Every organization does strategic planning at the beginning of their fiscal year. The difference between the organizations that achieve their strategic objectives and the organizations that finish the fiscal year asking “Where did we go wrong?” is how effectively they do the planning. This article will show how to execute a planning process that will keep your people engaged and focused throughout the year.

Strategic Planning Critical Success Factors

The critical success factors for effective strategic planning are:

• Keeping the strategic objectives to a manageable number
• Focusing the organization with SMART Objectives
• Communicating and cascading SMART objectives throughout the organization

Keeping the Objectives to a Manageable Number

The first question that organizations ask themselves in the beginning of the planning process is “What do we want to accomplish this coming year?” This question typically generates a long list of projects and initiatives.

The long list is not the problem. It is the long list of strategic objectives that make it on to the strategic plan that is the problem. The highest number of major objectives that should be undertaken by any organization in any year is three to four.

Limiting the number of objectives on the strategic plan will result in maximizing the organization’s resources and at the same time keeping people focused on the most important things to be accomplished.

Resist the temptation to say that everything on the long list needs to be on the strategic plan!

How do you get this long list down to a manageable number? Simple, you ask the question “What are the three or four objectives that if accomplished, will result in the largest increase in the performance of the organization?”

Once you have narrowed it down to three or the most four objectives, stop there and move on to the next part of the process.

Focusing the Organization with SMART Objectives

The people in the organization will look to the results of your planning process as a roadmap to success. If people do not get actionable objectives, they will interpret them the best they can. The problem with this is that they may interpret them in a way that is counterproductive to what really needs to be done.

Developing SMART objectives, communicating and cascading them throughout your organization is the next critical step.

Objective setting is like a game of telephone. If the high level objectives are not SMART, then the original intent of the objectives will change as they are communicated in the organization.

By now, you are probably asking what SMART objectives are. They are:

• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Action Related
• R – Realistic
• T – Time Driven

It is critical that you word your strategic objectives in this format if you want your organization engaged and focused on what needs to be accomplished.

Communicating and Cascading SMART Objectives throughout the Organization

At this point, your strategic planning process has yielded three to four SMART strategic objectives that define what will be a successful year for the organization. You are now ready to communicate them throughout your organization.

It is critical that the strategic objectives are communicated to everyone in the organization. Everyone in your organization, no matter the function, has a role in the success of your organization.

There are several methods of communicating the objectives. You can broadcast and distribute the objectives throughout your organization or you can have the layers of the organization be responsible for communicating them.

Don’t make the mistake of communicating the SMART objectives once and assume that people will remember and keep them front of mind. It is human nature to get distracted by low hanging fruit. Organizational updates on these objectives will keep people focused and engaged.

The next area is the cascading of these strategic objectives throughout the organization. Whether the organization has only has a couple of layers or many, this step is critical for engaging your people. Step one is to take the organization level strategic objectives and give them to the executive team to formulate their own group SMART objectives. The executive team is to report back in a specific period of time with their own supporting objectives for their group. No objectives should be accepted unless it directly contributes to the organization’s objectives. Once this level of SMART objectives is signed off, the executive team goes through the same process with their direct reports. This process is followed all the way down the organization with no exceptions.

Putting It All Together

You have learned in this article that for the people in your organization to be completely focused on what is important to accomplish, it is not just good enough to have a strategic planning process but one that will fully engages and focuses the people in your organization.

An effective strategic planning process must:

• Keeping the strategic objectives to a manageable number
• Focusing the organization with SMART Objectives
• Communicating and cascading SMART objectives throughout the organization

Many organizations benefit from getting a facilitator to help them with the process. Using a facilitator in the planning process will keep everyone focused and maximize time and results.

For more information on this topic, contact Unlocked Potential at:

MParbus@Unlocked-Potential.com
Mark Parbus is President/CEO of Unlocked Potential. Unlocked Potential works with executives of small to medium sized For Profit and Non Profit organizations to increase the productivity of their people while reducing turnover.
MParbus@Unlocked-Potential.com

http://www.Unlocked-Potential.com

Mark Parbus is President/CEO of Unlocked Potential. Unlocked Potential teaches executives of small to medium sized businesses to administer CPR to the organizations. In this case, CPR means increasing Cash, Productivity and Retention of key personnel.

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