Navigating an uncertain future for a mission-based charity

The Challenge

The UK charity is a member of a global alliance of Christian charities seeking to serve practically across the globe. Their prior strategic plan had served them well, but the challenging and changing context meant they knew they needed to undertake a systematic strategic review. Key challenges included the impact of Covid 19, funding challenges, church engagement, and the changing nature of international missions.

Their Country Director asked for our help to facilitate an engaging process for the Board to develop a new strategy that they would own and that would function as a living document to help guide the Board and the senior leadership going forward.

Our Approach

Tricordant facilitated a small mixed design group that led the charity working through a ‘discovery-analysis-sense making- option generation – decision making’ process based on the reflective cycle (What? – So what? – Now what?). The discovery phase was based on collating and analysing key data and information using a modified SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, and threats) and external environmental analysis. This was informed by key strategic analytical reports from senior managers, supplemented with a survey across charity members and interviews with key external advisors.

We used this information to develop 4 scenarios to help challenge and engage the Board in some of the alternatives the strategy needs to consider. Scenarios are not predictions of the future, but they help us explore what might happen in different circumstances. They encourage thinking about the future in a way that is not constrained by extrapolating current realities. Scenario planning is particularly useful when the world is expected to be turbulent and unpredictable.

Earlier workshops were used to develop the scenarios while in later ones the emphasis shifted to thinking about what the charity’s work might look like under each scenario. The scenarios were anticipated to take place 5 to 7 years from now.

Two key, but unpredictable factors were selected to drive the scenarios as shown to the left.

Each scenario was developed further with relatively more predictable factors such as migration, nationalism, digital, climate change, and global economic challenges. They were brought to life with vignettes and mock-ups of newsletter stories.

The Board considered their strategic challenges in the light of the scenarios – not as predictions of the future, but as plausible alternative futures they needed to anticipate and ensure their strategic choices were robust in each.

The Results

Through the process, the Board identified five key strategic themes and how they might realise these across the charity through the next 5 years. This process was informed by the supporting discovery work and the scenario process, not least as it helped to identify and reinforce key messages around the importance of a people-centred approach, empowered by digital technology and based on engagement with local churches within a wider perspective on the global church.

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