5 Keys to Successful Strategic Planning & Management

As organizations finish out the year and begin their planning for this year, what are some key ways to make their strategic plan even more successful in the coming year? Here we discuss some aspects that make organizations more likely to create plans that impact organizational results and fulfill on those plans.

1. Inclusion

Many times strategic plans are created by the top group of executives in a room closed off from the rest of the organization. This can result in employees not being aware of the new goals/plans and being reluctant to accomplish them as they had no say in what they were or how they were to be implemented.

Recommendation: An Organizational Assessment/Survey

With a simple organizational survey, employees are able to

contribute their opinions and share their knowledge from the

ground level. Many times employees are the ones that face

operational issues daily and think of innovative ways to perform

work more efficiently and effectively. Taking the time to gather

employees input on the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats allows for many benefits, such as:

- Increased innovation

- Increased buy-in when it comes to implementation

- Increased morale as it shows employees that the

organization values their input

- Increased communication between the highest and

lowest levels in the organization

these can lead to:

- Faster implementation

- Greater success in achieving goals and outcomes

- More innovate ideas that increase outcomes

2. Out of the Box Thinking

When it is time for strategic planning, organizations can sometimes be too focused on what they have reached for and experienced in the past. When brainstorming ideas during the strategic sessions, they can end up being the same one mentioned before or new ones that keep the organization at status quo. Another aspect of ensuring that your organization's strategic plan is current and comprehensive is to get out of the box of the past. When organizations think beyond their experiences they can come up with ideas that are creative and extraordinary. Otherwise, the organization and the way it serves its customers may become obsolete. This has happened to numerous organizations of the past where they did not see the possibilities of the future because they were too entrenched in the current. Newpaper companies never saw radio coming, radio never saw television coming, telephone companies never saw cell phones coming, and very few considered that computers and the internet would be part of every day life. This is why it is key to use an inclusive approach so that employees and stakeholders are able to add value to the conversation. So in short think outside of the box......sometimes even way outside of the box.

Recommendation: Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is an easy way to begin to think of all the

future possibilities that could happen in your industry and

business. By considering even the least likely scenarios your

organization prepares itself to handle those situations if they do

arise the organization is able to adjust sooner. Scenario planning

consists of creating 5 different environmental scenarios (future like

the past, moderately positive future, moderately negative future,

decidedly pessimistic future, decidedly optimistic future). These

scenarios look at all the potential changing external and internal

factors that may affect your organization including things like:

economy, regulations, industry changes, changes to resources,

and more. Once a general idea for each scenario is created,

groups of executives look at the strengths, weakness,

opportunities, and threats to the organization in those scenarios to

imagine what the organization would need to look like to not only

survive but thrive in those environments. This helps organizations

to:

- Proactively prepare for future changes in their

industry and environment

- React earlier to internal and external environmental

changes

- Increase the likelihood that they will survive if drastic

changes do happen

- Consider ways to innovate to stay cutting-edge in

the future

- Create indicators to inform them when a scenario is

becoming more likely

these can lead to:

- Sustainability of the organization over the long-haul

despite drastic changes

- Greater innovation of their own products and

services

- Introduction of products or services that

revolutionize their industry

3. Communication

Once the strategic plan has been created in an inclusive way with out of the box thinking, it is now time to communicate it. How a strategic plan is communicated can be a huge factor in whether or not it is adopted and thus successful. Some organizations make the mistake of taking the newly created plan and putting it on a shelf (until next year's review), while others only share the plan with management levels. These tactics tend to have less success as the information is segmented. Strategic plans are most successful when they communicate how value is created within the organization. That is when people feel empowered to make decisions and take actions based on a solid understanding of the organization’s strategic direction. Therefore, we recommend:

Recommendation: Strategy Mapping

Strategy mapping is a visual way to communicate how value is

created in the organization by visually showcasing how strategic

objectives relate and impact each other. In a typical strategic map,

there are four main strategic objectives including: financial,

customers, internal processes, and organizational capacity

(learning & development). These objectives tend to be consistent

across different types of organizations because, as a whole,

organizations want to have positive financials, pleased customers,

efficient processes, and plentiful capacity. However, each

organization may have different cause-and-effect relationships

between these objectives. Once a strategy map is created it can

be used as a way to communicate how each department and

position contributes to creating value within the organization.

When employees can see how their role contributes value, they

are:

- More aware of how to help achieve the strategic

objectives

- More willing to contribute. They see that it matters

and feel less risk in putting their creative ideas

forward.

- More motivated as they feel a sense of purpose

- Bought-in as they feel that their role matters

- Able to contribute ideas to reach objectives

these can lead to:

- More success in achieving strategic objectives

- Less resistance in making changes that impact

objectives

- More inter-departmental communication and

collaboration as there is more clarity on how

department and roles are connected

4. Implementation

Implementation can seem like a tricky and difficult thing to do with several objectives to accomplish simultaneously. However, when planned well implementation can sometimes go better than originally thought. The question is....how do we plan it well? Therefore, we recommend:

Recommendation: Creating & Cascading Objectives, Goals, Methods, &

Measures

A big key in planning the implementation is creating clear goals,

methods, and measures for each objective. Once complete, it is

essential to cascading those down through all levels. Although,

there can be many meanings for these words, we specify ours as:

-Objectives are broad, long-term, and qualitative things the

organization wants to accomplish in the next few years.

-Goals are specific and quantitative ways of expressing objectives

so the organization can more easily measure their

accomplishment. Typically there are 2-4 goals per

objective.

-Methods are the actions and activities that will be done to ensure

the goals and objectives are reached. This section is also

known as strategies. Typically 3-4 actions per goal.

-Measures are the systems of evaluation and the numeric value

tied to success of each goal and objective.

Check out an example of an completed objective here!

Once each objective has approximately 2-4 goals with aligned

methods and measures, these are cascaded down to every level in

the organization with the level above being in charge of managing

the successful achievement of each goal. We believe that it is

valuable to have each person in the organization create an

accountability plan that includes the aspects of the strategic plan

they are responsible for contributing towards. This ensures they

see their personal contributions. With these plans it is more likely

that all goals will be completed, thus each objective will be met.

This results in:

- A clear and comprehensive implementation plan

- Managers/Supervisors being clear on what

performance metrics to capture and monitor

- Each person understanding their methods and how

it will be evaluated - Implementation that everyone has a role in

accomplishing

these can lead to:

- More success in achieving strategic objectives

- Clarity on when goals and objectives are achieved

- More ease in implementing and managing the

strategic plan from creation to completion

5. Follow-through with Follow-up

Once the plan has clear objectives, goals, methods, and measures AND has been cascaded down by creating individual accountability plans, then everyone is on the same page. Each individual understands their role in achieving the strategic plan and how they are to contribute. The last key to achieving success is follow-through. The way to accomplish this is through diligent follow-up. Sometimes accountability plans are created and yet no one is following-up on the plans in a regular and timely fashion, thus the goals fall through the cracks and are not accomplished. Accountability is key to success. To avoid this pitfall, we recommend:

Recommendation: Regular and Timely Follow-up and Feedback

Our final key to successful reaching the objectives and goals is

regular and timely follow-up with feedback. We define these as:

-Regular - follow-up that is at clear and equal time intervals

so that everyone is aware of when these follow-up check-ins

will take place and are prepared to check in on their

measures as a team. For example, following-up after a

month then after 3 months is not regular, whereas every 2

months is regular.

-Timely - follow-up should be planned for the appropriate

times where it is clear that there will be shifts in the metrics

and measurements used to identify progress on the goals

and objectives. For example, 2 weeks after the beginning of

implementation may not be an appropriate time to check

measurements, whereas a month may be better.

It is key to make follow-up regular and timely so that all parties are

clear and prepared. This results in the individual contributors being

open and ready for the feedback that comes with follow-up. When

individuals are open and ready they are more likely to participate in

trouble-shooting any issues that arise during implementation.

Overall, when organizations use follow-up and feedback to achieve

follow-through, it can result in:

- Recognizing barriers and obstacles to success

sooner rather than later

- Problem-solving as a team to overcome obstacles

- Consistent communication on where each goal is

currently at

- Clarity on what else needs to be

done to achieve each goal and objective

these can lead to:

- Each individual being clear on where they are and

where they still need to go to accomplish goals

- Ensuring that goals and objectives are on their way

to being achieved

- A culture of everyone working together to problem-

solve when obstacles arrive

Overall, we know that there are plenty of techniques that can make strategic planning success. These are our top 5 that we believe will result in the biggest impact on success. We suggest all organizations work to implement these strategies to be successful in completing their plans in an effective and efficient way.

If you are interested in talking further about strategic planning for your company, click here to set up your

free consultation!