As a follow up to my last article on strategic and operational planning, consider some additional best practices to follow to begin planning now for developing your 2018 strategic plan.
As part of your plan, consider:
- Who should be involved on the core team? (Ensure leadership representation from across the organization.)
- Get employees from throughout the organization involved on an extended team (this may be through participation in focus groups, roundtables, brainstorming events or by taking surveys.)
- When did you last do strategic planning? (Was it just last year? You can update the plan. Was it a number of years ago? You likely have to start from scratch.)
- What do you want to get out of the strategic planning sessions? Are there particular business problems that are hindering the organization from achieving goals? Or are there opportunities you could be realizing to move the organization forward? Are you unsure? If so, start with a SWOT Analysis. (And get a broader group involved in a SWOT Analysis.) Use this information as your starting point to focus strategic planning.
- Are there internal or external changes that have occurred, or are likely to occur, that could impact the long-term success of the organization?
- What data you have that can assist in strategic planning. Consider internal and external sources for data. (e.g., competition, workforce planning, products and services, business processes, market data.)
- What channels are available to communicate about strategic planning and ensure employees are engaged in the process?
These are just a handful of some of the thinking process behind starting strategic planning. Strategic planning is essential to keep an organization moving forward in an ever-changing world.
As a best practice for a number of Abudi Consulting Group’s clients with whom we do strategic planning; each year at the start of the year, we schedule the next year’s strategic planning session. For example, last December, 2016, we scheduled our two-day off-site strategic planning session for a global pharma company for this coming December, 2017. Each year we pull out the current strategic plan (3 – 5 years out) and update it.
Need help getting started? Want support facilitating your strategic planning session? Contact Abudi Consulting Group today to learn more!
