PLAN CORRECTLY

Traditional strategic planning sessions involve isolating your board, executives or key managers in a room for one or a few days, trying on-the-spot to educate everyone regarding all important issues and let them come together in establishing your direction. It's a challenge for many obvious reasons.

• You have to expect all participants to understand in minutes or hours what you have focused on full-time for years.
• A few individuals have to represent your organization's best interests without the benefit of some of your most important customer groups.
• They must act as a cohesive group with little opportunity to discuss and consider.

PLAN INCLUSIVELY

You have the power to direct your organization's future. You have the choice to benefit from the collective wisdom of all of your constituents, rather than make decisions in isolation. And you can gather that group wisdom without:

• Releasing confidential information to people who may not value the need for confidentiality.
• Relinquishing your decision making power to those beyond your trusted management or board circle.

PLAN SIMPLY

Technology enables you to:

• Design your planning process.
• Invite as wide a range of constituents as you wish to participate.
• Outline all of the critical issues important to your business and develop an educational white paper that can bring all participants up to speed, but does not lead them to conclusions.
• Compose a series of questions asking for their insights, conclusions and projections regarding each of the critical issues.
• Create an online survey that presents one issue at a time from the white paper, then asks the related questions.
• Let your participants complete the survey at their convenience.
• Have the software automatically tabulate the results.
• Convene a few hour planning session that involves just the decision makers you want.
• Present the wisdom of the larger group from the survey, one issue at a time.
• Move quickly through areas of coherence, and allow specific time for discussion of contentious issues.
• Assign workgroups to address issues not resolved, giving each a few weeks to present resolution recommendations.
• Achieve coherence, conclude your plan, and begin implementation.

 This approach can save you considerable resources, bring critical information forward for consideration, focus your team quickly, and result in high quality plans that move your organization forward. 

CONTACT US for completion, support or automation of your strategic planning, or access to our online toolset.