Strategic planning involves developing and prioritizing crucial activities to realize the organization’s vision and mission. Strategic planning gives an organization a sense of direction, hence enabling the organization to be more productive. Therefore, organizations can’t run effectively without a proper strategic plan.
The following are tips that every organization should apply in developing a better strategic plan:
Diversify the strategic planning team. Every organization should have a strategic planning team compromising 6-10 experts representing all the departments. The group involved in strategic planning should have diversified backgrounds, experience, skills, and personality. To get the maximum input from the strategic planners, the leaders should appoint members who have shown commitment and dedication in past activities.
Create an avenue where members can openly and freely participate without fear of victimization. There should be a free and open discussion consisting of both high-ranking and junior employees of the organization. Team members should feel free to give opinions despite their ranks and positions.. The organization may even opt to hire an outside facilitator to head the meetings. Numerous professional facilitators out there will have no emotional investment in the plan’s outcomes.
Get an actionable plan. The output should be an efficient and effective plan that is realistic, measurable, and data-based. The plan should indicate the short-term and long-term goals to be achieved, actions, individual responsibilities, and the deadlines for meeting the scheduled activities. Individual departments in the organization must also be accountable for the realization of the plan. To align every employee with the strategy, individuals must familiarize themselves with the plan and understand its importance.
Hold regular plan review meetings. The planning team should meet weekly to review the progress in the execution of the strategic plan. In case of challenges in the implementation, the team should find remedies and adjust the plan accordingly. The unresolved issues should not be allowed to slow the realization goals of the group yet an approach adopted even if it is a short term resolution. All energy and resources should focus on specific tasks and objectives outlined in the plan to get positive outcomes. The strategic plan developed should, therefore, pump-up employees in the organization.
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