Francis Wade argues that high-potential employees promoted to the C-suite often lack the region-specific experience to contribute at strategic planning retreats. He promotes the Caribbean Strategy Conference (June 23-25), a three-day event with industry panels, innovator interviews, and a workshop where participants co-create a strategic plan to launch in January.
So you're an L&D professional in a company that's big enough to care about developing its high potential talent, and you have a bit of a problem, bit of a challenge. The folks who you have identified as likely candidates for the C-suite, those who are likely to be promoted to become executives, You've put them perhaps in a high potential training. You've given them some background and some experience, or maybe not. Maybe there's no budget for that. But, and here's the but, the time will come when they'll be sitting in a strategic planning retreat as an executive and not be prepared. You see the problem happening in slow motion. You want to do something about it, and you don't want the situation to, you know, worst case, have them actually attend the retreat and not be able to make the contribution that they want to make, you want them to make, and the other executives, CEO, the board, the chairman, chairperson, all wants them to make. It's the kind of situation that makes people wonder when it happens, was that person really ready for that promotion? Well, the truth is they are ready, and you know, ready in terms of having the potential, but they may not have had the exposure that you wanted them to have. And as a result, you may feel a bit disappointed because there was an opportunity that was lost, even perhaps a little guilty that you didn't do enough to prepare them for the time when they could think strategically on their feet and contribute from the very start of a retreat all the way to the end. Unfortunately, what many do when they're caught in this situation for the very first time is that they get very, very quiet and they kind of watch and wait, see what's gonna happen. And by the time they've watched and waited and decided to say something and speak out, the event is over and they missed the opportunity. So, you know, in theory, people should be prepared for the next level in their journey up the corporate ladder. Unfortunately, in the area of strategic planning, there's not much training in terms of MBA schools there's not much you can pick up something from the internet. You know, even if you, you take an online course, it doesn't give you the practical steps that you need, especially here in the region. It doesn't give you the regional, the regional nuances, the culture that's developed in companies that do strategic planning here in the Caribbean. It's not like other parts of the world. Well, fortunately, we're putting on the Caribbean Strategy Conference, and myself, my colleague at Framework Consulting, we've worked with companies across the region for the last couple decades in strategic planning retreats in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, the US, and other countries. But we're not the only person who's presenting at the, the conference. We've brought together the best practitioners that we could find from around the Caribbean, and we're all coming to share our ideas. Furthermore, we intend to leave those who attend with not just ideas but also some inspiration. And the way we're going to do that is by putting together industry panels from, uh, mostly attended by executives from around the region in areas like tourism and energy and finance. And they're going to be sharing the best strategic planning practices that are currently being used around the world in a way that anyone who doesn't have a background in the specific area can understand. Ah, here's a— here's an idea I could use. Oh, I can't imagine I haven't thought of that before. Oh, look at what they're doing, it's so inspiring. We're also going to be interviewing innovators who have struck out on their own and actually used COVID to launch their businesses, the opportunity that COVID has brought. And finally, we're going to be giving everyone who attends a custom blueprint. So we're actually going to be giving them a generic blueprint, but they're going to customize it during the 3 days and walk away with a plan that they can implement that will last from July to December. And that plan will help them to produce a game-changing strategic plan within their company that could be implemented in January. And that plan is going to describe how they engage all levels of the company in the various steps that are required to produce a disruption, a disruption that could be launched in, as I said, January of 2023. So they're going to get all this from coming, but question is, you know, if we do our part and give them all of these tools and give them this experience and give them contact to other people, how can you make sure that they make the most of it? Well, it's not too hard. Take a look at the layout or the design of our conference, at who's going to be doing the presenting, the speaking, the content of the event. Go back, make a list of those folks who are high potential and think about what they could get from the conference. Think about those who would be attending their first retreat in the next, let's say, 5 years or so. Send them a link to the conference. And invite them to register. And if you find that there's more than one person, then why not make it easy for them? Purchase a— or take advantage of one of our group discounts, purchase a bunch of seats, and make it easy for them to attend so they don't have to go through the individual process of enlisting, then getting a repayment. And that could actually help them to attend the conference and take away all of the friction. You know, it could help you maybe move from someone who only sees a problem to someone who's actually being proactive in solving it, taking the extra steps and going the extra mile in bringing innovative solutions like a strategy conference, maybe the first of its kind in the Caribbean, to the attention of those who need it the most. And, you know, what would it be like to have them come back to you after the conference is over to thank you for turning them on to this opportunity? And in addition, what would it be like for the members of the C-suite to come back to you and thank you for preparing these high potentials to make a solid contribution on the first morning, the first day of their retreat? They would know that you're the ones who intervened and made a difference. It would be a long way, far away to go from the typical kind of struggle that, that we see. Because when we facilitate retreats, we spend a good amount of time actually training people to think strategically in the retreat. The better solution would be to have them attend an event where they could do that kind of development, get that kind of development before the retreat. But doesn't always work that way. Often it has to happen in the moment because folks aren't prepared. So your intervention may be the one that helps them to avoid that kind of situation. And if that's true, any at all, I invite you to take the steps that I outlined and described. Let them know about the conference that's coming up June 23rd to 25th. And help them as far as possible to get themselves enrolled. This is Francis Wade, and I'm the host of the Caribbean Strategy Conference. Take care, and I look forward to seeing your people at the conference.
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