Strategic Planning
It’s easy to waste money on strategic planning. Expensive consultants whip up glossy presentations that say a lot but achieve little. Leaders sit through these presentations yet are left more confused than ever.
But without effective strategic plans, organizations are left playing whack-a-mole with both crises and opportunities, one after another.
Introduction to Strategic Planning
Effective strategic planning aligns goals to resources in the context of operational reality. It then integrates that strategy into every aspect of the organization so everyone is executing in unison to achieve strategic objectives.
From large government agencies to evolving small businesses, we help organizations develop, implement, measure and refine strategic plans that drive continuous, quantified performance improvement.
Strategic Planning Approach
“Strategy isn’t what you say, it’s what you do.” – Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto
We develop actionable strategic plans that are easy to understand and resonate with your entire team. While our process is tailored to your unique requirements, our approach is standardized and adheres to the following phases, in active cooperation with your stakeholders:
Phase 0 – Scoping: To start, we work with you to clearly define the scope and expected outcomes of strategic planning. A well-defined scope keeps strategic planning focused and executable.
Phase 1 – Learning: After carefully defining the scope, we then learn about your industry, technology, approaches and team. We interview personnel at all levels of the organization, often in a focus group setting, to get their sense of how your organization operates in the world. We also select the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most for you, and start baselining those metrics to gauge performance.
Phase 2 – Current State: We analyze results and document insights gathered from Phase 1. We then review these results with key stakeholders to ensure an accurate portrayal of the current state of the organization and its industry context. We also draft KPIs and begin formal tracking of performance.
Phase 3 – Ideation: Next it’s time to imagine a new future. We lead ideation sessions with organization leadership and key staff. We explore as many ideas as possible. Then we transform these ideas into the most relevant and achievable goals for organization.
Phase 4 – Actionable Strategizing: The goals finalized in Phase 3 are made actionable by aligning them to resources, schedules, focused KPIs and incentive structures. Managers and key staff members aid in the development of these plans to facilitate buy-in. Plans are then built into tracking and reporting tools to drive progress.
Phase 5 – Communication: A communication plan is crafted in parallel to strategic planning efforts to share the strategy throughout the organization, through varied means. This may include applying KPIs to everyone in the organization so your entire team is invested in success.
Phase 6 – Measurement and Improvement: We develop a measurement and improvement schedule that makes sense for your organization, leveraging agreed-upon KPIs and defining a means for tracking progress, improvement and the accomplishment of goals.
