How to Make A Strategic Planning

Everyone or organization have goal to be achieved. No matter what business or project you are running with, it must have goal. How many goals have you ever had? How many of those well achieved? Why most of those failed, end up with frustration? The answer is simple; it was because of you run without a proper plan, or without strategic, or without a strategic planning. You need a savvy strategic planning to ensure your goal well achieved and timeliness. To navigate changing regulatory, professional and marketplace patterns and get maximum growth with minimum waste, you need a recipe for action—that is, a strategic planning.


Why Do You Need a Strategic planning ?

Goal is a destination where you (your team/organization) going to land. A Destination needs a plan for how to get there! To create a goal without a plan to achieve it is like choosing a destination without choosing transportation.

A strategic plan’s function is to logically link the tasks, relationships and schedule to achieve a life or business goal.

Strategic plans encompass clear initiatives that enable a practice to analyze the effectiveness of alternative actions and logically link tasks and relationships designed to move an organization, or a team, or a personal in a particular, or even perhaps new direction.


Knowing the Fact of a Strategic Plan

It can take long time to implement a strategic plan. For an organization it may take several years. The busier an organization is the more a plan can help to focus its efforts. Once an organization has a plan, it should revisit it on a regular basis.

Strategic planning requires disciplined, logical, self-reflective thinking. It’s an investment that will pay dividends to you or your team or your organization in the form of a more focused, cohesive business direction, a team/organization’s greater sense of commitment to commonly understood goals and, ultimately, better project, product or services for clients.

If you are a team or organization, dialogue with all levels of member/staff helps prevent disenfranchisement later. A professional member or staff implements any plan, especially in a service organization, and disillusionment by this group will doom a plan at inception.

Here are what you or your team/organization should do for a savvy strategic planning:

To develop a good plan, identify organization or team's principles in these areas:

(-). Market/clients
(-). Technical skills
(-). Managerial skills
(-). Executive skills
(-). Support skills
(-). Alliances

And above, all-subtract areas of operation/business you definitely won’t seek or accept.

(1). Agree on the process to follow.

Convene a meeting to lay the groundwork. At it, management needs to frame and find answers to a range of questions such as:

(-). Will we work from the top down (management directs the process) or the bottom up? (Management bases its plan on input from all levels of staff.)

(-). What types of planning teams do we need, and who will be on them? Will we use an outside facilitator? In addition, the organization must choose goals, schedule interim accomplishments and decide how and to whom a final plan should be disseminated.

To bring into focus the organization’s present position and future hopes and articulate its mission and values, use the meeting to get answers to the following:

(-). Who is your organization?

(-). Where is your organization today?

(-). How does your organization want to conduct itself?

(-). Where is your organization going?

(-). How is your organization going to get where it want to go?

(-). What’s the best way to measure the progress toward getting there?

A Savvy caveat:

Keep all staff or member levels in the loop; it helps prevent disenfranchisement later. A bottom-up method that doesn’t meaningfully incorporate workers’ input can create cynicism and derail a plan. Top down or bottom up, an organization/team’s workforce implements any changes—and if the staff doesn’t respect the undertaking, it will be doomed at inception. Nothing creates disenchantment faster than asking personnel to devote time and thought to a process and then ignoring the input.

(2). Clarify the organization’s mission and values.

Organization’s mission statement answers the question “Who are we?” and expresses the organization’s purpose. For example, a corporation’s mission statement says that it “works with individuals to build just and compassionate communities.” A core-values statement answers “What is important to you?” and cites the beliefs and behavior standards fundamental to the organization. It should express the entity’s moral and ethical basis. Combine the mission and core-values statements or not, as you wish. Developing them calls for honest introspection. As organizations configure themselves in unusual ways, a mission statement can express an entity’s most important organizing principle. Stay open to fresh challenges and changes.

(3). Clarify the organization’s vision.

Organization’s vision describes where it wants to go and when it wants to get there. Address how large you want the firm to grow, what types of clients you want to attract and whether to expand into new and emerging areas. Keep it in line with firm resources.

(4). Environmental assessment.

To develop information about an organization’s current situation, look at the broadest factors first; then, in stages, narrow the focus to specific firm issues. Initially, consider the political, economic, social, technological, human resource and regulatory forces affecting the profession.
Next, identify your organization’s SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the firm faces) and decide their relative importance within its markets. Strengths and weaknesses pertain to the organization’s capabilities, while opportunities and threats are outside forces. This analysis will be the basis for defining your organization’s-not the profession’s-strategic issues.

And get answer for the following questions:

(-). What is the nature of your organization practice in the entities you serve?

(-). How do new quality standards and international regulatory forces influence the organization?

(-). How does the shift to a project/product/service-based economy affect it?

(-). What impact does electronic commerce have on it?

(-). How do profession’s education standards affect the staffing?

(-). What effective geographic range does your organization operation’s area encompass?

(-). What emerging operation specialties (niches) are in demand in your area?

(-). What capabilities does your organization have for meeting those demands?

(-). Who are your key clients? (-). How dependent is the operation on keeping these clients?

(-). Who are the key clients in your operation area that you don’t yet serve?

(-). Does your organization uses information technology and specialized staff/member to leverage professional expertise?

(-). How does your organization market/promote the projects/products/services?

(-). What responsibility does your organization have to the future development of the projects/products/services?

And these to help home in on where your organization is and where you want to go (Source: Marlene Caroselli, Center for Professional Development, Rochester, New York) :

(-). What substantive issues face you today? What will face you tomorrow?

(-). In what ways has technology affected how you do business? How will it affect you in the future?

(-). What do you do well?

(-). What do you need to enhance?

(-). What measurements will tell you how well you are doing?

(-). Have you clearly defined your ethical position?

(-). What are you neglecting that you should be doing?

(-). What kind of staff training should you plan for?

(-). What makes you unique? (-). What potential profit areas are you overlooking?

(-). How can you involve employees/staffs more?

(-). What safety issues should concern you?

(-). What form will future market competition take?

(-). Have you imagined every possible negative eventuality?

This topic will be continued on my next post, I will be back with details on:

How to Identify strategic issues

4 cautions about strategic issues that you should know

How to develop strategic objectives and initiatives
This is your road map to get you land to your objective,

things that you should not miss!

How to develop tactics and action plans

This is about how to establish the steps needed to

accomplish the agreed-upon objectives

How to Implement and assess a strategic planning

This is your critical success indicators,

And how to assess this