One session from EDConnect20 was “Building Firm Strategy When Uncertainty is the Only Thing Certain: Building a Roadmap for Success,” presented by Donna Corlew, FSMPS, CPSM (of C*Connect), and Frank Lippert, FSMPS, CPSM (of Go Strategies). 

Speaker Corlew uses a PEST(EL) analysis, i.e., scenario planning from an external view:

• Political
• Economic
• Sociocultural
• Technology
• (Environmental
• Liability)

Here is what chapter member Carrie Thompson, CDFA (Director of Operations at Studio Meng Strazzara) took away from that session:

I had never really thought about how “scenario planning” is a whole thing unto itself – but it is exactly what so many of us were doing in March and have been working with since. As the presenters described, my company’s plan has changed as the months went along, and we revisit the plan every few months to see what might be coming our way that require modification to the plan. We joked that we were making it up as we went along, but that isn’t exactly right: we had an initial plan that just required a lot of adjustment in the early months as the external factors (PEST) changed.