Strategic%20Planning%20Workshop

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Strategic Planning Workshop
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Strategic PlanningCourse Overview
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Strategic PlanningCourse Overview
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• The real path to greatness, it turns out,
  requires simplicity and diligence. It requires
  clarity, not instant illumination. It demands
  each of us to focus on what is vital and to
  eliminate all of the extraneous distractions.
• Jim Collins from Good to Great

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Group ExerciseIntroductions

• What is your experience with strategic planning?
• What role have you taken in strategic planning
  initiatives in the past?
• What are some examples of strategic planning
  efforts that you have seen that were particularly
  problematic? What has not worked?
• What are some examples of strategic planning
  efforts that you have seen that were particularly
  successful? What has worked?

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Day OneSession One
Part One Introduction
Wall Chart
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Introduction to Strategic Planning
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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What do you think the new trends in strategic
  planning are?
• How do you think the definition of strategic
  planning is changing in the business world as a
  whole?
• What must you do to impact your organizations
  approach to strategic planning over the next 5
  years?

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Three Keys to Successful Strategic Planning
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Strengths-Based Thinking (Appreciative Inquiry)

•  Focus on core strengths of an organization
  rather than its weaknesses
• Elicits enhanced performance at both an
  individual and an organizational level
• Creates a heightened sense of momentum and
  positive energy
• Necessary components when dealing with change

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are your organizations current strengths?
• What do you do well?
• What resources do you have?
• What are you capable of doing?
• How can these strengths be leveraged to create
  new opportunities?

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Open-Source Decision Making

• Everyone is involved and collaborates to discuss
  and create a solution
• Creates synergy in large groups where there are
  many complex and diverse ideas
• Creates collective ownership and a greater wealth
  of ideas
• Must extend outside the organization

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Dynamic Approach

• Modern strategic plans should be dynamic and
  adaptive, not static
• Strategy, as we knew it, is dead. Corporate
  clients decided that increased flexibility and
  accelerated decision making are much more
  important than simply predicting the future.
• Walt Shill, head of North American management
  consulting at Accenture

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Day OneSession One
Part Two Discovering the Strategic
Priorities in Your Organization
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Discovering the Strategic Priorities in Your
Organization
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OverviewThis session will prepare you to

• Adapt to the current business environment by
  restructuring your strategy making process
• Address the future of strategic processes by
  redefining strategic planning in a new light
• Explore the keys to successful strategic planning
  in the new decade for corporate leaders

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Restructuring Your Strategy-Making Processes

• Adapt your process to the current business
  environment
• Be aware of the assumptions youve made about
  the environment and its future
• Question your assumptions encourage debate

The factors you need to consider in developing a
strategic plan are probably not the same ones you
needed to consider 10, 5, or even 2 years ago.
Make sure to remain adaptable and avoid resting
on prior knowledge.
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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What were some of the assumptions made the last
  time your organization devised a plan?
• How did these assumptions guide planning?
• How did they affect the success of the plan?
• How would you challenge these assumptions going
  forward?

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Explore the New Keys to Success
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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What does success look like to your company?

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Case Study
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Day OneSession Two
Increasing Corporate Competitive
Agility
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Increasing Corporate Competitive Agility
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OverviewThis session will prepare you to

• Examine your organization critically with
  S.W.O.T. analysis
• Perform an environmental scan to identify true
  opportunities and threats with external analysis
• Stay one step ahead of the competition by
  forecasting future trends and market evolution
• Analyze organizational effectiveness your vision

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Examining Your Organization Critically S.W.O.T.
Analysis

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

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S.W.O.T. Analysis
SWOT Factors Example Factors Present or Future Factors?
Strengths and Weaknesses Internal Products, pricing, quality, people, reputation, processes, etc. Present
Opportunities and Threats External Markets, audience, seasonality, trends, culture, technology, etc. Future
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Identify Opportunities and Threats

• Changing composition of the workforce and
  shifting work patterns
• Diversity
• Outsourcing
• Government influences (rules and regulations)
• Economic conditions
• Availability of qualified labor pools
• Willing customer and client base
• Global/Geographic conditions

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Group Exercise

• S.W.O.T.
• Internal and external analysis
• In addition to a traditional SWOT analysis, what
  other factors might you need to consider in
  planning the future of your business?

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Stay One Step Ahead of Your Competition

• Focus your attention toward growing trends
• Look to new developments in technology
• Manufacturing
• Marketing
• Employee engagement
• Evaluate how competitors function
• Product development
• Employee engagement and retention
• Profitability and cost reduction
• Succession planning

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• How would your company compare to others in a
  competitive analysis?

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Vision

• What is your company doing?
• What should/could your company do?

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• When someone thinks of your company now, what
  words do you think come to their mind? What
  images?
• How is your company perceived in the marketplace?
  

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Case Study
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Day OneSession Three

• Thinking Competitively About Your Organizations
  Future

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Thinking Competitively About Your Organizations
Future
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Overview This session will prepare you to

• Stop, look, listen and proceed think
  strategically about moving forward
• Ensure flexibility and practicality in strategy
  development
• Strengthen your leaders capabilities to think
  strategically and act effectively
• Evaluate key factors and avoid common decision
  traps that derail your strategic decisions

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What kind of strategic actions are currently
  being taken at your organization?
• To what extent are these actions addressing (or
  not addressing) the challenges ahead?

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Thinking Strategically Moving Forward

• STOP understand your goal.
• LOOK look toward future trends.
• LISTEN listen to new ideas.
• PROCEED start moving toward your goal.

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Four cornerstone principles of the life sciences
and organizations

• 1. Equilibrium is death
• 2. Innovation usually takes place on the edge of
  chaos
• 3. Self-organization and emergence occur
  naturally
• 4. Organizations can only be disturbed, not
  directed
• From Surfing the Edge of Chaos Pascale et al

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Ensuring Flexibility and Practicality in Strategy
Development
Strategic flexibility calls for a balance
between the following
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Strengthen Your Leaders Abilities to Think
Strategically and Act Effectively

• Give leaders a deep understanding of the
  underlying dynamics of the business.
• Ensure that strategy is understood by all and is
  successfully implemented.

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What traps have hindered a decision within your
  organization?
• What were the traps?
• How did they affect your organizations strategy?
  
• What can be done to avoid these traps?

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Case Study
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Day OneSession Four
Visualizing the Future with Effective
Strategic Vision
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Visualizing the Future with Effective Strategic
Vision
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OverviewThis session will prepare you to

• Formulate an intuitive strategic vision as the
  foundation of a solid strategy
• Achieve your strategic vision and objectives with
  tangible and quantifiable goals
• Incorporate your competitive advantage into your
  strategic vision statements

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What Is Strategic Vision?

• REALISTIC based in reality
• CREDIBLE believable to the employees, the
  organization, and the customer or client being
  serviced
• ATTRACTIVE inspiring desire on the part of the
  employees to be part of the organization
• LASTING demonstrate the ability to remain as
  time passes

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Formulate an Intuitive Strategic Vision as the
Foundation of a Solid Strategy
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Developing an Effective Vision
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Developing an Effective Vision

• Understand the organization.
• Whats the purpose? Mission? Value?
• Whats the character of the industry?
• Who are the internal and external stakeholders?
• Conduct a vision audit.
• Assess direction and momentum
• Does the organization have a clearly stated
  vision?
• Does the organizations structure support the
  direction?

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Developing an Effective Vision

• Target the vision.
• What are the boundaries or constraints of this
  vision?
• What must the vision accomplish?
• Set the visions context.
• What might the future environment look like?

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Developing an Effective Vision

• Develop future scenarios.
• Use previous expectations as predictors for what
  could happen in the future
• Generate alternative visions.
• Create several different scenarios for future
  possibilities
• Generate several different solutions to the same
  problem
• Choose final vision.
• Must be compatible with the organizations values
  and culture
• Cannot be applied to alternative scenarios

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Achieve a Clear Strategic Vision and Objectives

• Make your goals tangible and quantifiable.
• Provide solid feedback regarding performance in
  the process of attaining your goals.
• Be open to constant reevaluation of the process.
• Create quick wins to build momentum.

The easier it is to measure the goal progress,
the more effective the evaluation process
becomes. The effectiveness of the vision is
dependent on how it withstands measurement.
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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are some goals you could set that are
  positive and tangible and also help capture your
  organizations overall strategic vision?

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• Why are quick wins a vital component of
  strategy formulation?
• What do they provide?

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Incorporate Competitive Advantage into Your
Strategic Vision

• Ascertain what makes your company unique and
  competitive
• Evaluate your organizations value system
• Commitment and energy are both fueled by values

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Case Study
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Strategic PlanningOverview
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Day TwoSession One
Building a Robust Corporate Strategy
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Building a Robust Corporate Strategy
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OverviewThis session will prepare you to

• Reveal the process of successful strategy
  formulation
• Demonstrate techniques and highlight keys to
  formulating a successful strategy
• Explore the keys to developing a healthy strategy
  program

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Five Keys to Successful Strategy Formulation
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Five Keys to Successful Strategy Formulation

• Context and Environment
• Where are decisions made?
• Where will action be taken?
• Content
• What does the organizations industry look like?
• How does the organization choose to compete?
• Key Players
• Who will carry out these decisions?
• Who gets to make these decisions?

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Five Keys to Successful Strategy Formulation

• Outcomes
• Who will be affected?
• How will they be affected?
• How will the outcome be measured?
• Is the decision consistent with the values and
  culture of the organization?
• Implementation
• How will your organization ensure tenacity of the
  decision?
• How will changes be made to the decision if
  necessary?
• How will you ensure that the decision sticks in
  all parts of the organization?

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Six Suggestions for Creating a Healthy Strategy
Program
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Ten Southwest Practices for Building High
Performance Relationships

1. Lead with credibility and caring
2. Invest in frontline leadership
3. Hire and train for relational competence
4. Use conflicts to build relationships
5. Bridge the work/ family divide
6. Create boundary spanners
7. Measure performance broadly
8. Keep jobs flexible at the boundaries
9. Make unions your partners
10. Build relationships with suppliers

• Relational Coordination
• Shared goals
• Shared knowledge
• Mutual respect
• Frequent communication
• Timely communication
• Problem-solving behavior

Do the right things! At the right time! In the
right way! With the right people!
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Six Suggestions for Creating a Healthy Strategy
Program

• Designate a strategy process champion to define
  a process incorporating SWOT analysis.
• Assign someone the responsibility of taking into
  account the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
  and threats of your organization to begin to
  formulate a plan moving forward.

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Six Suggestions for Creating a Healthy Strategy
Program

• Communicate the nature of the strategy program to
  the organization, and provide milestone
  completion dates.
• Keep in mind a realistic time frame for the
  completion of the strategy program, but build in
  quick wins to gather momentum surrounding its
  implementation.
• Make sure everyone is informed about the
  beginning of the project.

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Six Suggestions for Creating a Healthy Strategy
Program

• Ensure that the management team understands their
  role in the strategy implementation and ensures
  proper and adequate communication between the two
  groups.
• CEOs should be onboarded to make certain that the
  people who can make change are working to do so
  and keeping all affected well informed.

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Six Suggestions for Creating a Healthy Strategy
Program

• After the strategy is approved, shift focus to
  communication, education, and implementation.
• Make sure all parts of the organization are not
  only aware of what the strategy will require but
  also about their role within the implementation
  of the strategy. All parts should be clearly
  outlined.

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Six Suggestions for Creating a Healthy Strategy
Program

• Create a Strategy Execution Team that is
  comprised of managers to translate objectives
  into tasks.
• The CEO/COO should be responsible for providing
  progress reports and sessions to update those who
  have a hand in the implementation of these tasks.

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Six Suggestions for Creating a Healthy Strategy
Program

• Establish an ongoing commitment to monitor
  results, gauge market acceptance, and report
  competitor reactions.
• The implementation of the plan is not the final
  step. Measures need to be put in place to test
  the effectiveness of the plan and to make changes
  should they be necessary moving forward.

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Case Study
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Day TwoSession Two
Turning Strategy into Action
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Turning Strategy into Action
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OverviewThis session will prepare you to

• Ensure competitive superiority by translating
  strategy into effective implementation
• Create a strategy road map that aligns operating
  activities with strategic goals
• Achieve goals by addressing the who, where, when,
  and how in strategic implementation
• Monitor implementation using a balanced scorecard
  and key performance indicators
• Ensure full employee participation by developing
  an integrated implementation plan

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Translating Strategy into Implementation

• Effective implementation of an average strategy
  beats mediocre implementation of a great strategy
  every time.
• John Sterling,
• management consultant and strategic planning
  expert

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Translating Strategy into Implementation

• According to the Balanced Scorecard Collective,
  more than 70 of companies with strategic plans
  never successfully execute their plans.
• How can you set yourself apart?

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are some of the strategic goals you have
  for your organization or business unit?
• What actionable steps can you take to link your
  day-to-day actions and decisions to higher-level
  strategic goals?

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Create a Strategy Road Map

• Align day-to-day operations with strategic goals
  
• Connect vision, values, and objectives with
  strategic actions required to achieve those
  objectives

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are some activities that help formulate a
  strategic roadmap?
• How do these operating activities aid in the
  achievement of overall strategic goals?

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Address the Logistics of Strategic Implementation

• Who is responsible for what action steps?
• When will key steps be completed?
• Where will these steps take place? Internally or
  externally?
• Is everyone aware why this change needs to take
  place?
• How will actionable steps be linked to the
  long-term strategic plan?

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Monitor Implementation Balanced Scorecards, Key
Performance Indicators

• About 50 of Fortune 500 Companies currently use
  balanced scorecards (BSCs)
• BSCs combine financial and non-financial
  measures
• Translate strategic plans from passive visions
  into specific actions
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Can include targets such as 100 customer
  satisfaction, zero product defects, etc.

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Develop an integrated implementation plan

• Ensure employee participation
• A successful strategic plan is supported at the
  organizational level as well as at the level of
  each individual employee

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• Is ensuring employee participation easier said
  than done?
• How can you accomplish this in your organization?
  

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Case Study
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Day TwoSession Three
Thinking for Change
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Thinking for Change
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OverviewThis session will prepare you to

• Build strategies that create new opportunities
  while steadily managing changes
• Assure change is incorporated into the
  organization appropriately and effectively
• Select the right leadership and management style
  to influence the effectiveness of change
• Appraise major forces of change and catalysts to
  strategic reorientation

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Create new opportunities while steadily managing
changes

• Build strategies that create new opportunities
• As the market changes, so will the opportunities
• Even if you are on the right track, you will get
  run over if you just sit there.
• Will Rogers, actor/comedian and social
  commentator

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• Why are strategies that emphasize new
  opportunities so critical in creating steady
  changes?
• What role does management style play in this
  process?

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Ensure that change is incorporated appropriately
and effectively

• People dont resist change they resist being
  changed.
• Peter Senge, MIT Sloan School of Management

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are the keys to incorporating change
  appropriately and effectively in your
  organization?

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are the characteristics you need to promote
  the effectiveness of change in your business
  unit, or in your organization as a whole?
• What does each stakeholder need to
• BE?
• DO?
• KNOW?
• HAVE?
• FEEL?

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Appraise major forces of change and catalysts to
strategic reorientation

• Catalysts or forces of change can include
• People
• Technology
• Information

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are the most likely forces that will promote
  change in your organization?
• How can you make the most out of these catalysts
  how can they be an advantage in the
  implementation of your strategic plan?

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Case Study
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Day TwoSession Four

• Making Realistic and Sustainable
  Organizational Change a Reality

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Making Realistic and Sustainable Organizational
Change a Reality
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OverviewThis session will prepare you to

• Facilitate acceptance of change by setting a
  clear purpose and joint commitment within the
  organization
• Uncover the process of implementing, evaluating,
  and monitoring new business plans
• Create buy-in within the organization by
  communicating the true value of change
• Drive organizational change and know how your
  organization will adapt

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Facilitate acceptance of change set a clear
purpose and get joint commitment

• Five steps toward building commitment for change
• Determine whose commitment is needed
• Specify what level of commitment is needed
• Estimate the critical mass
• Who is currently receptive toward the change?
• Get the commitment of the critical mass
• Monitor level of commitment
• Through status-checks

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Group ExerciseThought Question

• What are some ways of increasing communication
  within an organization to maximize buy-in?

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Create buy-in by communicating the true value of
change

• Commitment and energy are fueled by values
• Convince the organization
• Sway employees through a short-term benefits
  analysis
• Hold QA sessions to address employee issues
• Generate feedback
• Minimize conflict and stress

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Drive organizational change and know how your
organization will adapt

• Effectively communicate change
• Engage the attention of all individuals within
  the organization

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Case Study
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ConclusionPutting It All Together
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Conclusion Putting it All Together

• Strategic planning efforts should be

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Dynamic Approach to Strategic Planning

• Uncertainty in the economy, society, politics
  has become so great as to render futile, if not
  counterproductive, the kind of planning most
  companies still practice forecasting based on
  probabilities.
• - Peter Drucker, management consultant (Wall
  Street Journal, 92)

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• "As a general rule, adults are much more
• likely to act their way into a new way of
• thinking than to think their way into a
• new way of acting"
• From "Surfing the Edge of Chaos" by Pascale,
  Millemann and Gioja

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Gallup Q-12

• Overall Satisfaction How satisfied are you
  with ______ as a place to work?
• 1. I know what is expected of me at work.
• 2. I have the materials and equipment I need to
  do my work right.
• 3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I
  do best every day.
• 4. In the last seven days, I have received
  recognition or praise for doing good work.
• 5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to
  care about me as a person.
• 6. There is someone at work who encourages my
  development.

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• 7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
• 8. The mission/purpose of my company makes me
  feel my job is important.
• 9. My associates (fellow employees) are committed
  to doing quality work.
• 10. I have a best friend at work.
• 11. In the last six months, someone at work has
  talked to me about my progress.
• 12. This last year, I have had opportunities at
  work to learn and grow.

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Performance and health can be viewed through
five frames.
  Performance imperative Health imperative
Aspire Where do we want to go? Develop a change vision and targets that are deeply meaningful to employees. Determine what healthy looks like for the organization in view of your change vision.
AssessHow ready are we to go there? Identify and diagnose your organizations ability to achieve its vision and targets. Uncover the root causes of mind-sets that support or undermine organizational health.
ArchitectWhat must we do to get there? Develop a concrete, balanced set of performance-improvement initiatives. Reshape the work environment to create healthy mind-sets.
ActHow do we manage the journey? Determine and execute the right scaling-up approach for each initiative in the portfolio. Ensure that energy for change is continually infused and unleashed.
AdvanceHow do we keep moving forward? Put in place a continuous-improvement infrastructure to take the company forward beyond one-time change. Equip leaders to lead from a core of self-mastery.

From Beyond Performance How Great
Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive
Advantage by Keller/Price
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SOA Competency Framework

• Board of Directors
• March 16, 2009

Stacy Lin Deputy Executive Director and Chief
Financial Officer Mike Monar President, Monar
Consulting Ken Guthrie Education Managing
Director
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Purpose

• Introduce you to the competency framework
• Process.
• Findings.
• Next steps.
• Questions.
• Advisory/Validation group Webinar on April 13th .

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Framework Goals

• Input for other strategic and operational goals.
• Support to members as individuals.
• Support to Sections.
• Assist Education committees.
• Support other volunteers.

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Process
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Provide me with opportunities to continually
evolve and leverage my skill set

• Continually supply me with highly qualified
  experts relevant to my needs

Members

• Preserve our trust and contribute to the common
  good

Employers/Clients

• Transfer Knowledge
• Offer a prestigious credential and maintain its
  value through leading- edge and relevant
  educational systems and programs
• Leverage a variety of delivery channels to
  disseminate and facilitate knowledge transfer

Public

• Promote Sections as knowledge communities and
  networking facilitators

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Wide Participation

• Over 2300 members.
• Guidance from Advisory/Validation Groups, Section
  Leadership and Staff Leadership.
• of 13,675

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Stakeholder Input

• Qualitative and quantitative data collection.
• Stakeholder interviews.
• Pulse survey.
• Data Collection/Analysis.
• Brainstorming, rating and structuring.
• Consensus building

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Brainstorming Focus Statement

• "Looking 3 to 5 years into the future, to be
  valued for their professionalism, technical
  expertise and business acumen, actuaries must
  have or develop skills that include..."
• Generated over 1500 responses across all practice
  areas
• Narrowed to 100/practice

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Structuring/SortingPoint Map
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85
9
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Each number corresponds to a knowledge/skill/abili
ty. The map shows the relationships among these.

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Cluster Point Map
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2
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34
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Cluster analysis is used tostatistically group
skills into distinct groups or competencies.
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Rating Performance
1. Professional Values
2. Relationship Management and Interpersonal
Collaboration
6. Leadership
5 Strategic Insight and Integration
3. Communication
7. External Forces and Industry Knowledge
Color Value
4. Results-Oriented Solutions
3.93 to 4.17
3.68 to 3.92
3.43 to 3.67
8. Technical Skills and Analytical Problem Solving
3.18 to 3.42
2.93 to 3.17
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5. Strategic Insight and Integration 41.
Demonstrate sound business judgment/acumen. 35.
Recommend business decisions that are accurate,
timely, actionable, and relevant based on the
analysis results. 46. Make effective decisions
using available facts. 78. Demonstrate big
picture thinking incorporating economic,
political, and technological knowledge. 55.
Understand a companys risk tolerance and its
impact. 60. Anticipate downstream consequences to
business decisions. 38. Go beyond the technical
aspect of a problem. 84. Look beyond traditional
silos of knowledge to understand, and impact, the
bigger picture for a business 87. Demonstrate
knowledge of the clients core business model and
the potential risks that may prevent financial
success. 68. Align actuarial analysis and
findings with the broader goals of an
organization. 22. Develop strategies to add value
to the business and companys finances. 93.
Develop a broader view in order to understand the
actuarial issues of todays social problems and
not just focus on product sales or specific
client concerns.
6. Leadership 77. Develop future actuaries with
competencies of business leaders not just subject
matter experts. 40. Build relationship of trust
with the client by honoring commitments and
seeking to understand issues from the clients
perspective. 19. Work collaboratively and across
functions to solve complex financial
problems. 45. Demonstrate an understanding/knowled
ge of the clients environment and the issues the
client is facing. 9. Be a trusted advisor. 33.
Understand how the client looks at issues. 52.
Anticipate and answer high level questions that
impact business decisions. 80. Be flexible and
open to change. 13. Demonstrate thought
leadership - making things happen that are
outside the bounds of the "way weve always done
it". 43. Demonstrate leadership. 91. Expand the
scope in which actuaries can play an important
role. 85. Work co-operatively in a team
environment with professionals from other
disciplines. 36. Influence business
decisions. 39. Partner with management to provide
the vision to see a range of possibilities for
the future. 24. Be recognized and admired as a
forward-thinking thought leader, role model, and
strategic business partner both within the
industry and beyond. 96. Be more proactive and
visible so that the market will become more aware
of the contributions an actuary can make to the
normal business process. 75. Understand, at a
deep level, the client or the employers business
and how the actuarys work relates to it. 92.
Work collaboratively with actuaries and
non-actuaries in a business or regulatory
environment. 79. Work effectively with many other
professional groups that work in related areas
such as accountants, economists, demographers,
statisticians, computer specialists etc. 23.
Serve and be viewed as a bridge and a
multi-disciplinary facilitator to ensure
enterprise wide profitable growth, financial
integrity and shareholder/policy holder value. 8.
Demonstrate strong, dynamic leadership providing
inspiration, respect, and loyalty for others.
1. Professional Values 3. Demonstrate high
ethical standards to ensure the profession is
valued. 2. Display a high degree of honesty,
loyalty, and integrity. 5. Apply high ethical
standards in serving our clients and public. 4.
Tell the truth about risk even when it is
uncomfortable to do so. 34. Be professional,
reliable, unbiased, and focused in serving client
needs.
2. Relationship Management and Interpersonal
Collaboration 53. Present difficult messages
clearly despite pressure to withhold the
message. 11. Listen and understand a clients
needs before designing a solution. 14.
Demonstrate strong interpersonal skills in order
to interact effectively with non-actuaries.
1. Professional Values
3. Communication 1. Present complicated
information in an organized, logical, and
understandable manner. 10. Effectively
communicate and present ideas and findings so
that audiences such as clients, senior management
and other non-actuaries can understand and
utilize the information. 20. Communicate complex
financial models to senior management in a way
that enables them to understand risks and
opportunities. 15. Condense complex actuarial
calculations and risk analyses and present them
to management so that they understand the
impacts. 50. Clearly communicate opinions and
solutions using language appropriate to the
audience. 48. Communicate effectively with all
levels of management. 63. Understand and explain
business issues and alternative solutions to
constituents in a way that results in informed
decision making. 26. Effectively communicate
information to several different audience levels
and recognize the level of the audience in each
situation. 6. Influence and persuade
non-technical audiences. 72. Express complex
ideas in simple terms. 32. Effectively
communicate both the problem and solution to an
audience. 66. Communicate effectively with
different audiences employees, employers (HR,
finance), other professionals (accountants,
lawyers). 73. Effectively communicate complex
actuarial concepts to a diverse audience
including business professionals and politicians
not well versed in mathematical concepts. 81.
Clearly, concisely, and passionately communicate
ideas in a language that is meaningful to
business leaders. 74. Communicate persuasively
and concisely. 59. Deliver simple, summary level,
financial models that effectively communicate
business issues and risks. 65. Communicate
technical findings to management and the public,
both verbally and in writing. 61. Prioritize and
communicate key issues in a timely manner and
understandable fashion. 54. Write in a form that
is grammatically correct, well organized, well
reasoned, concise, and to the point. 12. Prepare
structured reports covering technical topics for
a non-technical audience.
2. Relationship Management and Interpersonal
Collaboration
6. Leadership
7. External Forces and Industry Knowledge 7.
Look at issues from an overall business
framework, rather than only from a technical
framework. 25. Understand bottom line impact of
business decisions. 44. Understand the impacts to
an organization from a variety of sources, not
just the standard mortality, morbidity and
interest rate impacts. 17. Being able to take new
information (such as changes in standards or
legislation) and applying it to client
situations. 30. Translate complex actuarial
issues/findings into business action. 76.
Appropriately balance theoretical "correctness"
with practical business realities. 58. Sort
through a business problem and determine the
underlying basic issue that needs to be addressed
or resolved. 56. Strike a balance between
actuarial exactness and reality. 28. Understand
financial statements and drivers of product
profitability. 62. Challenge basic assumptions,
continually look for new and better ways of doing
things instead of doing things the same old
way. 89. Step outside actuarial core competencies
and develop a broader business acumen. 64. Make
the link between technical actuarial detail and
the bottom line. 98. Understand the big picture
of how businesses make money and the actuaries
role in that picture. 18. Demonstrate general
business skills to complement technical
expertise. 95. Demonstrate creative problem
solving that goes beyond traditional
analysis. 37. Be able to access a situation from
a high level, yet know when it is prudent to dive
deeper. 94. Creatively apply technical and
business skills to situations and issues beyond
the traditional roles of an actuary. 88. Provide
timely analysis to reach a recommendation,
sometimes with incomplete data. 82. Develop
non-traditional solutions to current
challenges 97. Integrate complex actuarial
concepts with other related technical disciplines.
5. Strategic Insight and Integration
3. Communication
7. External Forces and Industry Knowledge
4. Results-Oriented Solutions
8. Technical Skills and Analytical Problem Solving
8. Technical Skills and Analytical Problem
Solving 16. Demonstrate superior analytical
skills the ability to take large amounts of
complex information and synthesize it into
something meaningful. 21. Understand and manage
new risks as technology and/or society
develops. 47. Demonstrate ability to answer the
question "why?" - demonstrating a grasp of the
underlying drivers of the given results. 86.
Calculate risk in complex, ambiguous, or risky
situations and understand the trade offs. 51.
Keep abreast with the technical developments in
the field of expertise, beyond the exam syllabus
once studied. 42. Demonstrate practical problem
solving skills. 57. Identify, set, and defend the
key assumptions that go into an actuarial
analysis. 71. Learn new methodologies (for
example, reserving/capital) and understand the
risks inherent in moving to these new
methodologies. 27. Understand and interpret
regulations governing the practice area and
correctly apply them. 70. Be current with
regulatory issues and development. 83.
Demonstrate innovative and creative skills in
problem solving taking into account broad issues
beyond the specific subject matter at hand. 100.
Demonstrate a complete and thorough understanding
of the subject matter that constitutes an area of
practice. 90. Produce financial analyses that
take into consideration the distribution of risks
appropriately associated with the current
financial engagement. 49. Decipher complex, and
often ambiguous, government regulations and
distill the knowledge into clear and useful
advice to clients. 99. Quickly and simply
approximate an answer, without detailed analysis
(a return to "back of the envelope").
4. Results-Oriented Solutions 29. Demonstrate
superior analytical skills that are combined (but
not overshadowed) by the ability to communicate
technical concepts to a non-technical
audience. 67. Distill the results of complicated
models and formulas into actionable
recommendations (i.e. dont just point out there
is a problem--suggest a solution). 69. Explain
the immediate ramifications of a decision and the
potential long-term impact of the decision. 31.
Provide creative business solutions and
communicate them clearly to non-actuaries.
128
Overall Findings
129
Key Insights Overall

• Many commonalities across areas of practice.
• Technical is core.
• Non-technical and business management
  competencies are differentiators.
• Career paths are NOT one size fits all.
• Ability to support different paths.

130
Key Insights Professional Development

• Focus on life-long learning, not paperwork.
• Keep new FSAs engaged via professional
  development.
• Promote benefits of non-technical and business
  management competence.

131
Key Insights Professional Development Offerings

• Provide deeper/current technical content.
• Engage experienced/expert presenters.
• Develop/deliver varied offerings.
• Partner with other organizations.

132
Key Insights Key Topic Areas

• ERM.
• Business acumen, management, leadership,
  communication, interpersonal skills.
• Repackage ASA and FSA education for professional
  development audience.

133
Key Insights Instructional Design

• Create engaging learner experiences.
• Integrate non-technical and business management
  skills.
• Provide interactive and case-driven experiences.
• Integrate education and career development.

134
Deliverables
135
Overall Framework

1. Personal and Professional Values.
2. Relationship Management and Interpersonal
   Collaboration.
3. Communication.
4. Results Oriented Solutions.
5. Strategic Insight/Opportunity.
6. Leadership.
7. External Forces and Industry Knowledge.
8. Technical and Analytical Problem Solving.

136
Self-Assessment Instrument

• Excel-based and downloadable from SOA Web site.
• Assess current and desired performance.
• Identify gaps.
• Create development plan.

137
Career Journey Stories

• Matrix for each practice
• Searchable, downloadable PDF.
• Individual stories focused on
• trigger for entering the field
• mentors
• turning points
• key learning experiences

138
User Guide for Sections and Staff

• Searchable PDF with Excel data file.
• Provide information as input for those who
  design, develop and deliver continuing education.
  
• Includes tips for all delivery modalities,
  including
• meeting sessions, Webinars, e-Learning modules,
  seminars, workshops, etc.).  
• Users include, but are not limited to, SOA staff
  and Section leadership.

139
Next Steps
140
CE Redesign Initiative
BOARD
Competency Framework Advisory Group
CE
TKT
Staff
141
Transfer Knowledge Team

• Kickoff April 6.
• Deliverable review April.
• Planning April to May.
• BOD input June.
• BOD approval of the plan October.

142
Key Recommendations for TKT Consideration

• Finalize and release tools for members, Sections
  and staff.
• Communicate, promote, market.
• Implement design and development methodology.
• Design a curriculum.
• Partner with other organizations.

143
What questions do you have?
Remember April 13 Webinar!