Many organizations struggle with developing a clear strategic plan. Many times strategic plans get completed with or without outside help and then sit on the shelf never to be used to guide the organization. Some organizations have “chronic planning syndrome” where every time the leader learns some new piece of information or decides on a new initiative the previous plan gets tossed. Other times, a plan is created for the plan’s sake and it never gets translated into action

A well crafted strategic plan can be an extremely effective tool for organizations. Kanon Clarity has developed an 8 step strategic planning process that can be used for any organization. It will take time to develop and effort to implement. But, once completed, the plan should create a unifying road map for owners, employees, members, and all stakeholders.

————————————————————

1. Determine your vision, mission, and core values

There are a lot of different definitions for vision, mission and core values. Here is a way to differentiate each of these:

• Vision: the painted picture of what you and your organization want to happen played out into the future
• Mission: the stated purpose of what your organization intends to accomplish
• Core Values: the non-negotiable ways in which you will conduct yourself and your organization

2. Evaluate your market thoroughly

For most organizations, markets are changing rapidly. This change is being fueled by global economic changes, rapid technology changes, demographic shifts, and generational differences. Having a clear understanding of how these changes impact your organization is essential to positioning yourself. Understanding the basic characteristics of your most common customer, client, member, etc. will allow you to position yourself to serve their needs. Once you understand your market then you can evaluate how the changing world is affecting that market.

For example, if you have a large share of young adult clients do you understand how Facebook is changing the communication patterns of this generation? Have you assessed how this communication change is spilling out into other demographic segments? Facebook has added 100,000,000 users in the last 9 months alone. Also the fastest growing segment of Facebook is currently adults 35+. What does this mean to your organization? With 1 out of 5 Americans on Facebook once a day or more it is likely that this change means something for you and your organization.

The key is understanding your client, your market and how to position yourself within the rapidly changing world.

3. Perform a SWOT analysis

Take the time to determine your organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are inherently internal traits. Opportunities and threats are inherently external traits. After performing a detailed SWOT analysis look for the top 5 things in each category that are important to focus on, do something about, improve on, etc. These become the basis for the goals set in step 4.

4. Determine your short and medium term goals for your organization

This time frame may look different for different organizations depending upon the change cycle in your organization (change cycle is the frequency with which your organization needs to reinvent itself in order to be relevant to your market or stakeholders). For some organizations short term may be 1 year and medium may be 5 years. For most I would advise short term to be 12 weeks and medium term to be 1 year.

Take your SWOT analysis and translate the top 5 strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats into actionable steps that the organization will take toward fulfilling the mission. Make sure each of these goals is SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound). “Improve customer service” is not a SMART goal. If customer service needs to improve dig deep until you find out how it needs to improve and how you are going to measure that improvement.

Focus on high leverage opportunities and easy wins. Look for ways to exploit strengths, mitigate weaknesses, seize opportunities, and overcome threats.

5. Decide what will be measured to ensure that your goals are accomplished

These are benchmarks, metrics, key indicators, etc. that will be measured and evaluated at the end of the short term period to answer the question “Are we accomplishing what we set out to accomplish 12 weeks ago?”

6. Determine what resources will be needed to accomplish your goals

New initiatives take resources. Most resources are time, talent or treasure related. Make sure that the organization has the available resources to accomplish what it is setting out to accomplish. If it doesn’t, than additional resources need to be obtained or existing initiatives need to be forgone to free up resources for new initiatives. Resource allocation means making decisions to invest in some things and not invest in others.

7. Create a scoreboard

Create a scoreboard to track the organizations goals and initiatives.The scoreboard should be a one page document that tracks progress toward your goals. The scoreboard needs to be understood by everyone involved in accomplishing the goals. Make sure that anyone responsible for any part of the goals of the organization understands the “why” behind the goals, how they are going to be measured, and the result of achieving (or not achieving) the goals.

A single page scoreboard should be adequate for all but the most complex organizations. If you can’t get a snapshot on a single page of what is going on with your goals than you probably haven’t spent the time to get specific enough about the goals that you are trying to accomplish to move the organization forward.

8. Evaluate and Innovate as you go

Don’t wait for the end of the quarter to evaluate what’s going on and make course corrections. If you know a goal is not going to be accomplished, do something about it. Maybe it is the wrong goal. Maybe the resources required aren’t what you thought they would be. Maybe the team member(s) responsible aren’t capable of accomplishing the goal. In any event, make course corrections along the way to keep the organization moving toward accomplishing its mission.

————————————————————

The time it takes to develop a strategic plan will vary depending on the size and personality of the organization. For small and mid-sized organizations, 4-6 weeks devoted towards getting the plan in place may be adequate. For larger organizations and organizations with many diverse interests (non-profits, churchs, etc.) the process may take 6-12 months. The key is doing the hard work over time to get the ship moving in the right direction.

Email me at greg@kanonclarity.com or call at 410.967.7906 if you need help developing and implementing a strategic plan in your organization.