Capturing the 'sparkle' - participative and inclusive strategy making in a children's hospice

Strategy making is a process often shrouded in mystery in the realm of the senior management, however there is a move to understand what happens when the process is more open and others are involved in strategy making. The purpose of this research is to explore the effect participative and inclusive activities have on the strategy making process. This research adopts an engaged scholarship approach, working with a case of a children’s hospice organisation to implement a participative and inclusive approach to making strategy and observe the effects. The major conclusions of this research is that participative and inclusive activities are not binary (i.e. present or not), but they shift and move in intensity flowing through the strategy making process. Our research also shows that the outcome (i.e. content) of a participative and inclusive process appears to be authentic to the organisation with the words of the actors being retained.