Strategic Planning Challenges...Are Fairly Common.
In the last blog posting, I provided some steps that you can take to help prepare for your strategic planning session. In this blog, I will share some of the common challenges that can take place during the strategy planning activities and how to address those challenges.
Strategic planning session is not adequately planned
This is more common than you may think. If the strategic planning session is not planned well, you may have the wrong people in the room. You may also have an agenda that focuses on creating new goals instead of considering previous goals that may still be applicable but unfulfilled. There may not be any decision makers in the room. Additionally, I always suggest a facilitator who is not one of the invited participants. All of these issues will impact the successful outcome of a strategic planning session.
Identifying strategic goals that are unclear, vague and not definitive.
The challenge that exists with this scenario is that you cannot measure an unclear goal. Nor can you provide definitive and actionable initiatives to help achieve an unclear goal. My suggestion is that you use the S.M.A.R.T. criteria when establishing goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound.
As an example, a common strategic goal for membership communities tends to be “Increase membership engagement.” I always have a lot of questions when someone tells me that this is one of their strategic goals. My questions always include:
What is the definition of “increase”?
What is the definition of “engagement”?
What is the baseline of membership engagement today, based on your definitions? This will enable you to determine if you have effectively increased membership.
What measures will you use to determine if the engagement has increased? How will those measures be applied, when and by whom?
What is the timing of this goal and the proposed increase in membership engagement? A month? A quarter? A year?
I recommend to clients that they use the S.M.A.R.T. criteria to rework this goal into something that is clear, understandable, and actionable. For instance:
Increase membership engagement in committee activities by getting 10 new committee members by the end of 1Q21.
By using the S.M.A.R.T. criteria they will now have a strategic goal that can be effectively measured. This approach will also raise the level of success with your strategic plan by having meaningful and impactful goals that are also achievable!
Complexity in the wording and intent of the strategic plan
Be careful in the wording and intent of your strategic goals. If your goals are unclear, the organization will struggle in trying to define those goals. This can lead to multiple interpretations of what the organization is trying to accomplish. The result will be confusion as to what actions will be required to deliver on a specific goal. How can you create an action plan if there is confusion as to what the goal is? Having thoughtful, and intentional, strategic goals will help drive the organization closer to the vision. Isn’t that what we all want?
Keep in mind that strategies, like projects, require clear, definitive and easy to understand goals and objectives. The more definitive the plan the easier it will be to act upon the goals.
Goal achievement - who, what, when, where and how?
After determining your strategic goals, I always recommend that the following questions be asked, answered and documented in the strategic plan:
How will you measure this goal?
How will you know if you have successfully met this goal? What does success look like?
How much time do you need to achieve this goal?
Do you have the expertise, tools, experience and resources to achieve this goal?
If you do not have the expertise, tools, experience and resources what will you plan to do so that you can achieve this goal?
Who will be responsible for tracking, monitoring and measuring the strategic goals? A Strategy Coordinator perhaps?
What will be the timeline for strategy review and assessment meetings with this group? Who will be organizing those review sessions and facilitating the discussion on the status of the strategy?
Strategy implementation - an often overlooked element of the strategy process.
Many organizations design a strategy without any consideration for the delivery of that strategy. What a shame. There is a term for this scenario which is called “bridging the gap”. Many organizations including the Brightline Initiative have identified that many, if not most, organizations do not have an implementation plan for the strategy that they just designed. More time is spent on the wording of strategic goals than how those strategic goals will be achieved.
Strategy implementation plans should include all of the strategic goals and how those goals will be achieved through various strategic initiatives. This is why project management dovetails so nicely with strategic planning! It’s all about the detail and getting the job done!
Each strategic goal will need a separate plan of action with various strategic initiatives that will help contribute to the overall achievement of that strategic goal.
The bottom line is that you should be taking the time to review the overall strategy process including the questions to ask, the approach to use, how your strategy will be designed and implemented and how it will be effectively managed after all of your hard work in defining that strategy. Don’t take this process too lightly. Keep in mind that strategic plans are not for the leadership team…they are for the organization! The strategies are the plan of action to help organizations achieve their goals and objectives.
Don’t leave your organizational strategy open to interpretation! Take the time to craft a well defined, actionable and S.M.A.R.T. strategy for your organization with an action plan to deliver! You won’t regret it!