Have You Looked at Your Strategic Plan Lately?

There is a sign on a farm stand near my house that reads “Stay Calm.” I really like that sign and it makes me smile every time I see it. This is the exact same thinking that I had when discussing a strategic planning event with a client the other day. He was concerned that it might not be a good time for us to take part in a planning session to review the goals for the future of the organization.

I completely understood his hesitancy and yet, I still believe that there is some meaningful work that can be completed with respect to the organizational strategy. Especially now.

Recently I participated in a webinar with the Brightline Initiative where their guest Henry Mintzberg was discussing the state of the economy and how we can adapt our organizational strategies to meet the needs of our current situation. He went on to describe two different types of strategies: deliberate and emerging.

Our deliberate strategies are those that were identified during the last strategic planning session and are progressing as planned. Conversely, the emerging strategies are unplanned and can arise unexpectedly from an incident, situation or need. An example of a recent emerging strategy would be the ability for companies to retrofit their manufacturing facilities to design, build and ship supplies to hospitals and other healthcare organizations in an effort to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was certainly not planned for these manufacturing facilities but they were able to reconfigure and adapt their processes to meet the need of our healthcare workers and communities. Only time will tell if these manufacturers will continue to produce these new products and include pandemic response measures as part of their deliberate strategy.  

Although our identified, deliberate, strategies for 2020 may have taken a backseat to the emerging strategies, this is not the time to be discouraged, this is a time to be reflective. I believe that this is a good opportunity to reflect upon the existing strategy and determine if the strategy accurately reflects the organization – your teams, your culture and your customers. Let’s face it, we have really been through a lot over the last several months. Now would be a good time to regroup with your teams to determine what is meaningful – to the individuals, customers, stakeholders and organization.

Does your existing strategy support these observations made? Is your organization heading in the right direction to support those goals? Are there emerging strategies that should be included into your strategic planning efforts? Have any of your deliberate strategies become obsolete? Don’t forget to reflect on your role with the organization as well, is this still a good fit for you?

Instead of rushing to get back to work as “normal”, I suggest you take the time to review your 2020 strategy to determine if it supports your organization as it is defined, today. Your organization may have significantly changed over the last several months with respect to customers, products, services and team members. Take the time to reevaluate your strategy to make sure that it reflects how your organization has changed and what will be needed to support your new existence post-COVID.  

These discussions can be a valuable exercise for your organization, your team members and, ultimately, your customers.

 And don’t forget to “Stay Calm.”