4 Key Elements of an Effective Strategic Plan

imagine looking forward to a week of vacation with your extended family well you certainly wouldn't expect them all to show up at the right place and the right time if you didn't provide them with a destination and a clear plan of how to get there it's surprising then how many organizations lack a clear strategic action plan as one french writer put it a goal without a plan is just a wish so why do so many organizations with smart leaders fail to do effective strategic planning well there are many reasons but the two that we hear most often are these one they're just too busy or two they just don't know how to go about it in fact one study showed that only eight percent of leaders are good at both strategy and execution in our experience helping businesses non-profits and churches develop strategic plans we have found there are four key elements to an effective strategic plan first it's important to solicit broad input you want to know how a broad spectrum of your stakeholders feel about the organization what its strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats are second it's important to gain leadership team alignment it's critical that your key leaders believe these are the right goals and the right way to get there third develop an actionable plan on a page it's important that you have the right metrics milestones and owners in place so that you can hold your team accountable to accomplishing the plan also try to get it on one page it doesn't help to have a thick glossy binder of a strategic plan that just sits on the shelf and collects dust and finally be sure to use a good facilitator some teams have someone that can help them with this but many find it helpful to hire an outside facilitator who can help them with the process who can challenge their assumptions identify gaps and so forth in fact just this week we got a call from an organization that was doing a strategic plan even though they had a consultant on their board of directors they wanted some outside help to help them with the process so as you think about your organization remember rowing harder doesn't help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction so the question is how do you keep your boat headed in the right direction comment below thanks for watching you

Channel: The Center Consulting Group: Guiding Organizations. Coaching Leaders.

Views: 9,166

Rating: 4.9142857 out of 5

Keywords: leadership, strategic planning

Id: 74maeLEbdwk

Length: 2min 36sec (156 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020