Strategy | Planning | Leadership Development | Organizational Growth
5 Things a Strategic Plan is Not
Increase Your Odds with a Strong Strategic Plan
Thinking of creating a strategic plan for your business or non-profit organization? Whether it is your first or fourteenth strategic plan, keeping in mind some important concepts can strengthen your hand and create a more focused, effective, actionable plan to help your organization win.
Over the course of my career, I have worked on strategic plans for more than two dozen organizations across the B2C, B2B and non-profit sectors and analyzed many incarnations of those documents inherited from predecessors. The best are simple, actionable documents that clearly articulate a very small set of strategic organizational priorities in terms everyone can understand. These describe substantive outcomes the whole organization can get excited about. Then they map the critical few activities that will most quickly move the organization toward achieving those outcomes.
Too often, though, what I’ve seen are documents that are not strategic plans at all. Here are five of the top things that an effective strategic plan is NOT:
1
An effective strategic plan is not something that has been created by the CEO and COO sitting alone in a room. Or, worse yet, created by a junior staffer assigned to analyze all the relevant market and financial data and draft a plan for review.
An effective strategic plan needs to be created through collaboration amongst a group of people with varied perspectives and opinions from across your organization, supported by data and input from key stakeholders. There has been much written recently about the importance of diversity in innovation and problem-solving. An effective strategic plan charts the course for your organization to meet the future needs of your customers, profession and/or industry. If that doesn’t merit the very best innovation and problem-solving by involving a broad spectrum of contributors, I don’t know what does. Make sure you engage a broad audience to provide input for your strategy.
2
An effective strategic plan is not a tactical list of everything that every functional department or business unit needs to do differently. And, it is not an unfiltered list that gives equal weight to every opportunity and idea. Too often, I see so-called strategic plan documents that simply capture the brainstorming output from a planning meeting or retreat. These are often organized by functional area and contain laundry lists of activities with no clear direction or discernable desired strategic outcome.
A strategic plan should be organized around three to five high level outcomes that will take significant organizational focus and move the organization dramatically forward in achieving its vision of the future. Then, for each strategic outcome, an effective strategic plan identifies a critical few ways the organization will pursue that desired outcome and begins to outline high-priority action items with owners and deadlines for completion. Don’t stop with capturing good ideas from your stakeholders, go the last mile and synthesize, cull and prioritize to focus organizational resources on the ones that will be most impactful.
“The best are simple, actionable documents that clearly articulate a very small set of strategic organizational priorities in terms everyone can understand.”
3
An effective strategic plan is not a list of desired financial outcomes. This one is a bit tricky because financial outcomes are important milestones in the growth and success of any organization. Whether for profit or not, it takes funding to achieve your mission/vision. But, without a plan for how to achieve those results, a list of financial outcomes is just a wish list. I can say I want a million dollars, but unless I invest wisely or buy a lottery ticket, it is unlikely I will simply end up with a million dollars. Action is required in order to achieve the desired outcome.
A strategic plan goes beyond financials to outline, at a strategic level, how the organization will achieve its desired outcomes, financial and otherwise. It identifies the critical few strategies the organization will focus on over the planning period (usually five years) and the activities in which it will engage to achieve those strategies. Create and execute a clear strategic plan with prioritized actions and outcomes to achieve your desired financial goals.
4
An effective strategic plan is not a secret document kept in a vault and known to a limited few key leaders. If the strategic plan outlines the most important strategies and critical organizational outcomes, why would you keep it a secret? Every person in the organization – top to bottom – should know these imperatives and understand the role he/she plays in achieving them.
An effective strategic plan is communicated broadly and discussed openly. It becomes a litmus test for investment of resources at the macro and micro levels, keeping everyone focused for success. Have a communications plan for your strategy that makes it clear to the people who will make it come alive – everyone in your organization.
5
An effective strategic plan is not an immutable document that is created, communicated and then forgotten. I can’t tell you how many times, when I ask to see an organization’s previous strategic plan, leaders need to ask someone on their board or staff team where to find it. Worse, they can’t even tell me in their own words what their three to five high level strategies are.
An effective strategic plan is always top of mind. It is referred to often, reviewed and updated yearly, and forms the basis for monthly or quarterly tracking of organizational progress. An effective strategic plan is intentionally operationalized by incorporating it into functional or business unit plans as well as yearly operating plans. And, a yearly review of the plan to make sure it is still relevant and current based on progress, market conditions, and next steps keeps the document fresh. Live by your strategic plan – refer to it, track progress against it, and celebrate results by its achievement.
Check your current strategic plan against these five “don’ts” before you start you next planning cycle. Become more familiar with your current document and think critically about the plan you want to create. Make sure the next strategic plan lives up to its role as the one document that clearly articulates your strategic organizational priorities. Doing so will help you identify opportunities to build an organization that aligns resources around the critical few strategies that will achieve your vision of the future
By STEPHANIE KUSIBAB
Stephanie Kusibab is an accomplished and versatile strategy consultant with more than twenty years’ experience delivering programs that accelerate growth and mission achievement. Through broad business experience and perspective, she quickly understands and assesses a situation to identify growth opportunities across industries and professions. Stephanie believes the most powerful ideas come from bringing people together. Through deliberate, structured interactions digitally and in-person, she helps organizations mine diverse perspectives to generate new ideas, coalesce around high impact strategies, build stronger teams, and understand market opportunities.
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