O.H.3 (OFFICE of HORIZON-3) is a simple, cost effective way to develop an Agile Strategy capability in your organization.
Transformative leaders use ‘agile development’ because it super-charges execution. In the free-money era, the prevailing theory seemed to be that strategy is too slow to keep up with the pace of change, so innovators should just go fast and iterate their way to success. Well, that era is gone and this market, investors expect a clear path to increasing value. In this market, strategy matters. We’re not talking about that once-per-year offsite that’s really nothing more than an execution tweak… we’re talking about real strategy… the kind that informs where you place your bets and why.

What do we mean by REAL STRATEGY? It’s where you and your leadership team get aligned on how the disruptive forces (like AI & climate change) are unfolding, what risks and opportunities that implies, Where you develop a shared view on where value is going to get created and how you intend to capture your share (and defend it). REAL STRATEGY determines what you execute on and why. It’s the kind of thinking that inspires the best talent and investors to come on the journey with you.

The challenge is that all of this big picture thinking takes time and the world is changing fast (and let’s face it… no one has time for this). What’s needed is an approach to strategy that fits in the time and cadence of your organization and that is every bit as agile as the way you approach execution. That mandate… agile strategy… is exactly why we created the O.H.3 approach. After close to a decade of tweaking, it’s truly a remarkably effective way (time & cost) to rise above the tyranny of the urgent, absorb fresh learnings and adjust your strategy & execution to stay ahead of the change-curve (and the competition).
OVERVIEW (PDF)
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THE PROBLEM WITH UNDERINVESTING IN STRATEGY… in our view, organizations that underinvest in strategy run a very real risk of iterating their way toward a future that’s already being disrupted. It’s a bad idea. The forces of disruption are accelerating… new opportunities are emerging and old opportunities are collapsing. The faster things move, the greater the need to keep your strategy & execution ahead of the change-curve. Ignoring strategy is not the answer.

A FRESH APPROACH… what was needed was an agile approach to optimizing your strategy and execution in response to fast moving forces, competitive offerings and customer behavior. In response, we created O.H.3, a disciplined, light-weight, affordable approach to agile strategy. It was designed for fast growing disruptors just beginning to introduce formal strategy into their organization.

HOW IT WORKS… this is not your granddads slow-school strategic planning. O.H.3 is super agile. Instead of some once a year off-site… O.H.3 is more like instituting your own strategy department (but it’s fractional, so you know you can afford the time and cost). The goal is to ensure that your entire organization stays ahead of the change-curve (and the competition) by keeping key stakeholders aligned as you optimize your strategy and execution to maximize value.

Our Job is to help you shed noise, build alignment around a Horizon-3 thesis and strategy, and keep that alignment as the organization course-corrects in response to inevitable shifts in your space. It’s like having a private fitness coach but for strategy… you’ll benefit from proven ‘frameworks’ and expertise, but you also benefit because the regular working sessions help you carve out the time to focus on maximizing value (and isn’t that really the point of investing your heartbeats in the first place?)

LOW COST :: LOW BURDEN :: HIGH IMPACT
O.H.3 starts as small as a half-day per month. We match the cadence to the speed of your organization, but keep a regular cadence so you know it fits well with your routine.

100% HORIZON-3 focused… Transformative innovation isn’t about today’s deadlines… it’s future focused.
O.H.3 is is NOT yet another execution meeting. … it’s a safe zone for thinking through the implications of shifting forces and deciding what to course-correct (and why). It’s about keeping your thinking ahead of the change-curve, identifying risks and opportunities early. That’s critical when things are moving this fast, and one of the first benefits you’ll notice is that having pre-booked O.H.3 sessions makes it easy to stop reacting to execution distractions because it gives you a mechanism to ‘park’ the big picture stuff knowing you’ve got time booked to to think it through.
Learn more about Horizon-3 Thinking HERE

ACCELERATES EXECUTION… it’s counterintuitive, but building a discipline around Horizon-3 thinking actually helps accelerate execution. The faster things change, the more important it becomes to ensure stakeholder alignment (and we are very focused on alignment). Each O.H.3 session is followed up with an artifact that you can use to socialize the thinking as it evolves. This not only stress-tests assumptions, it actively builds alignment with key stakeholders, which reduces friction and accelerates execution (and makes it much easier to pivot when and if that’s ever required).

BENEFITS…
O.H.3 is easy to implement, time/cost efficient and the ROI is off the chart:
. reduced risk & spark fresh opportunities (by keeping ahead of the change-curve)
. outmaneuver your competition (to maximize value capture)
. accelerate execution (by reducing the noise and increasing internal alignment)

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WHAT YOU GET - this is an annual program, but the frequency (and cost) is customized for the speed and pace of change that you operate at.  All programs include an annual thesis/strategy session for the senior team, plus regular 1-on-1 sessions throughout the year. The 1-on-1’s typically run a half-day and include a session artifact so you can socialize the thinking internally, with the board/investors etc.… the cadence is up to you but typical approach is monthly or quarterly:

THE O.H.3 PROGRAM INCLUDES:
- Facilitated 1-on-1 Working Sessions (1/2 day… typically monthly)
- emerging forces
- fresh learnings (competitive / customer / adjacent)
- Adoption Path & Narrative for key stakeholder groups
- Artifact from each session to aid in socializing the thinking with key stakeholders
- Proven Horizon-3 framework / templates & instruction etc.
- Adhoc support (email / call – hot topics)
- Formal Briefings on emerging forces with the potential to impact strategy (approx. 2 to 3 per year)
- Facilitated Thesis/Strategy Recalibration* (full day / CEO + key team/stakeholders)
     - update thesis/strategy based (align collective thinking)
     - update 3-Horizon Swim-lanes (align with collective thinking)
     - create a workshop artifact (foundation for future re-calibrations)
     - suggest adjustments to the narrative (story-arc / pitch)
- Invitation to RW’s annual THINK SUMMIT Event (Whistler)

COST info available on request (don’t worry… you can afford it)

PDF OVERVIEW

O.H.3’s LITTLE BROTHER
Not sure about a monthly commitment? That’s OK… we also offer a junior version:
The concept is simple… A ONE-DAY OFFSITE where we facilitate a process to formally update your thesis / vision / strategy. We are a big fan of including what we call a 4C’s Learning Loop, which is essentially a condensed review of learnings and strategic implications over the past year. This ‘offsite’ approach is a bit more traditional than the OH3 agile strategy approach, but the inclusion of a formal 4C’s Learning Loop preserves the ability to shed noise and keep your thinking ahead of the change-curve. In our experience, best practice is to crystallize learnings and socializing the strategy implications with key stakeholders as a follow-up (preferably with a facilitates feedback session). This step helps to validate the thinking, but it also sheds noise and maintains stakeholder alignment, both of which accelerate execution by reducing friction. in a regular basis. keep stakeholders aligned as you.

THESIS-DRIVEN’
Anyone chasing a big idea has a deep belief that they have figured out ‘where the puck will be’ Said differently, they have a ‘thesis’ on how the forces of disruption are unfolding (and they are placing a big bet on that thesis). In our experience, it’s critical to constantly stress-test the underlying assumptions and constantly build stakeholder alignment around the evolving thesis. We use a unique / proven approach that we call FORCEcasting, and that, combined with O.H.3, helps leadership teams shed noise, hone the thinking, build alignment, reduce friction, and improve organizational agility… it is in a word ‘transformative’. Learn more about FORCEcasting HERE.

ALIGNMENT OBSESSED
It’s not enough to perfect a thesis and strategy on your own... transformative leader’s build stakeholder alignment to remove friction and accelerate execution.  OH3 helps accomplish this is by adding a formal/facilitated process to stress-test assumptions and build an agile thesis/strategy so the organization is hard-wired to course-correct fast when needed.

Want to learn more?
LET’s TALK