<< Please click on a topic to the left to learn more about how Praxis can help your company develop organizational strategies.

Strategic Planning

Praxis provides assistance in the design and facilitation of strategic planning processes that focus on moving organizations toward a desired future. Successful strategic planning achieves two goals:

• Mapping specific strategies that will move an organization beyond its current situation toward an ideal future
• Building commitment to a common focus among organizational stakeholders that aligns individual and joint goals and actions.

Our goal is to design processes that identify and address major challenges and opportunities, and position organizations for ongoing success.

Alignment of Culture and Strategy

Praxis works with clients to ensure that an organization’s culture is aligned with and supports any changes in strategy by:

• Assessing how well an organization’s current culture supports the organization’s strategies
• Working with the organization’s leaders to plan and implement any appropriate culture changes.

Whole Systems Change

Large scale or whole systems change processes accelerate the speed of change so that organizations can respond more quickly to rapid shifts in their environment. Praxis designs and facilitates large scale change processes both within and across organizations by:

• Facilitating coordination and integration of changes across organizational functions (e.g. technology, marketing strategy, human resources, etc.)
• Working with internal planning teams to define goals, identify key players, and assist in design of the change process
• Anchoring change events in a clearly defined follow-through strategy.

Multiple Stakeholder Planning Events

Praxis consultants are experienced in designing and facilitating large scale planning events that engage multiple stakeholders in addressing a common concern. We also assist in shaping solutions that have benefits for each participating group or organization. The following principles guide our work with multiple stakeholder planning efforts:

• Understanding the history and relationships among stakeholders
• Respecting each stake-holder's interests
• Creating participatory processes for change that facilitate buy-in and commitment
• Emphasizing the definition of goals, strategies, time frames, and measures of success that carry a process to successful conclusion

Large Group Conferences

Where leaders are committed to learning from the external environment and from organizational members, large group strategic planning conferences can mobilize targeted change in a tenth or less of the time required for most strategic planning processes. If the organization is effectively represented in the conference, implementation of the new plans is begun before the conference ends. Praxis consultants have managed such processes in manufacturing, regional and commodity development, and in the public sector.

Change Management

Praxis consultants help clients understand what is required for effective organizational change, including who to involve in planning change and how to involve them. We work closely with clients from the design phase through to implementation of change, as always engaging client knowledge and experience to shape appropriate change. We offer useful tools for analysis and participation, and we facilitate the internal dialogues that are necessary for implementation that is sustainable.

Process Analysis and Problem-Solving

Praxis consulting and training on process improvement is based on the belief that leading and managing process improvement is both a process improvement activity and a cultural change activity. Utilizing Rapid Improvement Events and Teams is a means to:

• Obtain quick, measurable, and sustainable process improvement
• Develop new levels of leadership
• Operationalize participation
• Reinforce the desired culture and communication climate
• Continue business education, strongly linking effort and results to business and financial performance
• Link process improvement to social and compensation rewards and recognition
• Rapid Improvement Events are also important “confidence building measures” demonstrating that leaders are serious in living up to their stated values and commitments