START Moving Mountains

​

It's important to understand why we do strategic planning in the first place:

​

• To get your team on the same page and aligned with your organizations vision, mission and goals

• To maximize your organization's resources to avoid wasting time and money on projects or activities that are not important 

• To understand industry trends and scenarios that could impact your organization in the coming years

• To identify and evaluate the best way to accomplish your goals

• To develop an implementation plan to keep you and your team on track and accountable for deliverables

• And much more ... 

 

​

A strategic plan is a valuable guide for your employees, your organization's leadership and your stakeholders to know where you're going and why you're going there. The document that contains the strategic plan is not what is valuable; it's the information within it and the process used to create it, that is then SHARED and COMMUNICATED with the rest of your team.

A great strategy is most often re-evaluated on an ongoing basis (yearly or quarterly, for example), rather than being a static document just sitting in a binder. ​

​

Strategy is about choices: Knowing what to do as much as knowing what not to do. Your strategic plan tells your people what they should be doing so that they don't have to worry about doing the wrong things, or having to go to a manager every time there is a decision to make.A strategic plan that is well communicated gives you access to greater productivity, culture, empowerment, and overall effectiveness. 

​

Now that you know the “why” of the importance of strategic planning, let's walk through the strategic planning process in four steps:

​

Part one:       How did we get to where we are now?

Part two:       Where do we want to go? What is our vision of success?

Part three:    What is going to get in our way? What are our barriers?

Part four:      Who do we need in order to get there?

​

​