Strategic Futurists; Value Systems Specialists

Events

Assessing the Resources challenge for taking action

Thursday 15 August 2013

Consistently in our workshops and in private programs, the issue of 'lack of available resources' is raised as a reason for inaction or poorly executed action that an organisation needs to undertake. However when respectfully challenging that perspective through a series of questions, what is unpacked is the difference between an organisation owning a resource and being able to access a resource. This assumption appears in Government, for profit and not for profit entities we have worked with. It appears across industry sectors and it appears across organisation sizes. And for most part, not only is this assumption incredibly limiting for a strategy setting perspective, it is based on a falsehood.

Owning a resource both defines and limits an organisation. 'More money' or 'more time' or 'more people' are common perceived limitations.  If you've attended one of our public workshops you'll know how in about three steps I show that 'more money' is an excuse without foundation. When an organisation says they need more money, usually what they mean is that 'in order to keep doing things the way we are doing them now, we need more money'.

When an organisation says they lack time, usually what they mean is 'we have not considered any other way of gaining the time required by STOPPING activity on things that add NO VALUE to what we are doing'. In other words, they refuse to ask the question 'why are we doing this?'

And 'more people' is often connected to time and again with a couple of questions I'll uncover that the core request is not changing process flows and activity flows. More people is often (I admit not always) a sign that people are being asked to be active, but not productive.

To address your resources challenge then you need one core defining item - a CLEAR & PRECISE VISION.

Once you have that, decision making and resource availability becomes a very small issue because you start asking questions like 'how else or where else could we get the resources we need?'

And from that question, magic happens! It becomes the launch pad that moves an organisation toward ACCESS of a resource - can a not for profit gain sponsorship opportunities? Can the For profit align with an NGO to achieve a branding exercise? Can a Government agency tap the crowd to assist with an issue or a challenge? Accessing a resource takes a different mindset from the one where the resource is owned. From a Strategic Planning and a Futures perspective, you first have to ask the question


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