Like many business tools, how strategic plans are created and used has evolved. Gone are the 40-page documents that are only read by the author, sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Today’s strategic plans are short, sweet and visual, ensuring they’re read and implemented.
While some companies have embraced this new approach, many continue to hold on to the strategic plans of the past. As someone who creates strategic plans and has to implement them, there are 5 common mistakes I see in strategic plans.
#1 Lengthy engagement process
Just as your strategic plan should be short and sweet, so should your engagement process. Why? Because it maximizes the chance people will participate while minimizing the risk of fatigue.
I’ve seen engagement processes that last six months or more. It’s impossible to create excitement and maintain momentum over such a long period. If you need months to gather input, you need to re-examine your process.
Another challenge with dragging it out is the feedback from month one will likely be different from the feedback from month six based on what else is going on in the organization. This will make it even harder to find common themes.
I prefer a 4-6 weeks engagement process with a clear start and finish date.
#2 Wide net
Another mistake is casting the net too wide for stakeholder engagement. Way too wide.
I was recently sent an RFP for a strategic plan which had an engagement list that included basically anyone living in a 50 km radius of the organization. It included staff, customers, board members, volunteers, businesses, various levels of government. The list went on.
Just based on this list I didn’t submit a proposal. Not only did they cast too wide of a net, but their expectations on how to receive input were ineffective.
I prefer limiting the list to 15-30 people, with representatives from the key stakeholder groups (not all), to ensure meaningful participation.
#3 Broad surveys
While sending out a survey may seem a great way to get input from a large number of people, it often doesn’t result in valuable information.
Instead, send out a questionnaire to your 15-30 stakeholders with open ended questions. From there, review the answers in search of common themes, challenges and opportunities.
Next, bring everyone together in a workshop giving an overview of the results, lead discussion on what was heard and refine the themes.
I love this approach as the questionnaire shakes the trees and the workshop offers the setting to roll up our sleeves and get clear on the strategic directions. There’s no substitute for face-to-face meetings and collaborations.
#4 An isolated project
If done well, the engagement process can uncover valuable information about the current state of the organization and where it’s heading. While this is key to developing a strategic plan, it also has other uses that shouldn’t be ignored.
Take this opportunity to re-examine your vision, mission and values. Do they reflect what you’ve heard? Do people even know what they are? Are they long and hard to remember or short and memorable? Now might be a good time to either remind your organization of your vision, mission and values or rework these guiding statements to ensure they’re relevant to your vision for the future.
This is also a great opportunity to look at your branding, especially if it’s been 5-10 years since you’ve had a refresh. Going back to the feedback you’ve received, is your branding an accurate reflection of your organization?
Remember, branding is more than a logo. It’s how you present your organization’s personality, values and image to your community (internal and external).
I often find branding gets pushed to the back burner. Well people may grumble about the logo; they don’t see how the brand tells the story of the organization. An outdated logo and brand means the organization is stuck in the past. People make a lot of judgements based on branding, conscious and subconscious.
Hit pause and see if your branding reflects the current and future state of your organization. If it’s time for a refresh, do it now while you have clear insights on where your organization is heading in the next 3-5 years.
This is why I often include a graphic designer in the workshop. They’re able to be a fly on the wall and use what they’ve heard in the brand refresh as well as strategic plan visuals.
#5 Too much text
The final common mistake I see in strategic plans is too much texts, not enough visuals. If you need a lot of words to describe your strategic priorities, you haven’t done your job.
The best strategic plans are 2-6 pages. That’s it. Short, sweet and clear.
Visuals are also key in bringing your strategic plan to life.
Here’s the format I use for strategic plans
- Cover page
- Visual on the strategic priorities (3-4 priorities)
- Vision, mission and values
- Repeat of strategic priorities with 3-5 sentence explanation under each
- Summary of input from engagement process 3-5 paragraphs capturing anything that’s outside of the strategic priorities that should be flagged (ex. need for new website, social media strategy)
- Visuals on engagement process (number of people completed questionnaires, attended workshop, other key stats)
- Quotes from participants (gathered from questionnaires and workshops) that show the human element
- Create an 11×17 cheat sheet with the strategic priorities visual and short description that can be used in board and staff meetings and posted on the wall.
Once the strategic plan is complete, staff will then develop the work plans. This is how the strategic plan will be implemented. While the work plans are key to ensuring the strategic plan comes to life, it’s a separate exercise from the strategic plan.
As you can see, there’s a fair amount of work that goes in to developing a strategic plan. But instead of being drawn out over many months and involving way too many people, it’s a targeted exercise. It has a clear start and finish date, involves a variety of stakeholders and culminates in a visual and easy to read strategic plan.
Bringing in an external consultant will ensure the process runs on schedule and the feedback is reviewed with fresh, unbiased eyes with no emotional attachment.
I encourage you to review your organization’s current strategic plan. Is it old school or created with the less is more approach?
If it’s time for a new strategic plan, develop a plan that’s easy to read and implemented.