How-To Create an Actionable Strategic Plan
It seems like everyone is always in some sort of “strategic planning,” with leadership teams often dedicating months to map out their next big moves. While I am all for setting goals and roadmapping how growth is going to happen, a significant gap persists between the formulated plans and their real-world implementation across the majority of organizations.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, a whopping 70% of strategic initiatives fail to achieve their intended goals. Similarly, research by the Project Management Institute (PMI) reveals that only 34% of organizations report high alignment of projects with company strategy. Tragic statistics that demonstrate that the majority of companies are wasting time, money, effort, energy and growth potential by not turning their dreams into actual plans.
Why is it that all these incredible efforts to plan for the future don’t happen?
Here are the most common reasons:
Unclear Goals: Goals remain too ambiguous and broad for people to actually understand how it translates to their day-to-day duties.
Lack of Communications: There isn’t a good enough communication plan that helps people understand exactly what is expected of them to help achieve this plan.
No consistent ways of working: People may understand the plan but they don’t have a process, tools or a way of working that allows them to work to achieve it. Whether it is within their own team or with other functions, it doesn’t feel easy to work together toward a common goal.
Resourcing doesn’t reflect reality: The plan is incredibly ambitious but doesn’t have a budget that allows people to feel capable of achieving it. When this happens, people not only are set up for failure but they actually get so overwhelmed that they often give up even trying.
In order to make sure your strategic plan actually comes to fruition, you need to be intentional about making it operational.
Here are some ways to make your plan more operational:
When building it: Make sure you have both a measurable and motivating North Star that people can get behind. Your goals and vision should work together to lead people where they are going and subscribe to the reasons that you are going to wherever you are headed.
Measurable: ensure your goals are clear and quantifiable, leaving no room for misinterpretation. Use painfully plain language. There are plenty of models for building measurable goals whether it’s OKR or S.M.A.R.T. goals, make sure people understand what success looks like.
Motivating: what vision/values does the organization carry forward through both their words and actions? Are financial decisions being made on behalf of the vision? Are employees treated in relation to the company values? It’s important to be authentic here. If you don’t have a meaningful North Star, find it. If you have one and don’t use it, shame on you. If you have one and use it, you probably have a very happy set of employees and healthy work culture.
When sharing it: When you have the strategic plan done, spend the time translating what it means to actually action it with each function, group, department, etc. Just because you set the plan, it doesn’t automatically become easily actioned into the day-to-day. Spend time discussing, practicing and problem solving with these teams against the strategic plan. Receiving a “plan” outlining big ambitious goals without instructions is like being handed a treasure map without a compass
When pursuing it: Set up a system in which you can say no to things if they don’t clearly align or help you achieve these goals. It’s easy to get swept in a different direction but oftentimes this shift in course forces us to be short sighted. Create intentional moments in time where you meet to discuss how implementation is going so you can solve any potential issues or barriers that may be pulling you in the wrong direction.
The significant disparity in execution regarding broader strategic vision is often overlooked yet alarmingly common. As companies scale up their objectives and expand their workforce, deliberately aligning them could mean the distinction between success and stagnation.
Interested in finding out how actionable your strategic plan is? We can confidentially review your strategic plan and provide unseen barriers that currently stand in the way of achievable and ambitious. Reach out for a free analysis.