Whether it’s the beginning of a quarter or your fiscal year, your thoughts have turned to strategic planning. Although strategy should be a daily conversation, it is usually Q4 or early Q1 when we put pen to paper.
Here are 6 tips for the best chance of having a great, strategic plan that will also be implemented.
Just Do It
Recently I stumbled on the goals that I wrote down when I was in high school (a very long time ago). While some were laughable, I was surprised that I had achieved many of them. There is something magical about writing down your plans and goals. They become cemented in your brain. The act of discussing and writing is powerful!
Make Sure It’s Strategic
A powerful strategy identifies how you will win the game. It is up to you and your team to define winning, but ultimately it is improving your competitive position in the marketplace. It involves changes inside the company but also making big decisions about if or how you will respond to changes and whether these will be opportunities or threats.
Make It a Habit
There will be resistance, but there is something about creating a consistent meeting time each month to follow through on action items related to the strategy that is important.
Make It Measurable
Some new initiatives are easy to measure, like revenue, profits, or quality. Other initiatives, usually those related to people measures, are harder to measure. But it is important to have a measure, even if you use a scale of 1-5 with 5 being great, so you can see if you are making progress.
Keep It Flexible
The world changes every day. Make it part of your ongoing monthly discussion to discuss new challenges, threats, or opportunities and to modify your plan to incorporate your response. This will keep strategy a part of your everyday conversations.
Hire an Outside Facilitator
Strategic planning and implementation is one of my core services. But I hire an outside facilitator for my strategic planning too! I am a little too close to my business, and an outside facilitator asks me questions and has perspectives that I haven’t considered.
If you would like to connect to discuss your strategic planning process, please schedule a time here.
