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CORE · CERTIFICATION

VAST: Value Adaptive Strategy

A five-day executive workshop that takes one leadership team from a blank page to a signed 90-day execution plan — the full eleven-step method, start to finish.

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Duration
5 days8:30–5:00 daily
Format
In personor live online
Level
CoreCertified Strategist
Investment
$5,000per seat · private from $50,000
Credential
VAST CertifiedStrategist

What this is

Most strategy training stops where the hard part starts.

You can learn to build a strategy map in two days. What almost nobody teaches is the handoff — the moment a validated strategy has to become departmental objectives, funded initiatives, a delivery cadence and a governance structure that survives contact with the actual quarter.

VAST covers both halves as one continuous thread. Days 1–3 are SIRF: build a comprehensive Tier 1 organizational strategy, from external analysis through a measured strategy map, and connect every objective to the function that owns it. Days 4–5 are SIRE: cascade that strategy into departmental maps, define and prioritize initiatives, plan quarterly delivery, and design how impact gets measured and the plan adapted.

One team, one strategic thread, from vision to measured impact. VAST is delivery-agnostic — it does not replace Agile, SAFe, Scrum, OCM or whatever runs your delivery. It connects them to the outcome.

Who it’s for

Built for the team that owns the strategy — and the people who will have to execute it.

This course is for you if…

  • You are on the executive leadership team or divisional leadership
  • You are a department head or functional leader — Finance, HR, IT, Operations
  • You run the strategy or PMO function, or facilitate strategic planning
  • You are an initiative owner or key implementer who will carry the plan
  • Your organization has a strategy on paper that nobody can trace their work back to

Look elsewhere if…

  • You want a personal skills course — start with Intent, Value & Impact instead
  • You want a self-paced video course; this is five live days of facilitated work
  • You are testing a single technology purchase — see Before You Buy
  • Your leadership team can’t commit the week; a private cohort can be phased instead

What you leave with

Twelve deliverables, not twelve modules.

This is a working session. Everything on this list is something your team builds during the week and takes away.

The agenda

Five days, eleven steps.

Days 1–3 build the strategy (SIRF). Days 4–5 execute it (SIRE). Each day ends with something concrete in hand.

DAY 1 Strategic Foundation & DirectionSIRF steps 1–2 · Foundation and Compass — analysis through strategic themes ›
Morning — foundation & external analysis
  • Introduction to the Balanced Scorecard framework, and why it drives the week
  • PESTLE analysis, run as a cross-functional group exercise
  • Industry trend identification and impact assessment — the 3–5 trends that reshape this industry
  • Competitive landscape mapping: direct, indirect and emerging competitors
  • Customer needs and expectations analysis
Afternoon — internal assessment & themes
  • Core capability identification and organizational capability assessment
  • Facilitated SWOT, with strategic implications drawn out
  • Mission, vision and values review — and honest reaffirmation
  • Market positioning, competitive advantage and value proposition articulation
  • Strategic theme development: generate, evaluate, prioritize, define
You leave the day with: a facilitated SWOT with strategic implications, a reaffirmed mission and vision, and 3–5 prioritized strategic themes.
DAY 2 Strategy Mapping & MeasuresSIRF steps 3–4 · all four perspectives, the Tier 1 map, KPIs and targets ›
Morning — perspectives, objectives, mapping
  • The four BSC perspectives and how they interrelate
  • Financial and Customer objectives
  • Internal Process and People, Capability & Capacity objectives
  • Theme mapping and construction of the Tier 1 strategy map
Afternoon — validation & measures
  • Strategy map validation and refinement — does the cause-and-effect logic hold?
  • Measurement principles and sound KPI selection
  • Measures across all four perspectives
  • Baseline and target setting, and identification of candidate strategic initiatives
You leave the day with: a validated Tier 1 strategy map with KPIs, credible baselines and targets across all four perspectives.
DAY 3 Connect — Strategy to ExecutionSIRF step 5 → SIRE · the handoff most strategies never survive ›
Morning — validation & the execution framework
  • Executive sponsor kick-off and context setting — the room expands to functional leaders
  • Strategy review and validation with the people who will execute it
  • Introduction to the execution framework and the principles that govern SIRE
Afternoon — functional alignment & dependencies
  • Functional contribution mapping — how each function serves each objective
  • Functional strategy alignment and draft functional objectives
  • Cross-functional dependency identification and mapping
  • Formal handoff from SIRF to SIRE
You leave the day with: every Tier 1 objective assigned a named functional owner, with cross-functional dependencies surfaced before execution starts.
DAY 4 Ideate, Prioritize & Plan DeliverySIRE steps 6–8 · departmental maps, initiative definition, prioritization ›
Morning — SIRE Map & Ideate
  • Departmental objectives and one-year strategy maps, traced to the Tier 1 map
  • Current initiative inventory and strategic coverage gap analysis
  • Initiative definition — what a well-formed initiative actually contains
Afternoon — SIRE Prioritize
  • Resource requirement assessment, constraints, and strategic impact scoring
  • Prioritization frameworks applied to the real portfolio
  • Initiative roadmap development and sequencing across 12–18 months
You leave the day with: departmental one-year strategy maps and a prioritized, sequenced 12–18 month initiative roadmap.
DAY 5 Deliver, Measure Impact & AdaptSIRE steps 9–11 · delivery planning, governance, monitoring, commitment ›
Morning — deliver & govern
  • Execution methodology selection and detailed implementation planning
  • Quarterly delivery and release planning
  • Governance structure design — who meets, about what, how often
Afternoon — impact, adapt & commit
  • Performance monitoring system design; resource and budget alignment
  • Execution risk, change impact and capability gap planning
  • The 90-day execution plan and 12-month roadmap with accountabilities
  • Explicit leadership commitment and close
You leave the day with: a governance structure, a performance monitoring system, and a signed 90-day execution plan sitting inside a 12-month roadmap.

Before the room

What a private cohort does before day one.

For private and corporate workshops, a short readiness package makes days 1–2 dramatically sharper — the team arrives with the analysis already in hand.

How it runs

Delivered in the room, or live online.

In person

A facilitated working session — breakout space, wall work, and cross-functional groups. This is the format the material was designed for.

Live online

Same facilitator, same exercises, run in a virtual workspace. Fully live — not a recorded course you watch alone.

Private cohort

Run for your organization, on your strategy, with your own examples. Pre-work includes the ORCA readiness assessment. Private five-day cohorts from $50,000.

Upcoming dates

Scheduled cohorts

Public cohorts run in person and live online. Private cohorts are scheduled to suit your organization — talk to us.

DatesLocationFormatSeats
No public dates announced yet. The courseware is finished and ready to teach — we’re setting the first public cohorts now. Join the interest list below and you’ll get the dates first.

Also worth a look

The rest of the catalog

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Intent, Value & Impact

2 days · personal strategy

How one person connects their own work to the organization’s goals.

FOUNDATIONS

Strategy for Product Managers

2 days · role edition

Make the roadmap read as strategy, not a backlog.

IMPACT SESSION

Before You Buy: AI

2 days · decision workshop

Test a major technology purchase before the contract is signed.

See all courses & the certification ladder
VAST Certified Strategist5 days · SIRF + SIRE
$5,000per seat · private from $50,000
All courses Join the interest list