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Get Your Strategic Plan Off the Shelf: Plan Deployment and Management

January 11, 2022 By

Coworkers working on a strategic plan deployment

Coworkers working on a strategic plan deployment

Strategic Planning is a powerful tool that can help companies define and meet both their short- and long-term goals. However, when we talk to companies about strategic planning, too often we hear, “We tried that, and it didn’t work.” Many companies develop a plan, only to see it collect dust on a shelf or in a filing cabinet. This often results in frustration and a negative opinion regarding the value of strategic planning.

The truth is that building a strategic plan is only half the battle in reaching your strategic goals. Effective deployment and management of a strategic plan allow you to get that plan off the shelf and use it in a practical way to guide daily activities. It will also help you say “no” to distractions that consume valuable resources and don’t support your long-term goals.

Strategic Plan Deployment

To achieve long-term success, it is critical to put the plan into action in a way that includes clear communication, employee participation, and traceable metrics to monitor progress and make adjustments. These proven elements are critical to successful deployment of a strategic plan:

1. Communication: Companies thrive when leaders build trust, practice proactive communication, and address the personal and practical needs of their team. This takes hard work, but the payoffs are well worth the effort.

2. Organizational Alignment: Successful plan deployment requires more listening than telling. To achieve group commitment and alignment with strategic goals, employees must be encouraged to actively participate in aligning their daily work with the strategic goals of the organization.

Many leaders attempt to simultaneously facilitate and participate in the strategic planning process. Our experience is that this approach limits team buy-in and commitment to the plan and commonly undermines the entire well-intentioned process. Consider an outside planning facilitator, such as GaMEP, to help you achieve the best results. As an alternative, appoint a team member who is not the most senior leader to facilitate the process.

Companies demonstrate organizational alignment when they can answer “yes” to the following:

  • Can the leadership team describe the mental models for the desired future state of the organization?
  • Do everyday decisions and actions support strategic priorities?
  • Does everyone in the organization know and understand the company’s vision and how their work contributes to reaching the desired future state?

“If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.” – Patrick Lencioni

3. Performance Metrics: Meaningful performance metrics that measure progress toward your strategic goals and objectives are critical for success. This includes daily functional and plant-level information as well as corporate activities linked to the strategic priorities.

However, defining the metrics is only the beginning. Effective plan deployment not only identifies what those metrics are but also develops specific tactics to easily track and analyze those metrics. This often includes visual management tools created and maintained by team members on a daily or weekly basis.

Strategic Plan Management

Companies achieve their strategic goals when they apply the Plan, Do, Check, Adjust (PDCA) model to manage the plan. Effective plan management requires diligent attention to the following aspects:

1. Consistent Tracking – Many good strategic plans fail because companies get overwhelmed with daily disruptions. Companies must incorporate tools that support a culture of accountability and maintain focus on the plan. Some of the tools we recommend are Management for Daily Improvement, Gemba Walks, A3 tracking sheets, and routine short stand-up meetings.

2. Leadership Development – Strong leaders aren’t born, they are made. They have learned how to separate daily tactical needs from important strategic decisions. The process takes time and intentional effort as managers evolve from subject matter technical experts to transformational leaders. GaMEP can provide Leadership Needs Analysis and Advanced Leadership Skills training to help fill gaps and strengthen the team.

3. Cadence and Momentum– Momentum is maintained and builds on itself when team members understand their roles and witness progress toward the goal. Successful plan management includes routine, short, and productive meetings to communicate progress. Leadership must be committed to and consistent with this process. This requires thoughtful analysis of available time and resources during the planning phase and a process to react immediately to any abnormal results.

Next Steps

Whether your company is large or small, strategic planning is a critical tool for future success and growth. GaMEP’s strategic planning process helps manufacturers establish and execute a relevant and effective strategic plan and is broken into 4 distinct phases: Discovery, Development, Deployment & Plan Management.

This tip sheet describes the process of the last two phases; Deployment & Plan Management. Read How to Write an Effective Strategic Plan, for more information on the Discovery and Development phases.

 

By: Adam Hayes, Senior Project Manager, Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Events, Strategic Planning

How to Write an Effective Strategic Plan

December 15, 2021 By

How to Write an Effective Strategic Plan

Despite our best intentions, strategic planning often gets postponed due to the urgency of daily tasks. In addition, the ambiguous nature and magnitude of strategic planning can lead to not knowing where to start the process. This can result in a plan that is poorly developed, not actionable, or even non-existent.

In contrast, a well-developed strategic plan provides a “true north” to help guide decision making and align your team around common goals. It identifies key areas of focus and execution required to achieve long-term business objectives. Most importantly, it provides a framework and justification to say “no” to distractions that consume valuable resources and don’t support your long-term goals.

Strategic planning doesn’t have to be cumbersome, but it does need to be thought out, written down, and focused on specific priorities. Here are five proven steps that are the building blocks of developing an effective strategic plan.

Step 1: Internal Analysis

Internal analysis should be the start of an in-depth SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis that will help guide your plan. Understanding your current state is critical in determining where you are going, how you are going to get there, and how quickly you can realistically expect to reach your future goals.

    • Identify in-house capabilities by objectively answering questions about your company that reveal Strengths and Weaknesses:
      • What is it about your business that separates you from the competition?
      • Do your employees have skills that would be difficult to replace?
      • What complaints do you regularly hear from customers?

Step 2: External Analysis

If we have learned anything in the past few years, it has been to expect the unexpected. Unfortunately, we don’t have a crystal ball, but investing time and thorough research into the second half of your SWOT analysis will help you work resiliency and flexibility into your plan, allowing you to respond to future challenges and opportunities more easily.

    • Identify changes in the business environment by answering questions related to Opportunities and Threats:
      • What supply chain challenges are imminent? Are material costs and availability expected to change?
      • What products/services are your competitors introducing? Who are your potential new competitors?
      • Are there technology/society changes that we can take advantage of?

Step 3: Prioritize Issues and Opportunities

Using the data collected from steps 1 and 2, customer feedback, and input from other stakeholders, identify the key issues of concern that need to be addressed and key opportunities that can be pursued. Then, you MUST prioritize by ranking them according to risk and return. You only have so many resources, so prioritizing will help you use them wisely.

Step 4: Identify Success Factors

Develop goals and metrics by identifying success factors. How will you know if your plan has been successful? Ask yourself and your team where you want the company to be in 3 to 5 years and then identify metrics that help you track your progress towards individual goals and towards your ideal future state. These should be easy to track and analyze on a quarterly basis.

Step 5: Determine Strategic Priorities

Choose the focus areas that allow you to make the greatest impact on your goals, while keeping in mind the key resources (people/time/money) available. Do you have the resources to support all of your strategic priorities? If not, consider reducing the number or scope. It’s proven that focusing and executing on a few priorities is more effective than struggling with “too many priorities”.

Using a structured strategic planning process can help you establish and execute a relevant and effective strategic plan. Whether your company is large or small, strategic planning is a critical tool for future success and growth.

GaMEP’s strategic planning process helps manufacturers establish and execute a relevant and effective strategic plan and is broken into 4 distinct phases: Discovery, Development, Deployment & Plan Management.

This tip sheet describes the process of the first two phases; Discovery & Development. Read Get Your Strategic Plan Off the Shelf, for more information on the Deployment and Plan Management phases.

 

By: Andy Helm, Senior Project Manager, Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Events, Strategic Planning

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