Report :

I was honored by the opportunity to participate in the Strategic Planning Workshop organized by IAF Academy held in Gummersbach and the beautiful city of Hamburg in the period between 6th and 18th of June 2010.

There were 21 participants representing 5 continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South Americas. They even represented diverse backgrounds including Parliament members and private sector representatives. The facilitators, on the other hand, Dr. Ralph Freier and Mr. Wülf Pabst were very knowledgeable and skilled in terms of facilitating such training.

Sessions were held around the topic of strategic planning from the theoretical and practical aspects, as well as possible applications on the various aspects of life. It was truly a great opportunity for tackling strategic planning from several dimensions.

In the outset we were given a historical overview, and then we were introduced to the difference between traditional and strategic planning, followed by the concept of strategic planning and its application. We took the steps of this type of planning, which are in brief: preparation and preliminary planning, setting strategies and delegation of roles, documenting the strategic plan, and finally the agreement and approval of the strategy. Planning was also introduced against the background of examining reactions, and monitoring and evaluation, which essentially leads to improving the implementation of the strategy.

Training was conducted through splitting into groups that undertook certain tasks. The first task was to identify the vision, the mission, and the goal. The second task was the survey of the surrounding environment using one of the strategic planning techniques. The third task was the formulation of the strategy and setting a plan of action with a timeline. The fourth task was the implementation of the strategy itself, and finally monitoring and evaluation, which leads to improving the preliminary plan.
Two interesting excursions took place: the first was a one-day trip to Cologne and the participants were divided into four voluntary groups each of which was supposed to deliver a report on the trip.

The second was to the city of Hamburg which lasted for three days during which we made visits to the College of Military Commandership in Germany, where we discussed issues related to strategizing; and we went also to some private sector companies working in the field of construction, development and marketing in a new part of the city, called Hafenstadt, where we were introduced to planning and selling such products.
The seminar was an unforgettable experience, where I have learnt many things on both the personal and professional levels.