Strategic Planning: Three Horizons
About Three Horizons
‘Three Horizons’ is a tool for building a long term vision for a system and the steps required to get there. It supports understanding of how different pieces of work can support long term change.
The Three Horizons model describes three distinct focal points of activity. They all have their own benefits but it is important to understand how they link together and can become ‘greater than the sum of their parts’.
This tool can help analyse and critique current ways of working, including ongoing improvement. It can support transitioning from one approach to another, opening and closing different paths.
One challenge in making change is understanding whether something is significantly changing a way of working, or simply iterating the same way of working. The Three Horizons tool can help you think about what changes are required to see a significant shift away from things that are not working, and towards a more integrated model of care.
This will enable better alignment of workstreams and a more planned approach to system-wide change. Through this approach you can:
- Plan for change across a range of services and workstreams.
- Explore what needs to happen in the medium term to start to move towards the ideal state.
- Help distinguishing between transformational and incremental change to clarify assumptions regarding progress towards the third horizon.
HIS has created a resource to help people understand how the Three Horizons can support change, including a description of the Three Horizons as a concept and how you might develop a workshop to explore your horizons. [LINK]
Supporting resources for this tool
Supporting protocol – how you might use this tool:
When looking at developing and implementing a local mental health and substance use protocol, this tool can:
- Support understanding of and rationalise the wide range of ongoing work being undertaken within mental health and substance use, that can often be siloed.
- Help with prioritisation of efforts, including identifying things it is important to stop doing.
- Map out the change process to communicate how smaller changes contribute to wider goals.
This will stimulate conversations to shape ideas around how disparate work programmes in mental health and substance use can be brought together, start to build approaches to change and support communication/buy-in around long-term change.