When you ask the average small to medium-size business owner what they do for strategic planning, we usually hear:
“I’m just trying to make payroll, we can’t find the time in all of our schedules to develop a detailed plan”
“well…we have a business plan but it’s not really up to date, that’s what you mean, right?”
Is this your reality? Thousands of companies have survived this way in the past and still do today; but a little time spent on strategic planning, utilizing a process that is efficient and effective, can take a business from making ends meet to profitably thriving.
Through their own real world experience and client engagements, the Economic Growth Institute’s professional staff has heard over and over the challenges to strategic planning include:
- Time: carving out the time for the whole leadership team to spend countless hours talking about strategy is nearly impossible to make happen, they have a business to run
- Bias: while strong and diverse team members can be a major asset to a company, they also can cause the “pet projects” of those with the loudest opinions to rise to the top regardless of the true value of the project
- Prioritization: everyone wants to do everything, but that’s just not possible. Choosing one initiative over another can feel like throwing darts at a dart board.
Reality is though, with an effective and efficient process, strategic planning for a smaller organization can be accomplished.
Tips for Effective Strategic Planning
- Set a schedule that meets your time constraint needs. Some organizations prefer to get everything done in a few focused days, others need to break it up into a few hour increments sprinkled over a few weeks. Either way works, just make sure to block the time on everyone’s schedule so this can be their only focus during that period of time.
- Develop consensus on a plan that everyone on the team generally agrees with. Not everyone is going to be 100% happy with any plan but working together to develop consensus is critical to the success of the plan being executed. This often can be achieved by utilizing an independent facilitator. They have no stake in what the final plan looks like but can draw out the opinions of those that are quiet in the room and moderate those that tend to be heard most.
- Use checks and balances to help ensure the plan developed is best for the organization as a whole rather than a few individuals. Don’t just have the leaders set your objectives and then make a plan of how to achieve them. In the planning process, involve the experts throughout the organization that will ultimately be responsible for achieving the objectives in the planning process.
- In order to prioritize one initiative over another consider, if executed, how valuable each of these initiatives would be. Also look at each of their levels of complexity and urgency in executing the priorities of the company. There are some great software tools we refer to in the resources section of this newsletter that can assist with this.
- Have a plan to revisit your plan. The worst thing you can do after spending the time developing a strategic plan is to not revisit it at a regular frequency. Whether it’s in your quarterly staff meetings or a separate monthly check in, it is critical to revisit and refine your strategy. Business is not stagnant so why would your strategic plan be?
Strategic planning can be that daunting task your business never gets to or you can make it practical, lean on outside support resources such as facilitators and software tools, and make it effective. Once you get over that hump and have your initial plan developed it only gets easier from there. Take that first step, you will not regret it.