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"Many
people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains
or even courage,
but simply because they have never organized their energies
around a goal."
- Elbert Hubbard
January has gotten
a bad rap. It is associated with not only the New Year's
Resolution - but with the failed New Year's Resolution.
The best way to ensure that resolutions or goals are
achieved is to plan for their accomplishment. This means
developing a written guideline that maps out in a very
specific way what is required for success. In business
we don't call this a resolution; we called it a Strategic
Plan.
Don't neglect the
planning process out of fear. Don't be intimidated or
buy into the notion that your organization is too small
to have a Strategic Plan. Even if you are the sole owner,
staff member, and support team develop a Personal Strategic
Plan that incorporates your business goals along with
your spiritual, personal, health and other goals for
the upcoming year.
Successful strategic
planning does require the commitment of time and resources. The payoff is a more focused self/organization and a more
effective use of resources. Make a resolution to plan for
success. Schedule 2 or 3 two-hour sessions to focus on the
planning process and write them in your planner. (If you don't
have a planner - get one!) This allows you to send yourself
a critical message - that time spent planning for your goals
is just as important as any other appointment.
Gather your wits and
gather the key members of your staff at a time and place where
you can eliminate distractions and interruptions. Then dream
out loud. Share the vision. Speak the vision. Embellish the
vision with as much detail as you can muster. See it. Smell
it. Hear it. Taste it. This is an important first step. The
next step is to write down the actions steps needed to achieve
the vision. Be as specific as possible about the money, manpower
and materials necessary to accomplish each step. Assign a
person to be responsible and a deadline for achievement.
Every person and organization
can be improved by employing the strategic planning process. Your personal needs or the needs of your organization will
determine how often the strategic planning process is scheduled.
Consider the following guidelines:
- Strategic planning
should be done when an organization or project is just getting
started. (The strategic plan is usually part of an overall
business plan, along with a marketing plan, financial plan
and operational/management plan.)
- Strategic planning
should be done in preparation for a major venture, for example,
developing a new department, new product or product line,
new service offerings, etc.
- Strategic planning
should be completed at least once a year in order to identify
the organizational goals to be achieved, the resources needed
to achieve those goals, and the funding needed to obtain
the resources.
- In a mature organization,
full scale strategic planning may take place in three or
even five year cycles. However, minimally, each year action
plans should be updated.
- The progress of the
implementation of the strategic plan should be reviewed
on a quarterly basis at least, by the management team responsible
for organizational goals.
Listed below are some
common strategic planning methods to help you structure the
process. Remember that strategic planning can assist with
evolutionary (small but significant improvements) or revolutionary
(big transformative) changes.
The STP Process
- Situation - evaluate
the current situation and how it came about.
- Target -define goals
and/or objectives (sometimes called ideal state).
- Path - map a possible
route to the goals/objectives.
Draw-See-Think-Plan
- Draw - what is the
ideal image or the desired end state?
- See - what is today's
situation? What is the gap from ideal and why?
- Think - what actions
must be taken to close the gap between today's situation
and the ideal state?
- Plan - what resources
are required to execute the activities?
SWOT Analysis
- Strengths - how can
internal assets be used in a way that will be helpful in
achieving objectives?
- Weaknesses - what
can be done to overcome internal traits that hinder the
achievement of objectives?
- Opportunities - how
can environmental elements that will be helpful in achieving
objectives be exploited?
- Threats - what can
be done to defend against external elements that are harmful
to the achievement of objectives?
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