When should an organization do strategic planning? The answer is not difficult. If you don’t have a strategic plan, do it as soon as you can!
It is helpful to do a strategic plan a minimum of two or three months prior to the start of a new fiscal year. However, if that means waiting for several months, it’s better to do the plan now. You can update the plan, if needed, for the new fiscal year. A simple plan is better than no plan at all. Contact me if I can assist you with this process.
All businesses have been affected by the tough economic conditions we’ve been experiencing in the past year or so. Factors such as decreased business revenue, lay-offs, new personnel, changing clients, delays in payment on accounts, etc. impact the roll-out of a strategic plan. That is why a business must view the plan as “fluid”. It needs to adjust to long term changes.
How does a business adjust? Minor changes may require the extension of completion dates for strategic initiatives. Staffing changes may require a reassignment of initiatives. If there are significant staffing changes and the team is all new, it would be important to have a discussion reviewing the process used for the development of the plan, the assignments, etc. No matter what the factors are that cause a change in the rate of implementation, it is still critical for a business to have a strategic plan and keep their eyes focused on the direction for the business. Contact me if you’d like assistance with this.
Congratulations to you if your business has a strategic plan in place! If you’ve been using the plan through regular monitoring of the implementation process, you’ve seen the benefits of the plan for your business. You also may be seeing many of the strategic initiatives being completed. So when do you revisit the planning process?
Each business should plan an annual review/revision/rewrite of their strategic plan. This process identifies the completed initiatives, the initiatives that need revision, and the new areas that need to be addressed and added to the plan. Approximately every three years, the comprehensive strategic planning process should be completed for the business. If you want to develop a comprehensive strategic plan, contact me to help facilitate the process.
The last blog entry discussed a slow down or stalling in the implementation of a strategic initiative. This can happen at any time with a strategic plan roll-out. But what do you do if a strategic initiative just doesn’t work out?
Occasionally a strategic initiative is written that seemed sound and doable when the strategic plan was developed. However, internal changes (staffing, dollars, alternative options, etc.), or external changes (new regulations, supply issues, etc.) may prevent completion of the initiative. This is real and it happens.
This is the perfect opportunity for your strategic team (who is monitoring the implementation of the plan), to revisit and revise the initiative in question at a regular review of the plan. It doesn’t take a whole new planning session. It just requires the identification of the issues and a re-write of the initiative to get back on track. Contact me if I can assist you in this process.
If you noticed a break in the blog entries recently, it’s true! I left a few weeks open because of other priorities. But that’s how real life – and real business – is!
It’s not uncommon to have a strategic initiative stall out for some reason. It may be due to other initiatives taking more effort; it may be due to a lack of resources to move ahead; or it may be some other reason. But that’s the real world! And that is why ongoing, periodic review of the strategic plan progress is so important.
A weekly (or other periodic) review of progress will alert the team to glitches that may develop in strategic implementation. This alert allows the team to adjust to these “real life/real business” issues in a timely manner and continue the implementation of the strategic plan. Contact me if you’d like to re-energize your strategic plan.
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07 31st, 2009| 