Planning for Success

This Planning for Success online training course explores scenario planning. Organizations must deal with a dizzying level of uncertainty about the future. Volatile commodity prices, natural and man-made disasters, and the world’s overall economic health are a few of the many unknowns organizations must face. It is becoming increasingly apparent that, for many organizations, extrapolating future trends from past performance is a poor way to conduct planning. Although there is no way to accurately predict the future, it can be prepared for. This course provides an important tool for strategically managing an organization’s performance: scenario planning. Scenario planning attempts to broaden an organization’s view of the future by asking, “What could happen?” instead of “What will happen?” At its core, scenario planning is about: Understanding the key drivers that could affect an organization; Crafting plausible future scenarios; Developing contingency plans in case those scenarios start to unfold. Going through the process of developing scenarios will improve the agility of organizations, thereby improving their ability to cope with unexpected situations. It will also deepen its managers’ understanding of the drivers of change in their organization’s operating environment. The modules in this course are: An Introduction to Scenario Planning; Recent Developments in Scenario Planning; and Scenario Planning at ElectricIQ.

Course Learning Objectives

By taking this online Planning for Success course, the user will be able to:

• Understand scenario planning, its benefits, and why it is an important organizational undertaking
• Know how to implement scenario planning following the six steps
• Understand the pitfalls and risks associated with the scenario planning process, as well as have some tactics for addressing them
• Explain these five areas of development: The Three Schools of Scenario Planning; Linking Scenarios to Management Processes; Developing Leading Indicators; Scenario Planning as a Learning Tool; and Communicating Scenarios to the Organization
• Describe how an example organization implements the six steps of scenario planning

Course Outline

This online Planning for Success course is made up of the following sections:

1. An Introduction to Scenario Planning
2. Recent Developments in Scenario Planning
3. Scenario Planning at ElectricIQ

Course Audience

This Planning for Success online training course was designed for management employees.

If you have any concerns as to whether this course is appropriate for you or your industry, please browse our full selection of online courses.