What are you expecting to get out of your strategic planning process this year?
Most companies do strategic planning because they desire success, but do they expect it? The actual expectations from strategic planning seem to vary wildly when executives are pressed on the question. When you drill down a bit further, something disconcerting is revealed. Many executives share a disconnection between their desires for success from strategic planning and their actual expectations from the process. Why is this?
The truth is, executing a strategic plan is hard work – and executives know it. Having the right planning process is key. It requires some art and science that may not be available amongst the organization’s native population. Executives are aware of this aspect and their expectations for planning outcomes get lowered a few points as a result.
Additionally, most executives tacitly fear that they may lack the required drive to stick to it during plan implementation. They know that the plans they have laid out may not be fully developed and consequently will require a lot of oversight effort to make up for the lack of detailed substance. Expectations drop again. Now, add more reality. Day-to-day fire fighting can distract the best of managers and leave strategic plans to gather dust on a lonely corner of the executive credenza. Deduct two more expectations points.
Okay, so strategic planning and implementation isn’t a piece of cake. That is not justification for us to lower our expectations of the process. Instead, we must consider ourselves lucky for knowing that it will be hard work and get ready to put the effort into making it a success. Coming to grips with that aspect is a key part of acceptance and helps everyone involved in strategic planning to better prepare.
Let’s examine some of the “expectation lowering” factors mentioned above and look at how each challenge can be overcome.
1. Strategic planning requires some art and science that may not be available amongst the organization’s native population.
Regardless of the available internal strategic planning talent an organization might have, successful planning outcomes can be achieved if a good process is followed during planning and execution. Take the time now to review your strategic plan to make sure that it does the following:
- Focuses operationally on accomplishing the top 20% of strategic priorities
- Allows for re-evaluation of the priorities quarterly and claiming victory on short-term objectives that have been accomplished
- Looks externally to competitor / peer performance benchmarks and factors those inputs into strategic adjustments and operational tactics systematically (allowing the business to push even harder to succeed quarter over quarter)
- Sets the right priorities and clearly communicates the expected actions and results
- Rewards the people that help achieve the results
2. Most executives tacitly fear that they may lack the required drive to stick to it during plan implementation.
Unfortunately, there is no substitute for actually doing the work to prepare the organization for execution. Successful execution requires a fully developed plan, but that does not mean that it needs to be complex.
Managing big and complex is much more difficult than managing smaller and elegantly simple chunks of strategy. Keep in mind that there are layers of managers that have responsibility for their domains in the enterprise. They must be coordinated and pulling or pushing in the same direction, so simple is better. When they do not work together in an orchestrated fashion, performance begins to fall off and strategic execution suffers or fails altogether.
Simplification can be accomplished by restructuring the current strategic plan into fewer and smaller, but measurable and obtainable goals. The strategy holds together as a relatively constant baseline…the thread upon which goals are strung like beads. The organization’s strategic priorities dictate the order in which elements of the strategy are addressed (the order in which the beads are placed on the thread) and even help to determine the definition of success and how that will be measured.
Reset Your Expectations
The time to close the gap between desires and expectations is now. Success can’t happen without strategy. It won’t happen without a plan, and it shouldn’t happen without everyone in the organization sharing high expectations of success.
Category : Strategic Planning
About the Author: Vistage Staff
Vistage facilitates confidential peer advisory groups for CEOs and other senior leaders, focusing on solving challenges, accelerating growth and improving business performance. Over 45,000 high-caliber execu
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Joe, great advice.
I have found that many companies do a good job of planning,
and then the plan sits on the shelf gathering dust. This doesn’t mean the plan is no good, it
means the plan didn’t become a part of the “planning and control
cycle”.
The planning and control cycle is only as strong as its weakest link. Planning is only the first part of the cycle. Once the plan is developed a system must be
put in place to measure how well the plan is being executed by measuring the
use of resources (inputs) and results (outputs). Variances/ exceptions should be monitored to
detect unfavorable variances so corrective action can be taken. Then the plans are adjusted accordingly and
the planning and control cycle starts over again… plan, execute, check results,
and then back to planning, and so forth.
Excellent text. In my mind it is always most valuable to try to understand closely how people in different positions see the world and thus their possibilities and challences. This discussion between desires and expectations opens a most intriguing perspective to examine how strategic thinking and action is perceived and how it can be developed – with real people in real life situations.