Strategic planning doesn’t have to be scary and it certainly doesn’t have to engulf entire days to achieve a quality, realistic strategic plan. In reality, strategic planning that gets too big is often unachievable as it leaves people frozen with inaction because it is overwhelming. Here are a handful of tips to help you have more productive strategic planning for your organization.
- Keep a master list of all ideas. During strategic planning, use pre-selected criteria (cost, timeline, ability to achieve, how well it fits your mission, value it will bring, etc.) to narrow your list down to just a few achievable goals in your desired timeframe. Focus on only those goals and set the rest aside.
- Don’t throw the other ideas away. Add to that list whenever you have a new idea. Use that list as your starting point for future strategic planning. Cross off anything that no longer fits and evaluate the rest according to your pre-selected criteria.
- Don’t overwhelm your resources. Focusing your energy into one or two top projects that you can do well is more productive and provides more value than splitting your energy into many different ideas that end up not being developed as well as they could be.
- Use chunks. Your brain will appreciate it. Divide goals into smaller, workable pieces that you can achieve more easily than the entire goal at once.
- Track progress and adjust goals and timelines as needed. Life is a work in progress. You don’t have to be perfect. Share your work/progress/shortcomings/successes as necessary both internally and externally.
Strategic planning shouldn’t be avoided and shouldn’t be seen as a necessary evil. If done well, it is an excellent way to continuously increase value provided by your organization.