"What if?"...

I will talk soon to some traditional tools and theories used to develop strategy, as mentioned in my post Strategy – something for someone else to worry about? (15/5/20). For now I want to cover my favorite approach to problem solving. The “What if?”session.

You can always research or lean on your own organisation if you prefer a little more structure or support here, however I am going to talk to the simple approach I typically take. It is design thinking based and would be familiar to many. Importantly, which ever way you go, ensure you articulate the format, context and desired outcome to the group, at the start of the session.

The aim of the “What if?” method is to draw out possible significant scenarios, that would have an impact to your business. You can focus on your division or the broader organisation. It may be your own business. Where it can be a bit of fun - you can go as broad and as extreme as you like.

Bringing together a cross section of people (you want different thinking here), for a minimum of 2-3 hours, the approach is to work in smaller groups, considering as many possible business impact scenarios that you can. Worst case and with the greatest impact the better.

This is a session that can be run remotely using tech collaboration meeting tools. Dialing in to this type of session will not work - it does need to be a visual, fluid environment.

Imagine if a session had been run a year ago which had included the potential of a global pandemic? This would have been considered extreme and highly unlikely then, however look at what’s happened. Remember the HIH Insurance Collapse or the 9/11 attacks - who could have imagined.

You cannot plan for every single possible event, however a "What if?" session can be valuable.

Once all of the ideas have been drawn out and shared with the group, time is spent considering, if it was to happen, what would be the impact to our business? Is there anything we can do to either prepare or mitigate? What would our options be? Rather than a defensive view, would this create an opportunity?

From here you can then build out any actions. Smaller working groups to flesh out those “less extreme” however problematic issues or a potential opportunity. Possibly you will have a small number of big ticket items that may need a future action/contingency plan and escalated through the business.

The outcomes of this session may include;

• Key potential business impacts along with actions / recommendations

• Significant potential risks to the business, not previously considered

• Broad plans in place for those significant events should the unlikely happen. If extreme, they may need to feed into the business continuity and Enterprise risk management plans.

• A core list that can be revisited and retested once or twice a year.

Other than identifying business risks, the added benefit to taking this approach is to enable people to really test their thinking. Introverts and those creative types, who tend to be quiet in a more standard meeting format, will have a great opportunity to stretch their legs and be active. (If this is you – make sure you find ways to be invited to these sessions!)

For those who have used a SWOT analysis (we will get to SWOT when talking to more traditional tools), you are right, this is a similar concept/approach. For those in the risk space, this will of course be very familiar – it would be interesting to look at your current risk register and consider if the thinking has been broad enough?

A few practicalities. If you can bring in someone who can assume the role of facilitator, giving the session a little structure that is ideal. If you are not in a leadership role where you can easily facilitate / bring together a group, suggest the session to your business leader and make sure you are involved on the day.

The ability to lead a session or problem solve in this environment are great skills to have. Like anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. As I spoke to in “So why can’t I just solve this on my own?” (19/5/20), collaborative problem solving is of benefit for so many reasons. Have fun with this.

Until next time

Lisa