Strategic Planning - it CAN work for you - FlourishFiles

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Nothing makes people run for the hills faster than an invitation to a strategic planning workshop.

Why do we hate strategic planning?

Probably because we hate time-wasting meetings, right? And what is strategic planning but a time wasting, mega meeting, right?

Wrong!

Strategic planning is only a waste of time if once developed the plan is ignored.

So here are 5 simple steps for ensuring your strategic plan is implemented:
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Make sure you give someone responsibility for implementing each goal.??

One of my pet peeves is seeing the word ?All? in the ?responsibility? column of many strategic plans. It may be that everyone should contribute to a goal in their own way, but you must give one person (or a cross-sectoral team) overall responsibility for implementation.?

Not only is everyone then clear of the chain of responsibility, it makes monitoring and evaluation much easier too.? If you ask ?All? how implementation is going all you will get is the dreaded ?crickets? sound throughout your organisation.

Tip - Don?t forget to allocate a budget, or other necessary resources (including time!) to this person / team.

Make sure the strategies you allocate to each person are related / meaningful to their job description.

It seems silly to say, but too often I?ve seen tasks given to people that are not a fit for their daily responsibilities.? ?Mary is great with people, let?s make her responsible for sponsorship.? The fact that Mary is the accountant means she is probably not the appropriate person to lead this project.??

I?m not saying accountants are bad at securing sponsorship, but they spend their days managing your organisation?s accounts. To ask them to take on sponsorship requires an additional layer of work unrelated to their core business.? This is an inefficient use of their time and your resources and will end in frustration (and failure).

I?ve also seen organisations allocate responsibilities inappropriately because the right person for the job is ?already too busy.? ?This is a signal for management to revisit resources or prioritise goals.?

Tip ? If Mary the accountant is great with people, by all means invite her to events where she can create a good impression of your organisation in the presence of potential sponsors.? It all helps!

Integrate the Strategic Plan into your annual work plan

The worst thing you can do is treat the strategic plan as separate to your core business. If people feel they need to find extra time to work on implementing the plan, it just won?t get done.

If a goal is to increase sponsorship, then allocate time in the annual work plan to achieving that goal. It might be that you need to develop a business case and design materials before you can actually make contact with a potential sponsor. Allocating time (and resources) throughout the year gets things done.

Tip - This is a really useful way to assess if your plan?s goals are specific and measurable.? If you can?t list practical steps to achieve your goals, you won?t be able to implement your plan.?

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Add goals to your regular meeting agendas

Staff meetings, management committee meetings, it doesn?t matter, if you regularly discuss your strategic plan and its goals, things will get done. Again, if your objective is to increase sponsorship, have ?Sponsorship? listed as a standing item on your agenda. Then invite everyone to contribute ideas about who might be worth approaching for sponsorship. You?ll be amazed at what people may have read or heard or who they?ve met, that might create a lead for the person/s responsible for implementation.

Tip ? Having the strategic plan?s goals integrated into your meeting agendas gives you a head start on monitoring and evaluation as you?ll soon see where progress is being made?or not.

Celebrate accomplishments!

Celebrate the small steps along the way. It might be that you have developed a new prospectus or a potential sponsor has agreed to hear your pitch. Ensure you let the team know this is a strategic plan outcome and it will motivate everyone to keep going.

Tip ? Include the strategic planning responsibilities/objectives in job descriptions and therefore performance reviews. That way more formal feedback and/or bonuses can be provided.
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So, happy planning and always keep your eye on implementation! (And let me know if I can help!)
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Source: http://flourishfiles.typepad.com/flourishfiles/2012/09/strategic-planning-it-can-work-for-you.html

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