Pre-Planning Steps

The strategic planning process begins with an educational session (labeled “A,” in the diagram). This educational session is most important, for it builds a common understanding of the process among the members of your planning team. After all, each member must have the same understanding of the term “mission statement,” for example. Or of the word “objective.”

The most beneficial format for the educational session is the workshop. For the workshop not only educates, but it also builds enthusiasm among the members of your planning team. In the workshop, participants work on an actual case to develop a “mini” strategic plan. And while working on that case, participants extend their thinking into their own organization. Thus the workshop builds enthusiasm for applying the planning process “in real life.”

Immediately following the education workshop is the Information Required Meeting (event “B”). Here, the members of your planning team meet to decide what specific pieces of information they’ll need to gather and later communicate with each other in preparation for your up-coming strategy sessions.

Also at the information required meeting, your team can distribute any pre-planning surveys they’ve decided to use in gathering input from your planning team (and others, perhaps) prior to the strategy sessions.

Your planning team will need to allow a month or more before the next scheduled event. For they’ll need that much time to gather and prepare information for communication among the planning team members.

The Information Sharing Meeting is next (item “C”). At that meeting, each person responsible for information gathering will present to the entire planning team... hand-outs, viewgraphs, and question and answer all work well. The intent is to build the knowledge of all on the planning team... giving all of the team members a more general management overview... preparing each to make more knowledge-based, strategic decisions at your up-coming strategy sessions.

Your Strategy Sessions

About a week after the information sharing meeting, your team will conduct its strategy sessions... the meetings where they actually develop the strategic plan. Allowing one week between the information sharing meeting and the strategy sessions works well. Much less than a week and your planning team members will lack sufficient time to reflect on the information they’ve just obtained. Much more than a week and they’ll forget some of the information. The strategy sessions are labeled “D” in the diagram.

While the diagram shows that the strategy sessions occuring on consecutive days, it’s certainly possible (and, at times, advantageous) to hold your strategy sessions on nonconsecutive days... as a series of one-day meetings.

At the strategy sessions, your planning team will develop each of the elements of the strategic plan - the situation analysis, mission statement, objectives and strategies. At the end of this event, your organization will actually have its strategic plan.

Post-Planning Steps

But the strategic plan will lack detail. For, thus far, you’ve developed your strategies in broad, rather than detailed, terms. During the next step in the process, during action planning (event “E”), managers, largely from outside of your planning team, will develop the specific action steps (or tactics) which add specificity to your strategies. This action plan development generally requires a few weeks to complete.

The action plans identify required resources as well as steps to complete the strategy. Thus the action plans lead into the budgeting process (item “F”). It’s here during your budgeting process that “the rubber meets the road.” For only following the budgeting process will you and your planning team be certain that your organization has the resources necessary to implement the strategies you’ve developed.

Finally, the quarterly reviews, events “G1,” “G2,” and “G3.” At each of those quarterly reviews, your planning team will examine each of the plan’s “variables” … assumptions, objectives and strategies.

Speaking of strategies, the best way to review the strategies at the quarterly meetings is to have each person responsible for a strategy present his or her action plan. He can describe the progress he’s made and the problems he’s having with specific action steps. Also, he can ask for help should he require additional resources to implement his action plan, thus his strategy.

This technique of having each person responsible for a strategy periodically stand up to present, I call “making the process the policeman.” It eliminates the need to assign an individual manager responsibility for “checking up” on his peers. And the challenge of standing up to explain to the entire planning team also encourages better strategy implementation.

At the third (and final) quarterly review, your planning team should save some time to discuss your planning process. All should be watchful of opportunities to fine tune the process... so that with each passing year, it better and better fits the needs of your organization.