“Strategy, Focus and Operationalization.”
The last three days have been of great value to me and I do hope it’s been of the same value to my colleagues who we worked with during the period. I had the privilege to represent my employer as a stakeholder in TB prevention and care in the country where we were supporting the development of a strategic plan for the Stop TB Partnership-Kenya. As you go through this, you need to acknowledge that TB is one of the pivotal disease areas that require attention especially since most of those affected are the poor and marginalized. Unless we act in their interests, they may never get the care they need yet the very treatment for TB takes at least 6months and being an infectious disease the implication to community is substantial. Stay woke and play your part in TB prevention, care and management in whichever thing you do.
Well, that’s a summary of the work I have been doing but for this day it’s about reflecting on the key insights I gained over that period. As usual we have aspirations whether explicit or not. In order to achieve them, there is need to identify these priorities which are meant to be our guiding pillars for all that we do. We can call these the Strategic Pillars. With these, we then need to outline key objectives in each pillar. These become our high level priority item that if achieved we consider our venture successful in the end. Strategic objectives can then be broken down to specific desirable outcomes which can be varied e.g. if your objective is to forge meaningful relationships, then the expected outcome would be to have friends who challenge you to be better. It’s from this level of focus that an individual gets to the specifics of identifying ways of getting this outcome realized i.e. activities or interventions for which I’d consider participating in events that are of interest to you than expose you to the right mix of people to have in your circle of friends.
Every activity should have have an expected output which can be to engage a friend from each forum attended and follow up with them afterwards. In this case you’d consider a measure of success as a contact obtained, follow up call or conversation from the meeting. Once this is achieved, the focus is aligned on making a conversion i.e. from an acquaintance or someone you’ve met to a friend which is through mutual value and contribution in the overall relationship forged. That’s the overall scope of strategic planning and while I was adopting these concepts for an organization, I realized it was the same thing I needed to do in my personal life to achieve results I’ve always wished and hoped for.
On my way home I have acknowledged that we need to put out houses in order by knowing what we need to act on, refining our approach to implementing for which the best way is to write it down on paper. This can be your board to bounce ideas and to remind yourself of what you outlined for action. With this, when you get to action, track progress alongside the key indicators without losing the bigger picture. If you can do this you’ll be on track to realizing your goals. I just felt you should know that you can put your house in order and transform your life by doing that as it focuses you to your ultimate goal in life.
“No goal is unachievable unless not acted upon. To act, refine it to the basics and set out to win your battles. There are enough spectators, start being a participant and some day you’ll most definitely win.”