Business owners often struggle with reaching the desired outcomes for their business and themselves. They put together a plan, do their best, and then are disappointed with the results. After doing this a number of them begin to say, “strategic planning doesn’t work in my business.”
There are many business owners who put together a plan and call it strategic planning. Some have great plans, but they don’t achieve their goals. Others create good plans, meet the goals, and wonder why they don’t see the results or any impact on the business or organization.
The reason why a strategic plan doesn’t get the results that a business owner is hoping for are many. Unless you are willing to get serious about planning what you are trying to accomplish and make the investment to change your planning process, you will continue to be disappointed with the results.
Leadership Mapping has guided many business owners to think differently when it comes to dramatically changing their performance and results. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons that planning has failed.
Unfortunately, business owners often don’t think through the planning process. Do they have a well-thought-out purpose for the plan? If you have a clear purpose for the plan, have you communicated that purpose to the appropriate people who will be using the plan? That purpose can motivate and impact the results that you are looking for.
You cannot have a STRATEGIC plan if it is not based on a STRATEGY. A strategic plan is NOT a strategy. Creating a strategy is separate and different from creating a “strategic” plan, or any plan for that matter.
Plans that are expected to be used for any change must be dynamic and compatible with the environment that it works in. Leadership Mapping uses the idea of a M.A.P. (Master Action Plan) because it gives a visual illustration of what a plan looks like and does. A MAP gives you boundaries, it also shows some of the data that you used in the design of your strategy. That information also helps you to create your plan and the tactical areas of implementing your plan.
Any plan needs to have the appropriate elements to ensure effectiveness. A good plan needs to have S.M.A.R.T. Goals. If a goal is NOT a S.M.A.R.T. goal it is closer to an objective. Without these goals in your plan, you will set yourself up for failure.
S.M.A.R.T. goals stand for:
Specific – How will you know what you are trying to accomplish if it is not specific? It needs to have a destination, not a general direction. Lewis and Clark weren’t sure what they were going to find but had a specific goal, find a way to the pacific ocean.
Measurable – Lewis and Clark had a goal of developing diplomatic relations with the Indians in the Louisiana Purchase territory. They also had an objective to extend the fur trade. These are great objectives but NOT measurable goals. Measurable has the concept of confirmable. Reaching the Pacific was confirmable.
Action-oriented – Goals that you can act on, simple right? Too many people set goals to feel better, be happy, or be more customer oriented. While they seem like good goals, there is no action in the goals to achieve. What you do to achieve these objectives is what makes it action-oriented. Otherwise, you have objectives. What you do to achieve the objective can become a goal.
Relevant – Some will also put realistic goals in here. Realistic goals are more about being able to achieve it. Relevant is more about the importance and relationship overall objectives wanting to be achieved. Often, we have faulty logic when we set a goal. If you want to increase your profit margin, you don’t set the goal to sell more low-margin products. Also, do the goals contribute to the strategy discussed above?
Time-based – Quality goals use time as a motivator and measurement tool. When goals are delegated out the time element becomes critical. Some have said that time makes the difference between a goal and a wish or dream. Cyril Parkinson once wrote, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” (known as Parkinson’s Law). Without a time frame your goals and plans will lose all sense of efficiency and more than likely effectiveness.
Your plan needs to consider the resources needed to accomplish it. From personnel or human capital to ensure the necessary skills, to the appropriate financial backing, and time. Each of these elements can affect the outcome of your plan and the planning process.
Finally, for this article, we must address plan implementation. Managing the implementation of a “strategic” plan, or any plan is often where we get lost. This is all about Leadership and management. I won’t go into detail here, because there is a lot to unpack in this area.
Too often business owners believe they are great leaders and managers. Even business owners who have been in business for a long time will believe they are great managers. The reality is longevity has nothing to do with it. Are they losing money because they cannot see their own inefficiencies and low effectiveness?
Starting with an excellent strategic plan is critical to accomplishing the results and outcomes that you desire. But being able to effectively communicate those plans, motivate others and hold them accountable, while addressing the everyday fires and challenges of a business can be daunting.
If the performance and results of your plans have been disappointing, don’t give up. Develop the skills for creating a great strategic plan or any plan for that matter. We are not born planners, it takes work. Contact me for more information and articles about designing a strategy, the difference between a strategy and a strategic plan, why you need a strategic plan, creating a strategic plan, and mastering leadership and management in implementing your plan.
“Chart Your Course, Change Your World!”
Stan Broesder
Leadership Mapping
980-241-0189 / Stan@LeadershipMapping.com
