Strategic Planning for Execution: Assessment and Risk (SPEAR) Workshop - NPS Online

Overview

The Strategic Planning for Execution: Assessment & Risk (SPEAR) Workshop is an interactive, results-oriented team-based guided workshop. It is designed to assists Commanders and their executive teams in the development and execution of a mission-critical strategic planning process. This strategic process helps accentuate a command's strategic value, maximize Navy resources, target specific objectives, identify, and assess outcomes, and mitigate risk. Teams learn from Naval Postgraduate School faculty, who know best practices and have proven, practical experience working with numerous Navy commands, major corporations, and other government organizations. Each team is assigned a professional facilitator to guide them through the process and help translate the concepts to the strategic needs of a particular command.

Team-based Perspective

SPEAR is taught from a customer-value perspective to ensure the benefits of strategic outcomes. To provide command-wide strategic relevance a diversity of perspectives from across the command should be represented by the participating team members. The team-based learning model provides a forum for leaders across the command to work through competing strategic needs and resource tradeoffs. We encourage teams of 6-10 participants to provide a broad perspective that encompasses the commands breadth of work. Team members should be prepared to focus their time and expertise both during the workshop and afterwards in the development of an effective, command strategy.

Workshop Objectives:

• Clearly define an effective, actionable mission
• Identify strategic capabilities
• Assess internal/external factors
• Set measures of effectiveness
• Decide most important priorities
• Manage risk migaton
• Define measurable objectives
• Develop strategy leadership skills

Questions to Be Addressed during the Workshop

• Have you clearly defined your mission, and is it understood throughout the command?
• How will emerging internal and external changes impact your strategic plans?
• What are the most important objectives for your command to achieve?
• What distinctive capabilities position your command for sustained high performance?
• How do you assess your objectives and select metrics that assure intended results?
• What risks are associated with your plans, and how do you mitigate risk?
• Are you maximizing your organizational leadership capabilities to gain support and resources for your strategic initiative?

Who Should Attend?

We recommend sending teams of at least 3-5, led by a Flag Officer, SES, or O-6. The SPEAR goal is for each team to strengthen their organization's strategic planning process with attention to desired outcomes, metric selection and risk management. The workshop is effectively a structured and facilitated off-site for senior leadership and staff to focus on advancing their command's effectiveness to accomplish key strategic goals. Each participating team can take away from the SPEAR workshop an improved strategic plan and assessment with clear, measurable objectives that enable all levels of the command to align their decisions and actions to achieve organizational success.