Does your leadership team have problems with communication, responsibility, or missed milestones? Strategic planning could help.
Firstly, what is Strategic planning?
Strategic planning is an ongoing process of clearly defining the future strategic direction of an organization. Its goal is to align a company's vision with its operations so that goals are prioritized, resources are used most effectively, and everyone is on the same page.
Without a strategic plan, it is difficult for everyone in a company to work toward the same goal. Team members may have different ideas of what it means to be successful and work on different initiatives to get there. Worse, when teams can't align on what success looks like, the goalposts may constantly change. This leads to confusion, dissatisfaction, burnout, and a lack of progress, and underperforming teams.
Strategic planning creates a shared vision that lets your leadership team take a step back and think about the "why" behind their roles so they can cascade this to the rest of their teams. Strategic conversations let each person put their work in the context of a bigger goal, which makes the work more meaningful.
Some benefits of strategic planning:
- It aligns your team around One Destination:
A strategic plan helps an organization decide where it wants to go and who it wants to serve in the future. It also helps to set goals and objectives that are realistic and fit with its vision and mission. - It boosts the efficiency of operations:
A strategic plan gives leaders a roadmap for allocating resources and figuring out how much money, time, and human power is needed to reach set goals and outcomes. - It improves risk management:
Strategic planning helps you identify possible risks, both internal and external, so you can have the foresight and be ready to adapt proactively. - It helps create high performing proactive teams:
Teams that are united around their vision, mission, values, objectives, and goals are better positioned to be proactive throughout strategic plan implementation. They will be aligned and able to communicate what is behind, ahead, or on track, allowing them to pivot before problems arise.