The role of Environmental Scanning in planning departments
Environmental Scanning (ES) is the process of paying attention to the world in which you operate in order to identify and gain a sense of potential signals of change in how your world is developing. When discussing the idea of ‘change’ we need to be clear – a potential signal of change is likely to be one that alerts you to a possible difference between where you thought you were going, and where you now might be required to go. In other words, ES is about managing the difference between your assumptions and your expectations, and the emerging reality of what is taking shape. For any department that has a planning function (and there are in fact surprisingly few that do not) effective ES provides a key element – time. Effective ES acts as an alert function for staff and management teams so that they can prepare their business to take alternative or additional action. There’s some core elements to an effective ES:
First you’ll need a recognition and acceptance that ES signals can be both formal and informal
Second you’ll need to recognise and accept that effective ES is a distributed function – everyone has the ability to pay attention to the things they feel, see and hear and that they might be picking up valuable clues for the organisation
Third – ES works best when you have a system or framework for both gathering the assorted signals and then analysing them for potential relevance to your workplace. The framework provides a means to sort the useful from the mere noise of day to day operations. We want our ES initiatives to generate useful insights
I developed VSTEEP (Values, Societal, Technology; Economic; Environmental and Political) which is a step beyond the more commonly used STEEP and more functionally useful than PESTLE (where the ‘L’ stands for Legal. I see Legal issues as emanating from the Political process). Whatever model you use, someone has to gather the data and turn it into information. There’s lots of ways to do that and it is not quite as complex or as daunting as it seems and although there’s a few other things I’d recommend, just by following the three steps suggested here, you’ll be well on the way to providing your planning capability with more time to get your future right. And that is after all, what most of us want to achieve
Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…
Read More >The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…
Read More >On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…
Read More >There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…
Read More >Environmental Scanning (ES) is the process of paying attention to the world in which you operate in order to identify and gain a sense of potential signals of change in how your world is developing. When discussing the idea of ‘change’ we need to be clear – a potential signal of change is likely to…
Read More >When it comes to water management, there’s something of potential value that Victoria could learn from Western Australia’s weather given discussions about new dams If you have almost 60 days straight of above 30 degree days with pretty much no rain, how do you fill the dam? Well you don’t but you’ve put all of…
Read More >The natural disasters we’ve seen recently around the world have shown us much about the communities in which they’ve occurred. The images emerging from Japan, New Zealand and Australia as they’ve faced earthquakes, tsumanis, floods and fires stands on stark contrast to the mainstream media stories that suggests people of the world are not willing…
Read More >Hi everyone – a quick note to let you know that our phones lines have been down for a while now and we are working on getting them fixed. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In the meantime, try using either our 1800 number where you can leave a message only…
Read More >ABC journalist Adam Stephen interviews Marcus Barber on the subject of GM foods and whether they might be more widely embraced as part of the global food requirements The interview (about 3& 1/2 mins) is available in MP3 format here and a link to the shorter web article is here. Some key points –…
Read More >South East Business Networks, the City of Greater Dandenong’s longest running business development program, is an exceptional avenue for learning about issues to do with Manufacturing. This week they provided one ‘out of the box’ with an excellent presentation by Professor Goran Roos, a worldclass expert on Manufacturing and currently South Australia’s Thinker in Residence.…
Read More >