How to Get the Most from Your Strategic Planning Process

After work­ing with hun­dreds of com­pa­nies around the world to dial in a tight strate­gic plan­ning process, we have found that things can loosen over time.

When you’re in the mid­dle of run­ning your busi­ness, fight­ing bat­tles and mak­ing things hap­pen, it’s hard to stay focused on your com­pet­i­tive advantage.

So, here are six ways to get the most from your strate­gic plan­ning process, and stay focussed on learn­ing and improving.

1. Find the right framework

The right frame­work helps you to get clear, helps to orga­nize your thoughts, and aligns the rest of your team and com­pa­ny. It also allows you to take the time to zoom out and focus on the busi­ness rather than being in the business.

There’s a bal­ance between too sim­ple and not sim­ple enough. You don’t need 27 dif­fer­ent things to do, oth­er­wise you are less like­ly to fol­low through. You want a frame­work that is easy to imple­ment, allows for deep insights and inter­locks to all the oth­er pieces of your business.

As a key dri­ver behind and con­trib­u­tor to the book Scal­ing Up 2.0, we rec­om­mend the use of these tools as a base­line for companies.

2. Find the right facilitator

Make sure you find an expe­ri­enced facilitator/​coach/​advisor — a mas­ter of the frame­work and a good fit for your com­pa­ny — to lead the process. This per­son will do all the prep work, own the meet­ing agen­da and run the meet­ing effec­tive­ly to make sure you talk about the right things to get the most value.

Once you imple­ment a strate­gic plan­ning frame­work, allow about 18 months on aver­age, until the sys­tem set­tles down into a calm, clear rhythm.

Note: Once you’ve cho­sen a frame­work, don’t touch it until you’ve worked with it for a few years, oth­er­wise you assume you’re smarter than the per­son who built it. That’s like somebody’s remov­ing the radi­a­tor from a car to make it lighter, not think­ing it’s important.

3. Define a clear vision and cul­ture to align peo­ple with strategy

Put time into build­ing a bus that the right peo­ple want to get on. Cre­ate a jour­ney that peo­ple want to join and be excit­ed about.

4. Set a strat­e­gy to win

This is not just about what you’re doing but why you’ve got to do it, and how you’re going to do it. What are you deeply pas­sion­ate about? How are you going to dif­fer­en­ti­ate your­self and meet your cus­tomers’ needs?

5. Set SMART goals

Spe­cif­ic, Mea­sur­able, Attain­able, Real­is­tic and Timebound.

Pri­or­i­tize your top three to five goals for three to five years which have a tan­gi­ble out­come for the business.

6. Cre­ate an account­abil­i­ty-learn­ing loop

This is about stand­ing up to deliv­er on the progress (month­ly) and accom­plish­ment (quar­ter­ly) of your goals, finan­cials, and KPIs. It maps your goals/​projects around your peo­ple — against actu­al com­pa­ny exe­cu­tion goals.

When some­one doesn’t deliv­er, ask:

• Was it bad strategy?
• Or was it bad execution?

Those are the only two options: either you didn’t think well, or you didn’t work well. (Thanks to Dave Baney for this one.)

This account­abil­i­ty cre­ates a ten­sion that leads to learn­ing and improv­ing. And it dri­ves growth – as you get bet­ter and faster through quar­ter­ly cycles.

This can be hard for some CEOs and lead­ers to do and where a coach can also add value.

The Chal­lenge

• What things are work­ing well with your strate­gic plan­ning process and how can you enhance them?
• How can you take your strate­gic plan­ning from good to great?
• What isn’t work­ing, and what can you do to fill the gaps to make the process more effective?

For more about this, lis­ten to Episode 85 of The Growth Whisperers.

If you need help from one of our pro­fes­sion­al facil­i­ta­tors, please reach out.

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.