Strategic Plan! What are your thoughts when you hear those words? Do you roll your eyes? Do you dread the process? Do you know what to do with a strategic plan?
A strategic plan is a tool used to shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it. It positions the organization for the future.
In order to use a strategic plan, you must understand it’s power, and craft one that will amaze and astound your customers and leave your competitors in the dust.
Here are some questions to ask yourself as you go through the planning process.
- What was our organization worst at this year? What needs to happen to fix it?
- What did our organization do best this year? How can we turn that into a repeatable process?
- Instead of asking “What keeps us up at night” ask, “What gets us up in the morning?”
- In this age of disruption for businesses and markets, what do we stand for and strongly advocate as an organization? What makes us special?
- What are we doing to reboot our marketing for the new realities of customers buying in dramatically different ways?
- What metrics and strategic thinking exercises are we doing to stay away from “building success on what happened last”? i.e., being proactive instead of reactive.
- When it comes to customers, what are we doing to move away from “how many” and focus on “who”?
- What are our plans for learning as fast as the world is changing?
- What steps do we take to immerse new and existing employees in the lives and challenges our customers face?
- To identify potential value, ask clients, “What do you never want to do again?” Then figure out what it will take for them to never have to do that again.
- Are we asking enough “why?” questions? If not, why not?
- How do we determine the value of the metrics we are using in our measurement process? What key metric drives success in our business?
- How will you track the goals in your strategic plan? Who will be responsible for making sure the strategic plan is a serious, viable tool, not a dusty document that disappears in the rear-view mirror?
- (Bonus question) What are we doing to recession-proof our company?
The list of questions is endless; the point is to focus on what makes you and your customers unique and build your strategic plan from that point.
How will you use your strategic plan?
How will you make sure everyone is engaged in the vision, goals, and objectives the plan lays out?
The road is easier together,
Linda Laitala, President
Raven Performance Group