The Role Clarification Exercise is a recommend tool that is useful in clarifying individuals’ ownership in the outcomes of the strategic planning process. This can be the used a focal point of a single meeting or incorporated into the kickoff meeting. However, we caution against trying to achieve more than shared alignment, ownership of the high-level project outcomes, and individuals’ roles and responsibilities in a single meeting.
Role Clarification Exercise
Role Clarification: Building Shared Understanding
Steps
I. Identify suggested functional areas.
(Facilitator should offer suggestions based on the larger context client group that is operating within – then ask the group for confirmation and agreement for using these as a starting point.)
-
Technical
-
Program Coordination
-
Funding Oversight
-
Federal
-
State
-
Local
II. Vet and confirm with key players.
Do these high level categories make sense to you?
III. Map key players to functional areas.
IV. Define functional areas for the purpose of this project.
Write down the top three things that you believe the group is expecting from this functional area to help achieve the group’s mission.
Facilitation Notes
Once the top three things have been identified, have individuals move around the room examining what other groups said. Add or offer upgrades to other functional area initiatives.
Come back together as a large group and review each flip chart. Ask for questions, comments, and areas of concern. Determine the level of agreement on the expectations from each functional area.
Finally, once each area has been defined, determine if those responsible for a given area can/will commit to delivering on the expectations outlined.
The next layer of thinking is: What would these expectations look like? What actions/strategies would support these expectations? What resources are needed to implement these strategies? What in the environment supports these efforts? What constraints are visible? How large are the constraints? How can we leverage our areas of strength to counter the constraints?
The first session should probably cover no more than defining and agreeing to the high-level initiatives. Expecting the group to think through the next layer and truly commit to action is possible, but may lend to shallow thinking and unsustainable approaches to problem solving and critical thinking (I can offer more detail on this assumption in person.)