Horizon Scanning & Strategic thinking *Match-Fit*

Horizon scanning & strategic thinking across Departments & Government Agencies + Strategy Action Learning Sets *Match-Fit*

The aim of the session will be to support senior policy leaders in the Civil Service to prepare for a change in government at the next election. The core focus is creating leadership space and mindset for strategic thinking, identifying current policy thinking which may be inhibiting creativity, and looking upwards and outwards to future challenges and opportunities. The approach will be to use the experience in the room, along with some specific facilitator input.

The objectives are to:

• Understand how to embed strategic thinking in your leadership
• Identify where existing policy assumptions may need to be challenged
• Practice tools for looking ahead across different departmental and government agency agendas and making new connections

Creating the strategic leader’s mindset

Leaders often say they have “no space to think”, so we will:

• Discuss how leadership works in the brain – using the Primary Colours model (operational/ interpersonal/ strategic)
• Self-assess for your personal strengths and where your attention tends to be focused
• Learn tools and techniques to bring you back to strategic

Identify potential blockers to strategic thinking

Any new government can challenge “the way things are done around here”, so we will:

• Spend time reviewing and challenging deeply embedded assumptions and ways of thinking in your policy area
• Share tools to help you build these lines of enquiry with your teams

Horizon scanning: looking ahead and across

Horizon scanning is a key tool for strategic leadership, so we will:

• Practice looking forward through mega trends, local trends and sector trends and revisit the classic PESTLE tool
• Learn some scenario planning techniques to take away and explore further – including the 7 questions approach from the Go Science Futures Toolkit
• Identify who you want to involve to broaden your perspective – including other government departments and agencies