Strategic Planning: Can you Measure Your Plan?
Welcome back to my communication blog!
I hope thus far the post have been relevant and interesting reading. Our topic today will focus on what strategic planning
is and the measurement of strategic plans.
Previously we have discussed what strategic planning is, we have
mentioned that strategic planning is the process that describes an
organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and outlines
strategies and directions for the years to come. It is a tool that provides a diagram to strengthen
goals, activities, address areas for improvement, and move the organization forward
to new accomplishments. In an article written by the CDC it mentions that “Strategic
planning is a process that results in decisions and actions to guide what your
program is, what it does, and why it does it. Strategic planning is a practical
process to help you adapt products, services, and activities to the needs of
the population your program serves. The benefits of strategic planning include
improved program performance, use of resources, understanding of program
context, decision making, stakeholder communication, and political support for
your program”. All of this is very relevant
as we discuss the measurement of strategic plans.
Through the strategic planning
process, organizations illustrate initial planning by using some sort of data
to examine where the organization stands, where it can be, and the best path
for getting there. The end result will be a strategic plan that outlines how your
organization will achieve its goals during a specified period of time. This
strategy will generally inform you of the content of the annual plans,
including activities, staff resources, and evaluation measures necessary to
accomplish organizational goals for a particular period of time. In general, organizations
will use their strategic plan throughout the years to accomplish its goals. Strategic plans may need to be adjusted from
time to time as evaluations take place.
Also, according to the CDC strategic planning can be
categorized in six steps:
1. “Preparation: The preparation step lays a
foundation for the strategic planning process by establishing the purposes of
the plan; identifying stakeholders; determining what information, roles, and
resources are necessary for the process; and developing the timeline for it.
The products of the preparation step are the formation of a strategic planning
workgroup and the identification of data needed to inform the strategic
planning process.
2. Assess: The Assess step is the process through which
the strategic planning workgroup reviews and analyzes program-related data so
the program can allocate resources and services in the most strategic way. In
the Assess step you determine where the program currently is.
3. Creation: In the Creation step, you will
develop and write the five-year strategic plan. The strategic planning
workgroup reviews the SWOT analysis and uses the findings to identify and
prioritize strategies that the program intends to implement during the
five-year cooperative agreement. You will then revise your program logic model
and align your annual work plan with the prioritized strategies and the
timeline to implement them. The main product of the Creation step is the
written strategic plan.
4. Communicate: The Communicate step involves
sharing information about the strategic plan in ways that make the plan
understandable and useful to stakeholders. The products of the Communicate step
are the communication messages and products you disseminate each year about
your strategic plan, including its creation, implementation, and evaluation.
5. Implementation: In the
Implementation step, the strategies in your strategic plan are put into action
as outlined in the strategic plan implementation timeline. You document
implementation of your strategic plan in program progress reports.
6. Evaluation:
In
the Evaluation step, you evaluate your implementation of the strategic plan and
your program activities. Your program develops evaluation questions and
collects data to inform the annual work plan for the coming year. Evaluation
data are used to monitor how the plan is progressing.”
Processes, measurements and accountability
are key to the success of organizations and many business leaders recognize the
importance of strategic planning, but some may lack making their strategies come
to life in organizational results. Could
the reason for this be that in many companies, more attention is paid to coming
up with strategies rather than to carry them out. In some cases business strategies become
somewhat worthless when members of the organization misinterpret it, don’t
receive it or simply don’t know how to process it. Research says that there are three signs of
organizations that are poor strategic planners:
1. “They lack
strategic alignment at every level. To translate a business strategy into
action, the organization must link it clearly to departmental, team and
individual goals. Everyone should be able to answer the question, what does the
strategy mean in terms I can act on? When companies fail to provide the
necessary linkage, employees don’t know how to support the strategy or, worse,
tend to view it as something that doesn’t apply to them.
2. They
misallocate resources. Effective strategic planning dedicates resources to
making improvements in those areas of operation that are critical to a
company’s competitive advantage. When an organization doesn’t establish and clearly
communicate these strategic priorities, resources may be spread too thin to
make a real difference in any one area of the business or may be allocated to
improvements that have no real impact on strategy.
3. They maintain
insufficient operational measures. In addition to traditional financial and customer
satisfaction measures, companies need appropriate measurement systems at the
operational level to successfully implement a strategy.”
In an effort to avoid these common
downfalls, companies and organizational leaders should realize that it is not just
enough to formulate and communicate a business plan. The employees must also be
empowered to implement.
An effective strategic plan
focuses on making the improvements and assessments that are important to the organization
and its customers. It utilizes the market
analysis and capitalizes on performance indicators. It involves making choices
about which processes to improve, what measures to use to monitor the success
of those efforts and who is accountable for implementing process improvements.
