
Annual strategic planning is often something to do because “we always do it.” But how can you get real value out of your strategic planning process? Here are 8 ways to get more from your strategic planning process for 2016…
- Identify the 3 Biggest Factors that are limiting your company’s success. If you spent just 30 minutes thinking about it, you could probably identify twenty things that your business could do better that would enable you to unlock the real potential your company has to offer. Narrow that to three.
- Create a list of potential ways you can address each of these 3 Biggest Factors. This may sound simple, but it is remarkable the impact of just taking a little time to identify practical action steps you can take to immediately make a difference on your biggest challenges. Don’t do this in a vacuum. Ask your key stakeholders, employees, and advisers to also go through this process and discuss their insights.
- Prioritize your options, by quantifying the impact, the likelihood of success, the ease of implementation, and the timing. Create a five point scale for each of these four measures: 1) impact, 2) probability of success, 3) ease of implementing, 4) timing to implement. Summarize the results and rank the options based on your scale. This will provide you an excellent point to begin moving forward.
- Create a clear list of tasks and responsibilities. Once you have determined the key ways to address your biggest challenges, define the detailed steps and assign a leader, a deadline, and a clear & measurable task to achieve.
- Focus on activities, not just goals. Some people I know prefer to set annual goals and check in periodically. Developing annual goals are certainly important, but you must also make sure you define and measure activities that drive the goals. If you have clearly identified the activities that will result in success, then measuring the activities should necessarily lead to the results. I like to use the analogy of weight loss. If you want to lose weight, and only focus on progress against the goals (i.e., pounds lost) but you fail to focus on measuring your progress against the activities that actual drive the weight loss (e.g., calorie input, calorie output, etc.), then you will not lose weight.
- Build weekly accountability into the process of managing your teams. If you are leading a team, provide them opportunities for weekly accountability updates with you. Make this a two-way process: help them identify challenges getting in their way and work with them to overcome these hurdles.
- Build weekly accountability into managing yourself. Everyone needs accountability, but very few of us voluntarily request it. Find someone you trust and give them permission to hold you accountable for your own progress. You can certainly pay someone (like an executive coach) who can provide great help in this area. You can, however, also lean on a spouse, partner, or trusted friend. The mere fact that you provide a weekly update to someone will help you hold yourself more accountable.
- Ask your best customers the 3 Biggest Challenges they are facing as they look forward to the upcoming year. Understanding your customers’ pains will enable you to reposition your solutions (products or services) in ways that address their key challenges.
We are helping clients now with their strategic planning process for 2016, and we would love to help you. Good luck, visit our website, and please know that if you need any help, we are a call or email away.