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Three questions to shape Verture’s new strategy 

We do our best thinking in response to an incisive open question. This isn’t a unique idea. Nancy Kline popularised it in her work on the Thinking Environment. All Verture’s workshop planning starts by creating a strong question set.

As we design Verture’s 2026-31 strategy, an important step is to map out the questions we want to discuss through the process. Some will be easier to answer than others. All will illuminate opportunities for the charity and the important work we must do supporting Scotland’s people, communities, businesses and places to become climate ready.

Publishing our question set

One way we’ve thought of to open up Verture’s strategy development for greater collaboration is to publish our question set. Data For Action have demonstrated an open approach to posing questions across the charity sector through their Question Bank and answering them through open data. Think an impact-driven Quora. Instead of how to unblock your sink, it’s how to unlock social change.

Our current question set is below. So far, we have 57 questions and while some will be ticked off quite soon, we will no doubt add more.

Ways to contribute

While there’s a liberating transparency in sharing all these questions, it’s unlikely someone outside of our staff or Board will find the time to chip in on this long list without explicit invitation. People are busy and resources are constrained. We’re arranging stakeholder interviews and co-production workshops to facilitate those discussions. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if we’re not already chatting about this, and you feel like we should be.

To widen out the range of people who might contribute to our thinking, we’ve created a meaningful three-question survey to capture a wider variety of perspectives. The survey will be open for three months until Thursday 31 July.

This post is part of Verture’s approach to opening up our strategy development. Find out more about what that is and why we’re doing it here.

The full list of 57 questions we’re holding in our strategy development

Macro strategy   

1. What exactly are we here to achieve?
2. Who do we exist for?
3. How much longer must we exist for?
4. What are we brilliant at?
5. What systems changes are needed to bring about our vision?
6. How is systems change brought about through this strategy?
7. What narratives do we want to change?
8. What value does Verture bring to the world?
9. What do we do that no one else can?
10. What’s our role in the broader ecosystem?
11. What is the big question/problem we’re tackling?
12. Who will we work with to achieve our strategic aims (partners)?
13. Who are our audiences?
14. Where do we want to work (geography)?
15. What is our appetite for risk and innovation?
16. What are the boundaries of what we won’t do?

Adaptation and resilience  

17. How do we feel about our adaptation and resilience focus?
18. What would a just and climate resilient Scotland look like?
19. What does just resilience mean?
20. How do we ensure equity in our resilience efforts?
21. How do we balance short-term needs with long-term resilience?
22. How can we make the topics of adaptation and resilience accessible and relatable to our audiences?
23. What should Verture’s role be in Scotland’s adaptation journey, over the next five years?

Impact and structure 

24. Is this strategy about evolution, revolution or transformation?
25. How do we build on what we’ve already achieved in our current strategy?
26. How do we learn from the current strategy to inform this work?
27. What is our ambition for impact – do we aim for wider or deeper impact?
28. In a volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, how can our strategy be flexible and adaptable to change?
29. What is the relationship between strategy and annual Business Plans?
30. How do we know the strategy we set will be achievable?
31. What is the change we want to see in the world?
32. What outcomes are we aiming for?
33. What does success look like?
34. What will our goals and targets be?
35. What do we mean by impact and how can we maximise our impact?
36. Where can we focus our efforts to create maximum impacts?
37. How do we embrace failure and learn from it?
38. What is the best time horizon for this strategy? Are we comfortable with five years?
39. How will we prioritise different opportunities?
40. What potential barriers or risks could impact achieving our strategic goals, and how can we mitigate them?
41. How will our organisational structure support our strategy?

Finance, fundraising resources 

42. How can we liberate staff time to design the strategy?
43. How do we position ourselves as a charity through this strategy?
44. How can this strategy support us to diversify income streams?
45. What model is right for us to drive strategic impact and support sustainability?
46. How might we become more propositional and less reactive through this strategy?
47. How will we pay for the priorities outlined in the strategy?
48. What is the role of partnerships in our funding model?
49. Who would we love to be funded by?
50. Who would we refuse funding from?

Vision and purpose review questions

51. What is Verture’s vision and purpose, from memory?
52. What do you think of our current V+P?
53. How does it make you feel when you first read/hear it?
54. What does it tell you about Verture’s work and values?
55. What works well?
56. What doesn’t work so well?
57. What’s missing?