Three Ways to Ensure Your Next Strategic Plan Doesn’t End Up on the Shelf

Organizations and the teams within them create strategic plans to set their course for the future. These plans include the goals they want to achieve, the steps it will take to get there, and the metrics by which they define success. One challenge strategic plans often face is that they can end up being “put on the shelf” and are seldom referenced until it’s time to conduct another strategic planning process.

We at C1C offer strategic planning services to our clients and enjoy helping them set and plan for their vision for the future.

Our process ensures each plan tells the organization’s story in a clear manner, develops a shared vision for the organization, directs everyday actions toward common goals, and proclaims aspirations to strive toward. We include several critical components in our process to ensure that each strategic plan we help to create is useful for years to come and does not end up just gathering dust. Specifically, we ensure strategic planning processes are participatory and inclusive, focus on a mix of both new and current actions, and that they are revisited and monitored on an ongoing basis.

Use a participatory process. When strategic plans are only determined by the leadership of an organization, they can often fall flat because other team members and staff feel that they have not been heard and therefore do not feel invested in the plan when it comes time to implement. At C1C we ensure critical stakeholders are included throughout the strategic planning process. This helps to ensure that that they will be bought-in and ready to take action on the resulting plan. We conduct discovery sessions at the start of the process to ensure leadership is aligned on the project goals and outcomes. We also conduct workshop sessions using inclusive and participatory meeting facilitation methods to gather input from a variety of stakeholders, especially staff who will be the ones to implement the plan. Clients also have the option of including additional components like surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather even more input and facilitate further buy-in to the resulting plan.

Ensure a mix of current and new actions. Stakeholders are often quite excited about launching into a strategic planning process. They are optimistic and enthusiastic about the opportunity to determine what the next three to five years will look like -- and rightfully so! However, there are times staff, leadership, and board members can get wrapped up in the process and focus only on determining *new* actions the organization can take to accomplish its mission. This can mean that all of the great current work that is already happening is not considered or included in the strategic plan. For that reason, many strategic plans end up collecting dust as team members are busy with the work they already have on their plates and aren’t able to activate the new actions. It also keeps teams from recognizing all of their accomplishments in their existing work. At C1C, we work with team members to ensure they strike the right balance of new actions and current actions to include in the plan. We conduct several activities in our strategic planning workshops to ensure each lens is considered and have team members start by thinking about the work they already do to reach their goals. By building a foundation for the plan based on the current work, we help our clients ensure that they have a comprehensive plan that is inclusive of both current actions and exciting new directions.    

Intentionally monitor progress and challenges. As mentioned, strategic plans typically include the goals the organization wants to accomplish, the steps they will take to get there, and their metrics for measuring progress. However, many strategic plans are missing a process by which team members intentionally set aside time to review the plan, build alignment, create accountability, and celebrate progress. At C1C, we often tell our clients that strategic plans should be living documents that are flexible and change as challenges and opportunities in the organization arise. They should not be “set and forget” plans. For this reason, we equip our clients with a process through which they can revisit their plan on a quarterly basis to discuss and make any necessary updates. For each strategic plan we create, we include a Key Performance Indicator Checklist that provides a form and instructions to conduct the quarterly review meeting. Through this process, we recommend that organizations have an open and honest discussion regarding progress, to remember that success comes as a team, and to avoid a high-stakes, formal evaluative approach where blame or success is placed on one team or individual. By providing a process and cadence, we help organizations to ensure that their strategic plans are revisited regularly and are as fruitful as possible.

Above I have provided a few ways in which organizations can ensure that their next strategic plan does not end up “on the shelf.” If you would like more information about how to successfully conduct your next strategic planning process, feel free to reach out!