Strategic Planning Facilitation
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” -Michael Porter
At BIG Acts, we believe strategic planning is best thought of as building a bridge that gets you from the present to your desired future state. But building these strategic bridges can be hard. Organizations are often distracted by shiny objects and having the focus to say “no” can be challenging. However, it is one of the most powerful things you can do to keep your team moving in the direction toward your vision.
Strategic planning not only helps organizations know what to say “yes” to, but more importantly what to say “no” to because it aligns leaders on the things that will drive the biggest impacts in moving toward its vision. Anything else, while it might be interesting, is a distraction.
Updating your strategic plan and priorities is critical to organizational success, but, we get it, there never seems to be enough time to focus on the long-game in your organization. Not only can this lead to a vicious cycle of “running to stand still”, but even, worse it can have you going in directions that do not move you toward your Vision and fulfilling your Mission.
BIG Acts Strategic Planning Facilitation Process
Phase I: Envision
Ask, discuss, and debate the big picture questions to uncover potential strategic priorities.
Phase II: Focus
Develop the case for each potential strategic priority and then collaborate to narrow the list.
Phase III: Activate
Build detailed action plan for each strategic priority and align with executive team on the plans, accountability, and success measures.
Through our 3 Phase Strategic Planning Facilitation process, we take the complexity of strategic planning and make it accessible to organizations looking to make a positive impact. And more importantly, we do not create a strategic plan for you. We guide leaders to develop their plans by helping them leverage their expertise and wisdom. This is more important than one might think as people and organizations are much more likely to accomplish their goals if they set them for themselves.
Through the process we work to align leadership on the critical strategic priorities for an organization. However, it doesn’t stop there. One of the most common failures of strategic planning is implementation. For each strategic priority for an organization, we help leaders develop detailed action plans for implementation, measurement, and accountability.
Each phase will follow a similar path. First, leaders will engage in guided assignments and research as well as get input from team members. We will then come together for strategic retreats/ working sessions to discuss the issues, provide input, get clarity, and assign next steps. At the end of the process, we will align on critical strategic priorities, and for each priority, develop the detailed action plans for implementation, measurement, and accountability.
Interested in learning more? Please reach out to schedule a time to chat.