Agile Strategy Development at Save the Children UK: Creating a Collaborative 2030 Vision
When Save the Children UK embarked on developing their 2030 vision and strategy, they knew they wanted to break away from traditional top-down approaches. The organisation needed a strategy that would be both adaptable and inclusive while maintaining clear direction across various organisational dependencies. This is where Tilt’s expertise in agile methodologies came into play
The Challenge
Save the Children UK faced the complex task of creating a long-term strategy that would:
- Engage staff meaningfully at all levels.
- Balance flexibility with clear direction.
- Account for various organisational dependencies.
- Create genuine connections between high-level vision and practical implementation.

Workshop Design and Facilitation
The journey began with an agile kickoff workshop that refreshed the strategy team’s understanding of agile principles and explored how these could be applied specifically to strategy development. The focus centred on three key areas: reflection, iteration, and cross-organisational collaboration.
Next up, the strategy team agreed how they would facilitate conversations with people across the organisation to gather their input. We guided the team to use the IDOARRT framework to design inclusive, all-staff workshops to engage employees at every level of the organisation. The workshops were structured around three fundamental questions:
- What impact do we want to see in the world for children?
- What is Save the Children UK’s specific role in delivering that future?
- What practical actions and approaches will help achieve these goals?
The strategy team left ready to confidently facilitate cross-divisional groups of colleagues. Everyone was able to share reflections on key questions about the future direction, how to add value and the role they could play. The aim was to build a shared Vision for 2030 and foster a sense of shared purpose in common language. It was important for them to facilitate these sessions themselves. It meant that they were the face of the work and were there in the room to absorb the rich ideas that bubbled up.

Julia Begley
Tilt
Differentiated Engagement
A crucial insight emerged during the process – different strategy areas required different levels of engagement. We helped the team identify three distinct categories:
- Fixed elements that were already established.
- Areas with some flexibility for refinement.
- Completely open areas for collaborative creation.

Julia Begley
Tilt
We identified that there were some specific audiences for different areas of the strategy. Some parts were going to be quite set in stone, while other areas could truly be worked out and create together. We didn’t want to go to people in areas of work that were pretty decided with really bold, open questions and then give them the sense that it was just ignored. Instead, we wanted to make sure that we were clear with each group about what we were asking them. We made it clear when we wanted them to be creative and proactive versus when we wanted help refining the things that had already been decided. This meant that we could really use what was shared and people felt listened to.
Bridging Vision and Action
Through all of this work the strategy team identified the exact role the strategy needed to play: creating clear connections between the broad organisational vision and practical departmental planning. The strategy needed to serve as a bridge between abstract, purpose-driven goals and specific, actionable team plans. Then they set to work agreeing how they would approach building that.
Iterative Development
The team then agreed what taking ‘an iterative approach to strategy development’ really meant for them; carefully identifying which aspects could be experimental and which needed more structured implementation. This balanced approach allowed for:
- Testing and learning from initial implementations.
- Gathering and incorporating feedback effectively.
- Maintaining robust governance while enabling flexibility.

Results
The programme delivered transformative outcomes across multiple dimensions of Save the Children UK’s strategic planning process. At its core, the work fostered genuine inclusive strategy development through voluntary all-staff workshops. These sessions created meaningful pathways for input across all hierarchical levels, with clear feedback loops demonstrating how staff contributions shaped the final strategy.
Another key achievement was the creation of a sophisticated engagement framework that recognised and addressed the needs of different stakeholder groups. The team developed tailored approaches for three distinct audiences:
- Mass staff engagement focusing on comprehension testing and workshop feedback.
- Leadership consultation to ensure alignment and prevent surprises.
- Reference groups for detailed theme-specific testing and iteration.
The practical implementation framework proved particularly valuable, successfully bridging the gap between high-level vision and departmental planning. This framework established clear mechanisms for testing and iterating strategy elements while maintaining necessary governance structures – a delicate balance that was crucial for the organisation’s success.
Most significantly, the programme established a foundation for strategy implementation that honours both the need for clear direction and the benefits of adaptive, collaborative approaches. This dual focus ensures that Save the Children UK can confidently pursue their 2030 vision while maintaining the agility to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities.
The Strategy team and I came away from each session feeling enlightened and reoriented to the problems at hand. It’s been amazing to have islands of calm to reflect and get clarity to move forward.

Jarryd Wood-Sanchez
Save the Children UK
Looking Forward
The work with Save the Children UK demonstrates how large organisations can successfully blend agile principles with strategic planning. While the journey revealed that some elements needed to be more fixed than initially anticipated, the process created valuable frameworks for ongoing strategy development and implementation.
“Something that was really important throughout was the emotional side of it, that people felt listened to. It didn’t feel like a box-ticking exercise, and that even the things that weren’t picked up and taken forward still felt like they had been used, so people didn’t feel like they were just being consulted in a surface way,” reflects Julia.
The project highlighted the importance of:
- Clear communication about what is and isn’t open for collaboration.
- Maintaining emotional engagement throughout the process.
- Creating visible links between staff input and final outcomes.
- Balancing agility with robust governance.

Through this work, Save the Children UK has established a foundation for strategy implementation that honours both the need for clear direction and the benefits of adaptive, collaborative approaches. This positions them well for delivering on their 2030 vision while maintaining the flexibility to respond to changing circumstances.