People Powered Strategy: Bottom-Up Organizational Development
Global Non-Profit
“How we build the strategy will matter as much, if not more, as the strategy itself.”
Participatory, employee-fueled strategy sticks! For a global organization with over 3,500 staff and an extensive endowment, Frontier facilitated the development and implementation of a new, 5-year strategy that field teams, headquarter leaders, and the board equally own and are invested in. This bottom-up approach to strategy development was highly participatory and surfaced organizational transformation opportunities for urgent attention.
Through global surveys, ~100 staff interviews, dozens of employee focus groups, and six leadership co-creation sessions, we effectively integrated the many different strategic plans for every division and vertical at the organization, while honoring the timeless values and vision, and charted a bold future direction globally.
Specifically, the strategy designed new structures to connect disparate initiatives across the global organization, fostering a unified culture and purpose among teams. The global strategic plan clearly defined the organization’s mission, vision, strategic priorities, goals, activities, and approach. Through multiple town halls and strategic communications, 3,500 staff participated in the rollout and were given time to test and adopt the plan in more than 80 countries.
Throughout the strategy development and integration process, Frontier coached leaders individually and in peer groups to successfully navigate change, while cultivating psychological safety and practicing their skills as situational leaders, providing additional support to sustain and maintain the new strategy.
Employees are observing, “I’m already seeing success and positive shifts as we implement this bold strategy.” Frontier is proud of how we delivered this work, empathetically and with a focus on ensuring everyone’s voice was heard. As one Country Director for an African Office put it, “I’ve been involved in a lot of strategic planning processes over the years, here and in other organizations. I’ve never felt like I had so much input and ownership over a plan.”
The CEO remarked at a recent all-hands, “I was skeptical about strategic planning because I never saw it done well or in ways that stick. But, now, I’ve drunk the Frontier kool-aid. I’m all in now. Thank you for such an energizing, engaging process!”