Validating Strategies: Linking Projects and Results to Uses and Benefits

Organisations continue to struggle with their strategies; even when they have a strategy development process, their plans rarely have the impact that was intended. Too many of their people don't know about the strategy, don't understand it or can't translate it into what it means for their role. Validating Strategies addresses the taxonomy, syntax and semantics of strategies; in other words: what does the strategy say, how does it relate to other plans, what are the causalities between the strategy and successful business outcomes and how should this all be expressed in a language that everyone in the organization can understand. The model at the heart of this book - Organisations run Projects that produce Results and enable people to Use them to create Benefits (PRUB) - offers an intuitive approach that links collaborative strategic planning and validation to project and programme management so as to create, validate and implement strategies. The strategy development and validation model offered by Phil Driver addresses the struggle of organisations to realise their strategy, replacing endless projects that don't quite seem to deliver what the organization needs with an easy-to-understand, implementable methodology that can be validated with evidence.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface; Introduction; Projects, Results, Uses and Benefits (PRUB) and OpenStrategies. Part I Why Most Strategies Fail to Have any Impact: Strategy language (taxonomy); Strategy structure (syntax) and meaning (semantics); Working with stakeholders. Part II Creating and Validating Strategies: PRUB-validate; Creating and integrating SubStrategies into OpenStrategies; Summary of the Projects, Results, Uses and Benefits sequence and OpenStrategies. Appendices; Index.

About the Author :
Phil Driver is founder and CEO of OpenStrategies Ltd (Christchurch, NZ). His background in science and engineering management led to his involvement in large-scale industry-sector strategies. That in turn led to his developing an in-depth understanding of the challenges of even larger scale, public sector strategies. The OpenStrategies' system then evolved through more than a decade of intense engagement with many public and private sector organisations. A fundamental principle Phil applied was that 'anyone can design a complicated strategy system but a good designer will develop a simple one'. The resulting OpenStrategies' system is compellingly simple yet powerful, even for very complex, large scale strategies. Crucially, OpenStrategies doesn't just underpin the design of strategies - it also guides their validation and implementation.

Review :
'At last a coherent approach to strategy that emphasises rationality and action above form and analysis without action. Strategy has to deal with complexity and Phil Driver has managed to develop a methodology where strategy formulation recognises the complexity, diversity and multiple stakeholder interests typical in the process. This book is a must-read for all those who wish to formulate and implement a working strategy.' Piet Beukman, Director, Engineering Management Programme, University of Canterbury, New Zealand 'OpenStrategy provided a valuable input to the development of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy by providing a consistent framework that facilitated input from geographically dispersed stakeholders with divergent perspectives. It is timely that Phil has documented this systematic framework to collaborative strategy development and implementation so that the approach is accessible to those grappling with the need for strategies to address complex issues with multiple stakeholders.' Dr Bryan Jenkins, Professor, Strategic Water Management, University of Canterbury and Lincoln University, New Zealand 'Strategic information must be well managed if it is to have an impact. Validating Strategies provides an enlightening diagnosis of failures of current strategic information systems by demonstrating the importance of effective taxonomy, syntax and semantics of strategic information. This book then outlines the powerful yet linguistically simple OpenStrategies system for collaboratively developing, validating and implementing strategies in complex environments.' Prof. Dr Simone Fuhles-Ubach, Dean of the Faculty for Information and Communication Studies, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany 'Ever wondered why your organisation's strategies have limited impact or simply fail? Phil Driver's book addresses this issue using a simple but powerful model: PRUB (also known as Project Results Users Benefits). ... As I read the early chapters, I began contacting work colleagues about the simplicity of PRUB and how it can be applied to the way we look at the benefits of our interventions ... The PRUB model is a valuable tool for both the organisation and a professional project manager to have at their disposal.' Project magazine, November 2014