Strategic Doing!

ears ago I participated in a strategic planning process undertaken by a local city. The process took 2 years, involved focus groups and meetings ad infinitum and produced a set of five inch binders that stuffed a closet. The process cost the city a bunch of money and resources. What they ended up with was a document that was hard to read and harder to implement.

The city (and the consultants they hired) forgot the most important step in strategic planning—STRATEGIC DOING! A strategic plan is not an exercise that once finished is forgotten. You have to implement your plan!

Let’s assume that you have a strategic plan. (If you don’t have a plan, why not?) How much of your plan have you implemented? Is it something that was designed to be actionable and measurable, or is it full of flowery words and phrases that are impossible to measure? If the heart of your plan is more than 5 pages, it is too long!

Here are a couple of tips on making sure you have an actionable plan.

• Look objectively at your plan. Does it challenge you and your people? Does everyone in the organization understand the vision and mission and know what their part in achieving it is?

• Vision Statement—must be simple, powerful and something worth striving for. There is a chain of assisted living facilities that has a one word vision statement—“HOME”. Everyone in the organization can clearly understand what it means and can align their behaviors with it. How does your vision statement stack up? Is it more than 15 words? You may want to revise it.

• Core Values—they should form a clear decision making matrix and support the vision statement. For example, if honesty is a core value are you and everyone in the organization willing to be completely honest? That means when your mother calls you can’t say you are out!

• Mission Statement—is a specific statement of what you are going to do to accomplish the vision. It is designed to have a shorter horizon than the vision but supports it fully. It lets everyone in the organization know exactly what is expected of them. An example would be: “By 12/31/2007 ABC Corp. will operate in 14 major markets with 9 facilities on the east coast; generate $75 million in revenues with a net profit of 23% and; earn a customer satisfaction rating of 98%.”

• Critical Success Factors (CSF)—are the 3 to 5 main headings for the goals you will set for your organization. Each must pass the test of being necessary and sufficient to achieve the mission statement. Examples of CSF categories are cash flow, product quality, production capacity, staffing, capital requirements, markets and market penetration, distribution capabilities or cost controls.

• SMART Goals—your goals need to Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistically High and Time focused. They tie directly to your CSFs and are the means by which you will fulfill them.

By creating a simple, actionable and measurable plan--and executing it well, you are on your way to improved performance and greater success. If you have any questions or would like to know more about strategic planning and the impact it will have on your organization, give Scholz and Associates a call.

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Wayne Gretzky