Ladies and gents, Anthony Taylor here from SME Strategy. I just wanted to thank you for downloading your tool, whether it's the 15 questions, the strategic planning template, strategic planning assessment, or something else. And as an added bonus, I wanted to run through the strategic planning process with you so that you could get the most out of your tool and bring the most value to your organization. So I endeavor to do this in under 15 minutes, so let's do it.
So, strategic planning process. When we do it, there's basically four components. There's where are we now, where are we going, what is going to get in our way, and what do we need to do to get to where we want to go. In our process, our aligned strategy development process that we do here, there's three types of alignment.
Alignment with the leadership team, so making sure everybody on the leadership team is on the same page, that's board or leadership. Alignment with the vision and the strategy. And alignment within the whole organization, so top down, bottom up. everybody's on the same page. So the first part of the strategic planning process is getting inputs.
Where are we now? That's things like doing an external analysis, whether that's a SWOT or a PESTEL analysis. You need to figure out what's going on outside of your organization as well as inside your organization as you build your strategy. The second input that I would recommend is doing an internal analysis, something like a stakeholder engagement survey or just management team inputs.
And that's why a strategic planning session is so valuable. and we even do a survey before all of ours. This is the overview of the strategic planning process.
So it starts with the vision, where are we going? Then you'll get there by accomplishing your mission. You'll have goals and objectives along the way that help you accomplish your mission, that help you accomplish your vision, and then the strategies, how are you going to accomplish your goals, and the tactics are the individual pieces to your strategic plan.
So, creating your strategic plan. Most important piece of this is the vision. Where are we going?
The future is uncertain, but we as an organization have an opportunity to create that future. So how do you create a vision that isn't just words? A vision is super valuable to be able to motivate your people and inspire people to want to do more and contribute.
So a way to think about it is, if success was a place, how would we know if we got there? Where are we going, why should we go there, and what is winning? We're creating the future, however long it is from now, and we want to be as descriptive as possible on the outset. So, what do you see for your organization in 3 to 5 years, or maybe 10 to 25 years? What's a big goal within that vision that could polarize your team, and ideally, that one big target everybody can contribute to?
It's really important for them to describe the vision as vividly as possible. So, what do operations look like? What do staff look like? What do clients look like?
How else does your organization look different? And think of it like a blueprint for a house. That's what you're building.
The next piece to this is the mission and the purpose. If you complete your mission, you will move forward towards the vision. Why do you exist? What do you do it for?
Who is your main customer? And what do you do for them? It's important to realize that you have to make it simple to understand, no buzzwords, and this is not a marketing exercise. This is at the core foundation. of why your organization exists.
So the next piece that helps the mission stay together are values within the organization. You can use values or culture, but it's really the DNA of your organization. What do you value currently within the organization? What are the cultures and norms of your organization and of your people?
Why are they important? What values are important to them? How would you describe the organization if it were a person, good or bad?
What is the way we do things around here? If you're explaining it to somebody new, what's not acceptable behavior? It's important for you to recognize that values drive performance. It ties the whole strategy together.
So again, you have to align your strategy with your vision and your purpose. If you accomplish your purpose, your mission, and then you will be closer to accomplishing your vision. So here's some risks.
What's going to get in our way? Leadership. If you don't have the whole management team on board, it's going to pull back your strategy because they're the ones giving the marching orders to your staff and your employees.
Communication. This is the biggest hindrance to a successful implementation because people don't know what the plan is, they don't know what they're doing, and they're withholding important information that is really crucial to the plan. Resources. If you don't give enough time or money to put something in place, then it's just not going to happen. And then buy-in.
Do you want to be creating a plan and pushing it on your people? Or do you want them to buy into the plan because you're allowing them to contribute and move forward on it themselves? So, other implementation constraints.
Time, budgets, human resources, technology, and pretty much anything you can think of is waiting around the corner. And there are opportunities in the planning process to identify them, create impact studies, as well as mitigation plans to minimize the downside of these risks. So, what uncertainties exist for us?
What are the impacts of those uncertainties? What is the likelihood of that happening? and what can we do to mitigate that risk?
That way you are proactive instead of reactive, and it keeps your plan on task. So what are the most important things you should be doing in your organization to accomplish your mission and your vision? Strategy inherently is about choices, and there are a million and one choices every single day.
So when you create the plan, you need to work backwards to create the tasks, the roles, the individual areas of responsibility. And you can just look right now. How do you create work plans as it exists?
This is one of the tools that we actually sell on SME Strategy, and this is the pyramid of purpose, in other words. And we just say, hey, focus on a handful of objectives. Don't do too much.
Do the strategic priorities well, make significant progress on them, and then move forward from there. Ideally, your strategic priorities help you accomplish your mission, help you accomplish your vision. It's all alignment. And then from there, you have to put the specific objectives and initiatives, the strategies and tactics underneath, as well as KPIs. So KPIs, performance measures and targets.
How are you going to measure your strategic priorities? How are you going to know if you are successful? And this is really important. You have to have a scoreboard for your people. They need to know how they are going to be successful in your plan.
If you don't have that. then they're just going to be working with less aim, almost aimlessly, and it will really hurt you coming by it. So this is the balanced scorecard.
You can find this on SME Strategy or anywhere else. Your organization fundamentally does four things. There's financial metrics, there's customer metrics, there's learning and growth metrics, and there's internal business processes.
And from each, you have objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives that all roll into your strategy and that help you accomplish your vision. So another important piece of that are cascading goals. So think of the goals from the organizational level, the team level, the functional level, and the individual. They all should roll up into the ultimate goal of the organization.
And so this can be designed, can't really be done right in one meeting. It needs to be done over time, and everybody needs to know how they can do their part to contribute to the strategy. So big picture.
versus practical application. There's people that you have to manage. So who are the key people in your organization that are responsible for functional areas? Where are gaps as far as key functions that you have right now?
And are there people responsible for more than one area? That basically means who is going to be the human being, not the department, that is responsible for moving these strategic initiatives forward. The buck has to stop with a person and people can be hard to manage. communicating the plan. Like I said earlier, communication is key.
How are you going to share this strategic plan with your organization so everybody can know how to contribute? Keep in mind that different people absorb information in different ways. Words, audio, pictures, whatever works for you. You need to keep the plan top of mind so that people can be aware of where the organization is going and what they need to do to move forward in it.
It's all about alignment. If you lose out on some of these pieces, the entire strategy can fall. You need to make sure that the plan is aligned, your people are aligned, and it goes from the top down to the bottom up. And once you get alignment and buy-in, that's when real magic starts happening and you make really big progress and important progress on your plan and everything that you work on. How do you get alignment?
You've got to communicate clearly and simply. You need to get buy-in, so bring people into the process so they know how they can contribute. You need to match goals and motivation. Think of it from their perspective. Everybody has a different reason to come to work, and that's why we're really passionate about what we do, because we make people's lives better.
Your employees will have better lives. It will affect their families and their communities when they can be successful in their work. And to be successful, they need to have the capability to do that.
So you've got to give them the tools and the resources they need to succeed. If you give them a plan, but, you know... chop block them and don't allow them to be successful, they're not going to be very motivated to come into work and to give it their best.
So when the rubber hits the road, you need to align your team and execute the plan. That means getting communication and then working backwards from the vision to build a plan that comes together and is well aligned. Like I said, strategy is about choices and you just need to pick the most important things that are going to move your organization forward in the most effective way possible.
So if you have an aligned plan and you have a clear direction and you keep that top of mind and don't... Sway from it you're gonna save time money and resources Your people are gonna be happier and you're just gonna get more done Which means you're gonna have a bigger impact and you're gonna help more people and that's really what it's about So happy planning everyone. I hope you enjoyed this video I hope it helps you structure your strategic planning process And I hope it helps you add more value to your customers and anyone that else is that is affected by your business So it's been Anthony Taylor. I'm the managing partner at SME Strategy, and I really hope this has helped. Have an amazing day and happy planning.