The Strategic Planning Process
A Strategic Approach To Strategically Planning And Strategizing
“Daddy, are we there yet?” is the consistent refrain I get from my children when we make our annual trek from Memphis to New York. It’s a question everyone in my car feels, but only the brave few will ask. Mostly because they fear my frustrated, unclear response of “Not yet.”
It’s one thing to have to wait until you arrive at your destination when you know where you’re going. What happens when you’re not clear about where you’re headed?
If we feel bogged down trying to plan for the future, sometimes it can be because we’re not even sure where we’re going. From business decisions to personal direction, I’ve found this simple one-page planning process helpful in clarifying where we are going and how we are going to get there.
1. Vision
As we begin this process, first we must start out with our Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and our Values. In order to think through the overarching Vision of our Strategic Plan, we really need to ask ourselves: Imagine I’m 3 to 5 years down the road and wildly successful. What is happening? What does it look like? What are we doing? Explaining what this success looks like in as vivid detail as we can becomes the thing that we are working toward accomplishing. This is where we are going. Then wordsmith this down to something that fits neatly in the box.
Our Mission is about how we are going to get there. What are the things that we do in order to realize this Vision?
Our Values are our Core Values. These provide the guardrails for how we carry out our Mission. These provide a guide for what character we wish to embody and the underlying purpose of how we set about attaining our Vision.
Now, for many of us, we inherit the Vision, Mission, and Values from the organizations that we are a part of—but for the sake of the Strategic Planning process in this exercise, we may want to free ourselves from those organizational statements and provide these statements relative to what we want to accomplish.
2. Current Reality
Once we have those statements in place, it gives us an idea of where we are going. The next thing we are going to do is to take a step and think about where we are coming from. This is where we think through and chart out our Current Reality. In this section, we list out the things that we are currently doing. What is it we currently have, who is currently with us, what does it currently look like?
3. Critical Mass
After we frame these ideas up of where we want to be in 3-5 years and where we are currently sitting as an organization, then we need to consider the key things that we need to do in order to get started or take our first or immediate next step. This is called our Critical Mass. This often means reflecting on what we need to do in order to take our next step—in getting from our Current Reality to the Vision that we set out to reach. As we identify these steps, we discern our Critical Mass.
4. Critical Path
Once we have our Vision, Mission, and Values, Current Reality and Critical Mass in place, then we can begin to think about what goes onto the Critical Path. This is where we brainstorm all of the things that need to happen to get us from the Critical Mass up to the Vision, Mission and Values. When we are doing this, we do not want to worry too much about organizing or editing—just put them out there, brainstorming everything that comes up with our team. Then we will take a few minutes and group them into different buckets so there is clarity about these items.
5. Evaluate & Update
The last thing we are going to think about is how we are going to measure the things that we said we were going to do. In this section, we will answer the questions: Have we met our goals? What new tactics are needed? What is our timeframe? When are these things going to happen and when are we going to check back in to update this next time?
Now that we have a process in place for outlining our Strategic Plan, the roadmap is set before you! Now you can go forth and strategically plan and strategize until your heart is content!