Being a Strategic Business Partner
Position your organization’s internal support systems as true strategic partners to other business units.
Many organizations now expect that such traditional support functions as Human Resources, Information Technology, Finance, Internal Audit, and Compliance evolve to become strategic business partners with the business units they serve.
This program gives key professionals in such support functions the professional skills they need to work with other business units in that way. Participants learn to use their expertise to improve the performance of individuals, teams, departments, business units, and the organization as a whole.
Over the past 30+ years, we’ve provided this training in a number of environments, including finance, internal audit, systems design, operations, human resources, quality assurance, engineering, and many other support functions.
Increase the Effectiveness of Internal Support Functions
Participants in this workshop develop the capabilities needed to effectively collaborate with and influence business partners in a consultative relationship.
They will adapt to a new understanding of the role of the strategic business partner, gaining the tools and strategic conversation skills needed to diagnose needs and collaborate with business partners to implement solutions.
A skilled group of strategic business partners with a better understanding of their roles helps your organization achieve these benefits:
Greater credibility as partners who add real value to the process.
Enhanced ability to influence business-unit leaders to make good business decisions.
More creative and innovative solutions to organizational problems through the integration of technical and business expertise.
Problems are addressed earlier through identification of potential gaps or barriers to business success.
More effective and efficient use of resources through partnerships and joint efforts.
More effectively planned and implemented process improvements and organizational changes.
Improved alignment with organizational goals.
What Participants Learn
Throughout this program, participants learn what a strategic business partner is and does, the implications for their job, and how to implement key skills and behaviors:
Building credibility as a strategic business partner with clients.
Asking questions and clarifying client requests to respond appropriately to the business needs underlying the client’s requests.
Implementing a variety of tools and techniques to analyze client needs, problems, and business opportunities.
Conducting gap analyses to solve problems and to identify the improvement needs for a process, a specific role, a team, a department, or the whole organization.
Using system thinking tools to help clients identify downstream impacts of various potential options.
Selecting appropriate solutions to meet the client’s needs and get client buy-in.
Leveraging a business-case approach to influence decisions that are good for the whole organization.
Negotiating effective, mutually agreeable solutions.
“The skills I learned through AlexanderHancock have been tremendously beneficial, allowing me to change personally, and in helping me to engage others in their change process.”
- Vice President of Human Resources
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Targeted Customization
We tailor the program for your specific situations, needs, and organizational culture.
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Focused Skill-Building
Participants experience intensive practice and skill-building rather than only learning concepts and theory.
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Eye-Opening Video Labs
Our proprietary Video Lab process helps participants see themselves as others see them, producing the aha! moment necessary for sustained behavioral change.
Program Details
As a result of this training, participants report that they have more effective conversations with their business partners.
Real-Life Practice: Participants practice using the skills they learn in three real-life scenarios based on their own experiences with business partners (not case studies or hypotheticals), allowing them to apply their new skills immediately following the program.
16 Hours: Typically, Being a Strategic Business Partner is 16 hours, including three video labs.
Video Labs, Coaching, and Feedback: Each participant intensively practices their scenarios with the skilled facilitator. The practice is video-recorded and played back for skilled coaching and focused feedback from the coach and a small group of peers. Each participant does three video-recorded practices, one for each conversation type. More than 2/3 of total workshop time is spent in these video labs.
12-20 Participants in Groups of Four: This program works best with 12-20 participants, and we’ve found that 16 participants is the sweet spot.
4:1 Facilitator Ratio: Each lab group has four participants and one coach/facilitator, ensuring that each participant gets targeted, personalized feedback.
Conversation Types: Each video lab covers a different kind of strategic conversation with their internal clients. These types of conversations can be customized to your organization’s needs, in consultation with you, and integrated seamlessly into your organizational culture and existing management processes.
Offered In-Person and Virtually: We offer Being a Strategic Business Partner both in-person at the client’s location of choice and virtually via Zoom. We’ll work with you to weigh the advantages of each and help determine which makes most sense for your organization.
What’s Included
In addition to the 16 hours of training, participants receive all necessary training materials, including a training manual that will serve as a reference when they return to their jobs.
Participants also receive at least 6-month access to our proprietary, app-based follow-up system to help them sustain and further develop skills learned in the training. Pre- and post-program surveys are also included (more details below).
Long-Term Results
for Increased Effectiveness
One of the reasons we know our programs are so effective is that we prioritize creating sustained behavioral change and tracking key metrics to ensure we’ve met our objectives.
We measure long-term results in several ways:
Pre-Program Survey: Participants’ key business partners take pre-program surveys in which they offer valuable insight about participants’ current behavior. This online survey provides baseline data regarding how their business partners perceive their behaviors, and helps us identify the most important concepts and skills to focus on in the program.
Post-Program Survey: Those same key business partners are surveyed again on participants’ behavior again 9-12 months after the training. Comparing the two surveys shows evidence of progress and sustainability of skills over time.
Reporting & Analysis: Each participant receives their individual results of both surveys, and senior management and HR business partners receive group summaries of results, along with our analysis.
Follow-Up: We follow up with participants periodically for 6 to 12 months after the program to refresh them on key concepts, help them identify opportunities to use those skills, and prompt them to reflect on their progress.
Get Started
Want to learn more about how Strategic Business Partner can help your internal support functions an even more integral part of your organization’s effectiveness?
Just fill out the form below to let us know, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!