our backdrop:
It’s a simple map but it helps chunk up and think about how you are making the changes:
- Program Governance – This is the space of operational excellence and governance.
- Business Value – This is where the business-led conversations and business-led changes flow.
- IT People/Process – From a pragmatic perspective, this is where IT-led conversations, and changes to IT people and process happen.
- Technology – This is where the fundamental technology changes happen – the IT platform for the business. Again, dominantly IT-led conversations.
To fully appreciate the simplicity above, below is what I first walked my General Manager through, and he said, while he could appreciate the essence of it, it was too complex:
At the end of the day, I think he was right, and I was glad that he pushed me to find a simpler story and to be able to tell it quickly at the whiteboard.
When people see that it’s all about driving a chunk of organizational change, and that it’s by changing the business, people, and technology capabilities, light-bulbs go off, and people get excited by how they can reshape the future of their Enterprise story, through Enterprise Strategy.
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