Strategic Planning A to Z
Strategic Planning A to Z
http://strategylaunch.com/downloads
• Clear direction
• Alignment for the whole organization
• Specific, measurable outcomes
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
THE RIGHT STUFF
HAVE A PLAN
4 THINGS…
THE RIGHT TOOL
10%
30%
91%
60%
Still Working on this!!!
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• Humans don’t naturally think strategically
• We think in terms of immediate needs
• Once our minds are “empty”, we can move on
to thinking at a strategic level
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• We need a direction in which to travel
(Vision & Mission)
• We need grounding, lest we stray (Values)
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• You MUST add your current projects (Today)
• Leaving these off will be disastrous!!!
• Sort and prioritize them with everything else
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• You need “buckets” to be able to think clearly
• One huge list is confusing at best
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• You have too much stuff – guaranteed.
• Prioritize for impact and by ease of execution
• “Abandon” everything else (but save for later)
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• Place your issues, challenges and
opportunities into your buckets
• Right-size your goals, objectives and strategies
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• Budget for people-hours, and for dollars
• Reduce and eliminate if necessary!!!
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
• Don’t build an expensive paperweight.
• Get out there and do it.
• Interviews
• Surveys
• Research
• Porter’s Five
Forces
• Financials
• Customers
• Processes
• Learn & Grow
1) What's going well for the organization?
2) What could be going better?
3) Tell me about the relationships here...
4) What do you like about your position here?
5) What are the biggest issues facing the organization?
6) How are the leaders doing here?
7) What systems and processes do you use? How well are they working? What do you
need that you don't have?
8) If you had a magic wand, and could instantly change three things, what would they be?
9) What strategic direction would you like to see for the organization?
10) What have we not discussed that's important for me to know?
Depth Tools and Questions
RESTATE or PARAPHRASE
“Tell me more…”
“Can take me back to …..?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Can you help me to understand that better?”
“What does that mean for you (personally)?”
“What implications does that have?”
“What does that look like in detail?”
“How does that feel?”
“Does that cause other issues?”
“Why is that a struggle?”
“What have you tried to do about that?”
“How long has that been an issue?”
“How does that affect other things here?”
Interview the person next to you. Ask them:
“What are the biggest challenges in your chapter right now?”
Try…
RESTATE or PARAPHRASE “Tell me more…”
“Can take me back to …..?” “What do you mean by that?”
“Can you help me to understand that better?” “How does that feel?”
“What does that mean for you (personally)?” “Why is that a struggle?”
“What implications does that have?” “Does that cause other issues?”
“What does that look like in detail?” “How long has that been an issue?”
“How does that affect other things here?” “What have you tried to do about that?”
Some Considerations before Strategic Planning
1) Financial – What do the revenues, expenses, P&L, and balance sheet tell us?
2) Customers – What are the customers telling us (or not telling us) through words and
actions? What are the trends that customers are following? Voice of the customer?
3) Process – What systems, processes, and technology are we using? Is it the most
effective way to do things?
4) Learn & Grow – Where do we need to learn more? Where do we need internal growth?
5) SWOT Analysis – Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats
6) New Ventures – Are there new lines of business we should consider? Is there an
acquisition we should make? A divestiture? New product or service?
7) Stakeholders – Are we involving all of the stakeholders?
8) Team – Who should be building the plan?
9) Resources – Do we have what we need to build and execute the plan?
Live Planning Session STEP #1
Either together, or in small groups…
Extract the ISSUES, CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES
1) Review the interview data. Extract any issues, challenges or opportunities
2) Review the S.W.O.T., Financials, etc. Extract any issues, challenges or opportunities
Rules:
Place each issue, challenge, or opportunity on a sticky note.
Only ONE idea per note.
Write clearly and in a black sharpie. (You can’t write too much that way)
Before you start:
Values, Mission and Vision are all visceral, feeling
components. They are not logical. When you get them right,
they should feel right, and inspire positive and motivating
thoughts.
“Real values have courage. They do not change in the
face of threats, trials, fear, or promise. They hold fast
when the winds blow, and stand proud when the
winds change.”
Values are the unchanging principles to which you always adhere.
Establish 3 to 5 Values or Guiding Principles.
Use single words, or short phrases instead of long sentences.
Optional Method: Small Groups make a list, combine, vote.
Vision – Your picture of the ideal future. If you write it well, you’ll
always be able to pursue it.
“The shoes of choice for the dance professional”
“The easiest solution for difficult loans”
“The future of primary health care – today.”
Poster Exercise
Research and Re-apply
Craft and select parts, re-craft
Do NOT get stuck over word-smithing. Get it right; don’t get stuck.
“Our organizational mission statement is to pontificate extraneous loquaciousness for
the benefit of individuals, companies, corporations, non-profits and other organizations
and or entities of any kind to deliberately and purposefully add unnecessary verbiage,
thereby creating run-on sentences that continue needlessly so that we can include the
opinions of every member of the executive team, the board of directors, the steering
committee, and others who replied to an email. Furthermore, we strive in every way to
add additional purposes, missions, and perhaps visions, while repeating and changing
our values and guiding principles, or at least restating them, whenever there is an
opportunity to do so as we repeat our efforts at run-on sentence structure, and squeeze
in one more idea at the end.”
Mission – What you do, for whom you do it, and the benefit.
“We set the mission-writing standard to ease the path for mission-
writers everywhere.”
Identify each component, and build as in your vision statement.
Do NOT get stuck over word-smithing. Get it right; don’t get stuck.
• Learn – Gather the right information
• Issues – Identify the issues, challenges and opportunities
• Grounding – Ensure your values are aligned
• Heading – Establish a vision and a mission statement
• Today – Add everything already underway
• Sort – Categorize your issues
• Abandon – Leave behind the distractions
• Build – Establish goals, objectives and strategies
• Resource – plan budgets and human resources needed
• Execute – Make your plan a reality
Add your current initiatives,
to weigh them with your new ones!
Place each current issue, challenge, or opportunity on a sticky note.
Only ONE idea per note.
Write clearly and in a black sharpie. (You can’t write too much that way)
Your scores of sticky notes should fall naturally into 3-5
categories. Here are some I see often:
MAXIMIZE PROFITABLILITY ENHANCE OUR SERVICES / PRODUCTS
STRENGTHEN THE TEAM EXPAND OUR REACH
INNOVATE REDUCE COSTS
IMPROVE OUR PROCESSES
The absolute BIGGEST mistake made in Strategic Planning is to Plan too much.
Rank order your initiatives – I use a 5 X 5 method for impact and ease
Decide what you can really handle
Abandon and publish the rest
Target
Owner
Due Date
Description
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody,
Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done
and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody
could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about
that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought
Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t
do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when
Nobody did what Anybody could have.
People Hours
Dollars
TOP SECRETS OF EXECUTION
1) Build it Right
2) Never Miss a Meeting – I recommend monthly for businesses, quarterly for volunteers
3) Hold each other accountable – don’t be polite and let it slide, ask for corrective action
4) Use one central system to track it
5) Annual Reset – verify Mission, Vision, Values, Goals, and re-fill the rest
Strategic Planning A to Z
http://strategylaunch.com/downloads