Process Excellence

At the U of A we will never be satisfied with the now. We are always seeking ways to improve how we go about what we do, to overcome barriers, to move our strategic vision forward, and to meet our goals and commitments.

To achieve these goals, we have a shared responsibility to continuously improve on how work is done. We must reflect on our work, aligning people, tasks, processes and technology to enhance efficiency and to meet the needs of our community.

Process excellence means we:

• Demonstrate awareness of the relationship between people and processes.
• Design processes that are representative of the experiences and needs of end users.
• Adapt to ways of working that enhance efficiency and add value.
• Make effective use of our resources.

Learn more about how we define workplace skills.

Curriculum

Vision in Action: Strategic Thinking + Planning

Facilitator: Maxine Clarke

In order to deliver results that align with the needs of our stakeholders, strategic thinking and planning is required. It involves reflecting on what’s working and not working in the present, anticipating trends that will present opportunities and challenges in the future, understanding who will be impacted by our work and how, and developing thoughtful and realistic plans to get our stakeholders’ needs met. Being strategic is both a mindset and a process, highly collaborative and data-based, and aided by a set of tools to support your success.

Learning Outcomes:

• Describe a strategic mindset and strategic behaviours, and approaches to integrating them into your day-to-day.
• Use a strategic planning tool set that includes:
  • A strategic planning process, including key questions to be answered.
  • Engaging the voice of your stakeholder.
  • Reviewing historical data about strengths and weaknesses.
  • Exploring political, economic, social, technology, legal and/or environmental trends to plan for a future that looks different than today.
  • Planning ahead to manage risks that could derail our success.
  • Developing a plan or roadmap with goals, methods or objectives, and measures of success.
• Develop strategies to sustain learning and continue cultivating personal competency in strategic thinking and planning.

Considerations:

To enable your learning needs to be met through focusing on the type of work that you will apply the skills you learn in this workshop to, you will be invited to enroll in a workshop focused on either:

1. Individual contributors looking to improve their strategic thinking and project planning capability.
2. Leaders accountable for developing their team or work group’s plans.

This workshop will be highly applied, so learners are required to come with either a project (of any size) or a strategic planning exercise in mind, as you will work on shaping it throughout the day in order to have tangible progress to take back to work.