5 Strategies for Your Strategic Planning Time

Ever sat through a strategy session and your only output was a nicely wordsmith-ed document? How about that time you showed up to a strategy meeting hoping to put your brain to work but instead sat through mind-numbing presentations? Or, in your growing business are things moving so fast that you need to pause and think through the next phase? Got a head full of ideas that you know need to be turned into action?

Whatever it is - strategic planning can get a bad-wrap for being overwhelming, confusing, or even a lackluster formality. Whether you need to break the mundane, gain clarity, or both I want to share with you a few things that will improve your strategic planning time. As a facilitator and consultant, I recommend entrepreneurs or large teams consider these 5 areas for making sure that strategic planning time pays off!

Practice Simplicity.

Can you explain your business opportunity/challenge/problem/vision to a 5th grader? Can you describe what you will need more of/less of in the next year? In one word, what is your customer saying about you/the product/the service? What problem do we as a team or business solve?

Describing something in simple terms can sometimes be more challenging than wordsmith-ing our fancy documents and vision statements. As adults, we can overthink almost anything and our business strategy is no stranger to that game. Stepping back to the basics can not only help solidify the strategy but it can also help the team connect with your mission and be more successful implementing solutions.

Make it Active.

Active learning increases collaboration, encourages risk taking, improves critical thinking, and sparks creativity. At a minimum, you can bring in flip charts, markers, and sticky-notes to create movement when planning. Just standing at a new location in a room – or really standing at all – can help change perspective and evolve the conversation. Flip charts full of words serve as large reference points also encourages continued movement throughout the day. They can even be saved and placed somewhere you can revisit them once you are done.

Connect to the everyday.

Bridge the gap between bigger, strategic moves/decisions and day-to-day activities. Whatever the implication of that decision, it is best to get it out on the table and discuss it.

- Where should be positioned (pricing, marketing, speed to market, service culture) in the next year to increase revenue? Who will that impact and how?

- Are the services or products that aren’t hitting the target and need to be refreshed or even sunset? Which part of the business will have to think differently?

The idea is to acknowledge the impact of any movement in the business so you can move the strategy to action. Be careful to stay high level and not get derailed in details. Those will come later. Right now, clarity is key in making sure the team is able to deliver results by turning strategy into action throughout the operations.

Park It.

A great way to keep the meeting (or your brain) on topic and on task is to create a “Parking Lot.” This can be a flip chart or just a piece of paper. It’s a great way to manage things that are creeping into conversation and threatening momentum. Sometimes these ideas or comments seem like they come from left field and it’s easy to tag it as a ‘parking lot’ item. And there are some that are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Think: deciding to throw an event to gain customer interest and you are already talking about what type of catering to order. The conversation is relevant – eventually. For now, the event is a strategic marketing move and the catering decisions go into a parking lot until the right time to put it in play.

Leverage FUN!

If you aren’t moving, laughing, telling stories, and being authentic – it won’t be memorable. And things that are memorable get brought up again. And things that get brought up again are more likely trigger sustained interested and action. There are all kinds of ideas for team building that actually compliments your goals for the meeting or off-site. Communication assessments, business games, or community activities can be in-sourced or out-sourced. Are you by yourself on this journey? That’s ok. Choose to do something new and outside your comfort zone the day you also plan to spend time on strategy.

These recommendations create space for value-added conversation, effective decision making, and increased clarity for the future. A skilled facilitator can use a variety of tactics within each of these areas to best suit your goals for any meeting or strategy session. If you engage with a facilitator or consultant early you can partner to develop an effective agenda, choose meaningful activities, and stay focused on your desired outcomes. If you’d like to discuss how facilitation can help you get unstuck and motivate a team, feel free to reach out to me through LBD Facilitation and Consulting Services!