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Would Your Strategic Planning Process Survive Reality TV?

Guest post by: Joe Evans

Article Overview: If your strategic planning process was put in front of a panel of experts, would it be ridiculed and sent home, or would it be given a ticket straight to Hollywood? If it’s like the more than 85% of strategic plans that fail to deliver the intended results, its chances are not great. It takes a very good process to result in a strategic plan that is realistic and can be executed. Too many plans end up full of content that is cerebral and fluff, adding little or no value to the organization. So before you send it into the limelight, ask yourself these questions to objectively evaluate your planning process and identify potential issues and risks that may exist in your organization's current planning world. Considering these questions now can avoid potentially devastating results later.

Would Your Strategic Planning Process Survive Reality TV?



If your strategic planning process was put in front of a panel of experts, would it be ridiculed and sent home, or would it be given a ticket straight to Hollywood? If it’s like the more than 85% of strategic plans that fail to deliver the intended results, its chances are not great. It takes a very good process to result in a strategic plan that is realistic and can be executed. Too many plans end up full of content that is cerebral and fluff, adding little or no value to the organization. So before you send it into the limelight, ask yourself these questions to objectively evaluate your planning process and identify potential issues and risks that may exist in your organization's current planning world. Considering these questions now can avoid potentially devastating results later.

1. Does your plan include a current-state analysis of your organization’s ecosystem? Your answer should be yes. Not a “yes, but…” just a yes. When your approach includes the critical component of current-state analysis – one that includes both internal and external assessments -- you gain a “business truth” of where the organization is today so that it is possible to plan effectively for moving from the current reality to the desired results.

2. Does your plan systematically prioritize all possible goals to ensure that the “right” goals are selected?

Hopefully you said “yes.” Systematic prioritization as part of the strategic planning process serves as a filter and a compass, helping to separate wants and wishes from actual corporate needs and provides direction to strategic planning.

3. Does the timeframe of your plan cover more than 12 months?

The preferred answer is “no.” Let's face it, the further out plans are made, the more likely you’ll be dealing with missing, incomplete, or inaccurate data when making your decisions. With the uncertainty we face in our current economic recovery and the care we must take in the management of working capital, shorter timeframes are preferred. Consider planning on a rolling 12-month basis with quarterly updates, for instance, so you can base decisions on higher quality, more up-to-date information.

4. Do you have more than five strategic goals in your plan?

Again, "no" is the preferred answer. Avoid overloading your plan with more than you can accomplish. Fewer and more focused plan goals tend to be much more effective – especially when you consider that each goal must be threaded through the layers of the organization in order to be ultimately accomplished. Every goal you have will explode into many supporting initiatives as the plan develops and this can easily lead to a tangled mess if you’re not careful.

5. Are any of your plan goals not related directly to a measurable outcome?

Hopefully not. Plan goals should really be thought of in terms of outcomes that will mean something tangible to your customers and the markets your organization serves. Following that thought, outcomes can and should always be measured and managed vertically and laterally through the layers of the organizational units responsible for supporting them. Accountability is key.

6. Do all employees within the company know your plan goals and can they explain how they are expected to contribute to achieving them?

Please say “yes!” Strategic and operational plans break down when they fail to bring in those responsible for executing the plans. Plans need to be well-constructed and well-communicated – providing clear direction on the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s, and why’s of it all.

7. Have you communicated with key business partners and suppliers of the organization about the plan goals that might affect them and how they could assist in achieving them?

Hopefully so. Always enlist the help of business relationships within the value chain that in some way support the products and services that are supplied by your organization. An external communications plan should contain messaging tailored to help suppliers understand what you’re doing, why, and how they can help. In the end, stronger relationships can be forged.

8. Is there any room for misinterpretation of the intent or desired outcome of any goal?

Be honest here. If the answer is "yes", plan goals most certainly should be revisited to remove the vagueness. Ambiguous plan goals lead to variability of interpretation and misfires in execution. When we don’t clearly state what we want misinterpretation prevails and success is compromised.

9. Do any job descriptions for employees or officers of the company fail to correlate to defined plan goals?

If the answer is "yes" you have a big opportunity to add accountability and drive performance in your organization. The people who carry out the plans of the organization need incentive and understanding to execute to that plan. Job descriptions and accountabilities provide a clear opportunity to align people with plan goals.

10. Do performance measurements for employees and officers of the company define measurable accountabilities that align with plan goals?

Hopefully you answered "yes" to this question. If not, keep in mind that as with good job descriptions and well-aligned job accountabilities, a strategic planning process must address performance measurements that support plan goals and execution while tying back to incentives. While this is crucial to do, it adds a level of complexity to planning that is too often overlooked.

11. Do the tactics defined in the plan consider core values and culture?

Of course we hope your answer is "yes!” Culture and values must be considered when formulating strategy. Core values are broadly shared values of the company that are displayed in the corporate culture and the general work ethic of the employees. Strong core values benefit the strategic planning effort and act as an accelerator toward reaching goals.

12. Are all plan goals related in some tangible way to creating value for the customers and markets your organization serves?

If you answered "yes," give yourself a pat on the back. When strategy is overly inward-focused, customer value creation can get stuck playing second fiddle. Internal struggle can ensue about managing this dichotomy between internally focused overhead reduction goals on one side and those related to the creation of customer value on the other.

13. Does your strategic plan include detailed operational plans?

Well, of course it should. Without a clear tie between strategy and operations, plans notoriously fail. The planning effort needs to extend far enough down to reach through the organizational layers and beyond the enterprise boundaries for plans to succeed.

14. Are the supporting initiatives of your plan goals adjusted to account for seasonal peaks and valleys?

A "yes" answer is what you want. Not only does a strategic plan need to account for the many competing priorities of the business and financial realities of the budget, it must also take into account the relevant business economic cycles within the business since these cycles will positively or negatively affect market conditions, access to capital, energy, focus and many other factors that will otherwise inhibit or accelerate goal achievement.

15. Does your organization have a strategic planning office or formal strategy governance structure?

Of course “yes” is the preferred answer. While there may be any number of ways to administer the execution of the corporate planning process and overall execution of the strategy, you can be sure that if everyone is left in charge, no one will be in charge.

Take a look back at your responses to the questions above and if you’re not pleased with the results, get help to implement a planning process that drives your organization toward your desired results – quickly, consistently, and predictably.

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For permission to use or reprint any portions of this copyrighted article, contact Method Frameworks at articles@methodframeworks.com.

About the Author:

Joe Evans is the President and CEO of Method Frameworks. Joe is a published author, frequent speaker and recognized expert in corporate strategic planning. To contact Method Frameworks about scheduling Mr. Evans about an upcoming speaking engagement, visit www.methodframeworks.com/business-speaker or email requests to media_relations@methodframeworks.com.

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Method Frameworks is a leading business strategy and management consulting company, based in the Dallas / Fort Worth area and serving clients nationally and internationally.

Discover our capabilities and learn why Method Frameworks is the strategic planning partner chosen by Fortune-500 companies and small businesses alike. Let us show you how to realize 140%+ ROI on your strategic planning efforts through our unique Plan4^SM process that brings together strategy and execution into a powerful plan. Plan4 is our proprietary business planning process that involves an integrated set of actions designed to help companies gain sustainable advantage. Download our brochure to learn more about Method Frameworks and our services or download our Plan4 Planning Process Overview.

You can contact Method Frameworks at 877-317-5264 (877-31PLAN4) or follow this link to request a meeting with a planning consultant. Check our articles and blog often at www.methodframeworks.com to get many more planning tips and information about our Plan4 process.

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