3 signs your strategic plan is going to fail
You've just finished your strategic planning sessions, the whiteboards are full, the mission statement is clear, the vision statement is inspiring, the corporate strategy and strategic initiatives are agreed and aligned and everyone is smiling and nodding at what a wonderful outcome.
Fast forward 3 months and the shine is off the apple, people are busy again and it seems that things just aren't getting done and the plan is wallowing. Unfortunately this is the outcome of most strategic planning activities; great excitement and efforts being overtaken by lack of action and collaboration.
So, what are the signs that your strategic plan is in trouble from day one and what can you do about it?
- Sign #1 - The outcome of the strategic planning sessions was a Word doc - the only real use for a Word doc is for it to be neatly hole punched and placed in a binder, filling that space on the shelf behind your desk, a fitting tribute to hard work and brilliant minds. But seriously, this is what happens to so many strategic plans and it is the first sign of things going off the rails when the plan is expected to be executed by referring to a document periodically
- Sign #2 - It's Monday morning and you don't know what the first step is - my favorite thing to ask people who've just told me that they have finished their strategic plan is "what are the next 3 things on the list?", which usually returns sort of a funny look and some mumbling like "well I have these goals and we all agreed that we needed to achieve X". Unfortunately goals and objectives are not actions, which is why knowing what you are supposed to do on the Monday morning after the strategy retreat is so important
- Sign #3 - You don't know what anyone else is doing on their parts of the plan - so, you can imagine if you find yourself being a victim of Sign #2 you are also highly unlikely to know what it is anyone else is doing on their parts of the plan. Given that most strategic plans don't entail only one strategic initiative or element it is pretty important that people are aware of what others are doing if for no other reason than to be able to help out if they can.
It's simple really, strategic plans require action and action needs to happen immediately or you are going to have a difficult time creating the right environment for change and growth.
If all you have to go on is a Word doc, some vague but nice sounding goals and you are operating in a microcosm only aware of your own or your group's own progress you are headed for a train wreck when it comes to strategic plan implementation.
So, what can you do about it?:
- Get the plan in a collaborative format - as soon as the plan has made its way from the white board to a set of notes it should immediately go into some sort of collaborative working environment, preferably Web-based so that it can be shared and edited over time, this can be as simple as a Wiki or a more tailored software solution for strategic plan implementation
- Get the specific actions in place from the beginning - don't leave the planning session until each person or group that is responsible for a part of the plan has actual action items written down so that they can be actioned on Monday morning. Don't confuse the process of creating objectives such as "increased sales" and goals such as 25% growth in "X" market as being actions, get down to specific actions such as "implement inbound marketing software solution to increase sales leads"
- Track and share where things are - in setting up your collaboration around your strategic plan implementation you need to check off action items as they are finished and have that information within easy reach and display of any person in the company involved in the implementation process. People need to see and be aware of what is going on around them in order to maintain forward movement
- Target resources where the challenges are cropping up - finally, if you have done all of the above start looking for the bottlenecks and challenges. In a past blog post - The Most Important Thing to Know About Your Strategic Plan - I mentioned a conversation with Ian Smith of Portfolio Partnership, where he indicacted that the most important thing to know about any ongoing strategic plan was what was "behind" in getting done so that he could go back to the teams that were ahead of schedule and get some help in the problem areas. The fact is if one part of the plan fails the rest of the plan will fail so knowing what is going on and getting all hands on deck goes a long way towards successful strategic plan implementation.
In summary, watch out for the signs and you will greatly increase your chances of successfully implementing your strategic plan.
Ed Loessi
