Cawthron Institute is New Zealand’s largest independent science organisation, offering a broad spectrum of services to help protect the environment and support sustainable development of primary industries. They are a diverse organisation employing around 200 scientists, laboratory technicians, researchers and specialist staff from more than 20 different countries. Cawthron has grown significantly in recent years as their science and expertise have become increasingly sought after.
“Our (Cawthron’s) traditional strategy sessions had involved us sitting in a room and debating what we needed to do to achieve our goals. The problem was that when we left the room and went back to our day jobs, all the activities discussed were forgotten”
This is a common problem with companies deploying strategy. They have a two-day retreat to discuss, debate and hopefully agree on some activities to drive the business forward. Unfortunately, this is where it stops as they fail to put in place a clear structure to execute the plans.
Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound) objective.
We broke the vision down into clear annual SMART objectives. Without these in place strategy brainstorming sessions are loose and can easily go off topic. Identify the key Initiatives to deliver the objectives LMAC facilitated a group brainstorming session with the correct stakeholders where we identified and prioritised the key initiatives that would allow us to achieve our objectives.
“The whole team felt involved and engaged. Everyone had an opportunity to put forward their ideas. The process allowed us to debate these ideas and challenge each other in a structured way against the desired objectives. When we had finished, we had a set of initiatives we had all bought into and we believed could be delivered by the team.”
The next step was to widen the team and involve more stakeholders in building detailed plans. These plans set out how the initiatives would be delivered and the team responsible for the actions.
LMAC have developed a strategy and plans for Cawthron to utilise, mapping out how to step closer to this vision. The video below gives an overview of the process and the benefits realised.
