An international charity with turnover of over £450 million had undertaken a strategy exercise quite recently and was satisfied that the principles of the strategy remained sound. However, the changing geopolitical climate made them feel that some reassessment was required

Thinking the unthinkable
The directors of an international charity were reluctant to conduct a full review of their existing strategy. It had been prepared quite recently and agreed by the board. Those leading the charity knew that the real interests of their staff lay in working to improve conditions in far-flung places not in commenting on strategy documents from headquarters. Nevertheless, international terrorism and friction between different governments and religions made them feel uneasy. They wanted to explore what might happen so that they could bebetter prepared for it.

Our brief
We were asked to help the top team think the unthinkable; explore what might happen over the next few years which would impact on their role and on their staff. As leaders of the organisation they needed to be alert to any warning signals

What we did
We interviewed a number of the directors and their immediate reports in order to understand more about the organisation, its way of thinking and the issues which preoccupied them. Having established their current reality, we then arranged a one-day workshop in which we introduced them to the concept of scenarios and helped them to develop frameworks for alternative scenarios of how the world might evolve in the next three to five years. Four frameworks emerged and we set up four internal teams to develop and flesh out the scenarios over the next six weeks. The teams sometimes met in person, sometimes e-mailed each other as many were travelling and we met with several of them to help the process. We then came together again for a further one-day workshop at which the scenarios were shared. There was an opportunity to debate the implications for the role of the charity and for their staff if some of the developments outlined in the scenarios should come to pass. They were able to prepare mentally for the action that would have to be taken rather than being caught unawares

What Happened?
Everyone had the experience of viewing the world through different lenses as a result of working on and hearing scenarios. One outcome was that they decided to shift the emphasis of their programmes from certain parts of the world to others. The exercise also caused some participants to question certain elements of their existing macro strategy and the workshop provided a forum to debate and reconcile these views. The vocabulary used in the scenarios has also passed into common usage in the charity so that they can quickly refer to certain situations and their potential implications