How to facilitate a strategic planning workshop
The steps of the strategic planning process in under 15 minutes
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ladies and gents Anthony Taylor here
from SME strategy I just wanted to thank
you for downloading your tool whether
it's 15 questions the strategic planning
template strategic planning assessment
or something else and as an added bonus
I wanted to run through the strategic
planning process with you so that you
could get the most out of your tool and
bring the most value to your
organization
so I endeavor to do this in under 15
minutes so let's do it so strategic
planning process when we do it there's
basically four components there's where
are we now where are we going what is
going to get in our way and what do we
need to do to get to where we want to go
in our process our align strategy
development process that we do here
there's three types of alignment
alignment with the leadership team so
making sure everybody on the leadership
team is on the same page that's board or
leadership alignment with the vision and
the strategy and alignment within the
whole organization so top-down bottom-up
everybody's on the same page so the
first part of the strategic planning
process is getting inputs where are we
now that's things like doing an external
analysis whether that's a SWAT or a
pesto analysis you need to figure out
what's going on outside of your
organization as well as inside your
organization as you build your strategy
the second input that I would recommend
is doing an internal analysis something
like a stakeholder engagement survey or
just management team inputs and that's
why a strategic planning session is so
valuable then we even do a survey before
all of ours this is the overview of the
strategic planning process so it starts
with the vision where are we going
then you'll get there by accomplishing
your mission you'll have goals and
objectives along the way that help you
accomplish your mission that help you
accomplish your vision and then the
strategy is how you're going to
accomplish your goals
and the tactics are the individual
pieces to your strategic plan so
creating your strategic plan most
important piece of this is the vision
where are we going the future is
uncertain but we as an organization have
an opportunity to create that future so
how do you create a vision that isn't
just words a vision is super valuable to
be able to motivate your people
and inspire people to want to do more
and contribute so a way to think about
it is if success was a place how would
we know if we got there where are we
going
why should we go there and what is
winning we're creating the future
however long it is from now and we want
to be as descriptive as possible on the
outset so what do you see for your
organization in three to five years or
maybe ten to twenty five years what's a
big goal within that vision that could
polarize your team and ideally that one
big target everybody can contribute to
it what's really important for them to
describe the vision as vividly as
possible so what do operations look like
what a staff look like what a clients
look like how else does your
organization look different and think of
it like a blueprint for a house that's
what you're building the next piece to
this is the mission and the purpose if
you complete your mission you will move
forward towards the vision why do you
exist what do you do it for who is your
main customer and what do you do for
them it's important to realize that you
have to make it simple to understand
no buzzwords and this is not a mech
marketing exercise this is at the core
foundation of why your organization
exists so the next piece that helps the
mission stay together our values within
the organization you can use values or
culture but it's really the DNA of your
organization what do you value currently
within the organization what are the
cultures and norms of your organization
and of your people why are they
important what values are important to
them how would you describe the
organization if it were a person good or
bad what is the way we do things around
here if you're explaining it to somebody
new what's not acceptable behavior it's
important for you to recognize that
values drive performance it ties the
whole strategy together so again you
have to align your strategy with your
vision and your purpose if you
accomplish your purpose your mission and
then you will be closer to accomplishing
your vision so here's some risk what's
going to get in our way
leadership if you don't have the whole
management team on board it's going to
pull
your strategy because they're the ones
giving the marching orders to your staff
and your employees communication this is
the biggest hindrance to a successful
implementation because people don't know
what the plan is they don't know what
they're doing and they're withholding
important information that is really
crucial to the plan
resources if you don't give enough time
or money to put something in place then
it's just not going to happen and then
buy-in do you want to be creating a plan
and pushing it on your people or do you
want them to buy into the plan because
you're allowing them to contribute and
move forward on it themselves so other
implementation contains constraints time
budgets human resources technology and
pretty much anything you can think of
it's waiting around the corner and there
are opportunities in the planning
process to identify them create impact
studies as well as mitigation plans to
minimize the downside of these risks so
what uncertainties exists for us what
are the impacts of those uncertainties
what is the likelihood of that happening
and what can we do to mitigate that risk
that way you are proactive instead of
reactive and it keeps your plan on task
so one of the most important things you
should be doing in your organization to
accomplish your mission and your vision
strategy inherently is about choices and
there are million in one choices every
single day so when you create the plan
you need to work backwards to create the
tasks the roles the individual areas of
responsibility and you can just look
right now how do you create work plans
as it exists this is one of the tools
that we actually sell an SME strategy
and this is the pyramid the purpose in
other words and we just say hey focus on
a handful of objectives don't do too
much do the strategic priorities well
make significant progress on them and
then move forward from there
ideally your strategic priorities help
you accomplish your mission help you
accomplish your vision it's all
alignment and then from there you have
to put the specific objectives and
initiatives the strategies and tactics
underneath as well as KPIs
so KPIs
performance measures and targets how are
you going to measure your strategic
priorities how are you going to know if
you are successful and this is really
important you have to have a scoreboard
for your people they need to know how
they are going to be successful in your
plan if you don't have that then they're
just going to be working with less aim
almost aimlessly and it will really hurt
you coming by it so this is the balanced
scorecard you can find this on SME
strategy or anywhere else or your
organization fundamentally does four
things there's financial metrics its
customer metrics there's learning and
growth metrics and there's internal
business processes and from each you
have objectives measures targets and
initiatives that all roll into your
strategy and that help you accomplish
your mission so another important piece
of that are cascading goals so think of
the goals from the organizational level
the team level the functional level and
the individual they all should roll up
into the ultimate goal of the
organization and so this can be designed
you can't really be done run in one
meeting it needs to be done over time
and everybody needs to know how they can
do their part to contribute to the
strategy so big picture versus practical
application there's people that you have
to manage so who are the key people in
your organization that are responsible
for functional areas where are gaps as
far as key functions that you have right
now and are there people responsible for
more than one area that basically means
who is going to be the human being not
the department that is responsible for
moving these strategic initiatives for
the buck has to stop with a person and
people can be hard to manage
communicating the plan like I said
earlier communication is key how are you
going to share this strategic plan with
your organization so everybody can know
how to contribute keep in mind the
different people absorb information in
different ways words audio pictures
whatever works for you you need to keep
the plan top of mind so that people can
be aware of where the organization is
going and what they need to do to move
forward in it
it's all about alignment if you lose out
on some of these pieces the stret entire
strategy can fall you need to make sure
that the plan is aligned your people are
aligned and it goes from the top down to
the bottom up and once you get alignment
and buy-in that's when real magic starts
happening and you make really big
progress an important progress on your
plan and everything that you work on how
you get alignment you got to communicate
clearly and simply you need to get
buy-in so bring people into the process
so they know how they can contribute you
need to match goals and motivation think
of it from their perspective everybody
has a different reason to come to work
and that's why we're really passionate
about what we do because we make
people's lives better your employees
will have better lives it will affect
their families and their communities
when they can be successful in their
work and to be successful they need to
have the capability to do that so you've
got to give them the tools and the
resources they need to succeed if you
give them a plan but you know chop block
them and don't allow them to be
successful they're not going to be very
motivated to come into work and to give
it their best so when the rubber hits
the road you need to align your team and
execute the plan that means getting
communication and then working backwards
from the vision to build a plan that
comes together and as well a lot like I
said strategy is about choices and you
just need to pick the most important
things that are going to move your
organization forward in the most
effective way possible so if you have an
aligned plan and you have a clear
direction and you keep that top of mind
and don't sway from it you're going to
save time money and resources your
people are going to be happier and
you're just going to get more done which
means you're going to have a bigger
impact and you're going to help more
people and that's really what it's about
so happy planning everyone I hope you
enjoyed this video I hope it helps you
structure your strategic planning
process and I hope it helps you add more
value to your customers and anyone that
else is that is affected by your
business so it's been anthony taylor i'm
the managing partner at SMA strategy and
i really hope this has helped have an
amazing day and happy planning
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