Three ways to make a great 2018 strategy
January is a popular time to review and prepare for the future, but how do you set ambitious yet achievable objectives? How do you plan in a time of uncertainty? How do you bring your team along with you?
At the last Exploring Strategy Workshop, we asked a team of authors what makes a great strategist.
Communication
All the authors, with their wide range of experience in corporate strategy practice and research, highlighted communication. Having a great vision for what could be done in your organisation is one part of the process. Finding clear and engaging ways to express it is another. A great strategist knows, understands and can communicate the strategy to others. One author said that if you can be persuasive about it, so much the better.
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Link the abstract and concrete
Patrick Regner, professor of strategic management at the Stockholm School of Economics, highlights the need for a great strategist to keep one eye on the operational day to day work, and well as one on the conceptual, abstract ideas that power the high level strategy.
Be a realist
Blue sky thinking is absolutely necessary in order to overcome unprecedented challenges. A great way to ensure that strategies are realised is to thread reality through them. The previous tip provides a way to do this: Ensuring that those in senior leadership are constantly hearing from learners, teaching staff and employers ensures that a strategy is not separated from the real challenges that those affected by it face.
2018 - what's your strategy?
Tweet us at @PearsonHEUK and let us know your strategic objectives for 2018. To learn more about ours, watch our strategy video.
About the author
Chimaechi Allan is passionate about education for social mobility, and manages content marketing for the higher education division at Pearson.