If your strategy isn’t pulling you forward it might be holding you back.
Facilitated business meetings to full-blown strategic plans.
Strategic Planning
Successful organizations everywhere practice strategic planning. In some organizations it is more formalized than in others but most operate through a strategic plan. Organizations who only utilize a tactical approach are more prone to “fire-fighting” and are constantly asking themselves why they lack the time or resources to be effective.
A strategic plan provides the roadmap for creating organization success and those who get it right find themselves with a united and engaged workforce that represents a committed call to action with a clear but fluid and flexible path to accomplish their mission.
Ten reasons why strategic planning is important for your organization:
1. Mistakes are costly. Missing a strategic window or “going down the wrong road” could significantly impact organizational health. It could make the organization go out of business.
2. Strategic plans serve as a road map for monitoring and achieving, monthly, quarterly, and annual goals.
3. Creates the ability to objectively manage, monitor, and measure performance by tactic, department, and person.
4. Shares and engages organization leaders by helping to develop a deeper understanding of the resources required for optimum performance. (time, budget, technology, headcount, etc.)
5. Creates awareness of the priorities for goals and objectives. Develops a sense of what is urgent and critical, what will have the most impact and provide the greatest value.
6. Engages the organization in a process that considers both internal and external forces.
7. Creates, changes, or reinforces the organization culture.
8. Organization leaders and front line management are often framed too narrowly due to day-to-day tactical “firefighting.” It is now more critical than ever to have a tactical and strategic approach.
9. World economies and technologies are changing – old ways are not necessarily the best or the most profitable.
10. Playing it safe (limited or no change) may now be the new risky. In a world of constant change the riskiest place to be is in a place of no change at all!
Strategy development varies greatly from organization-to-organization. Some want to refresh and re-evaluate an existing plan, some want to get started with strategic planning for the first time and still others want to build a comprehensive strategy starting with the basics and ending with a completely developed plan ready to springboard the organization into action.
Appreciative Strategies® will work with your organization based entirely on your needs, from a simple one-time consultation, to a basic facilitated session, to a complete strategy development process taking your organization from little or no formal strategy to a complete well documented and well positioned plan. The best part is that Appreciative Strategies® will help you decide what level of service best aligns with your needs and more importantly the one that provides the most value.
