Strategic Planning and Management Insights

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To effectively implement a strategic plan or carry out a complex project, a culture of accountability needs to be developed throughout the organization. To achieve success, everyone needs to understand the organization's strategy, their individual roles within the company, and the specific tasks or projects that they are responsible for. Accountability is not limited to staff - Managers and leaders must also follow through on their promises and remain committed to their performance and organizational goals.

If you’ve made it to this article, you already understand that strategic planning is an important part of running a successful organization. Whether you are new to leading strategy, or have led and implemented a strategic plan, strategy reviews can be daunting.  Our process of Aligned Strategy Development was created to serve as a framework for any organization updating or creating their strategic plan. 

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We often encounter questions about the frequency that organizations should update their strategic plan, such as: how often should strategic planning be done or how often should we update our business strategy? The answer is that it depends!

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There are no shortage of books and articles on leadership styles and techniques, containing multiple different styles and techniques for leading people and groups. After reading a variety of articles and books on this topic, I  noticed common themes that leadership experts such as Simon Sinek, John Kotter, John Maxwell and Daniel Pink, as well as prominent psychologists such as Sherry Turkle are aligned on. 

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In other posts, we have talked about the importance of regular strategic planning sessions. While strategy sessions are important, the first step to take is to align your people. When your team understands your organization's vision, mission, values and goals, every decision they make can be aligned with these important aspects of your business. Alignment helps to reduce or eliminate cross-departmental and team silos, resulting in better communication between your people, which will help them better implement the strategic plan. 

We’ve discussed the importance of having a strategic plan and how it can help your organization, but more important than having a plan is going through the planning process. From the initial questions to ask your team, during the meeting, and througout implementation, it’s crucial that your entire team is onboard and aligned on the organization’s strategy.