Why Your Strategic Plan Isn’t Working
You worked hard on your strategic plan. You performed a SWOT analysis. You identified what you wanted your organization to accomplish. So why is it just sitting on a shelf?
Even the best strategic plans collect a little dust from time to time, but how can you be sure your organization is actively pursuing its goals?
Well, you could have any number of barriers - funding, project management - but I’m here to talk about your people…and what to do when they aren’t implementing your strategic priorities.
The Problem
Naaima Khan of Create Good Consulting works with organizations in their strategic planning process. Khan points out:
Strategic planning is critical to an organization’s health. It helps cultivate a set of actions and habits that create and sustain an organization’s comparative advantage in pursuing its mission. Including all levels of staff in the planning process creates a culture of shared ownership and stake in a strategic plan. Without everyone’s collective ownership, strategic plans are bound to be only as strong as the weakest links to them. Embedding equity into strategic planning is vital to remaining a relevant organization in today’s environment.
Jami Yazdani of Yazdani Consulting adds:
Even if a strategic plan drives the focus of the organization’s leadership, department managers and other employees are often disconnected from the plan’s priorities, and unable to articulate how the plan impacts them or the direction of the organization. If we want our plans to drive effort and create change, we need to involve our staff in the planning and implementation process. We can infuse plan priorities throughout every level of the organization by involving staff in the development of measurable and specific objectives to implement the plan.
To Khan’s and Yazdani’s points, your strategic plan requires staff participation, and it will only ever be as strong as your staff. So what if your staff aren’t performing?
Your staff may have a knowledge gap. They may not KNOW they are supposed to do something. If this is the case, an employee communications plan should help (though to Khan’s point, involving them in the process is an even better way of getting them connected to the work).
Your staff may have a skills gap. They KNOW what to do; they just don’t know HOW to do it. If this is the case, creating learning experiences can help.
Your staff may have a desire gap. They KNOW what to do; they know HOW to do it; they just don’t WANT to do it. With a widespread desire gap, it’s important to evaluate the organizational culture, but if the desire gap is just affecting a few staff, appeal to their heart with the “why” of the work.
The Solution
Each of these problems have a set of solutions that could be their own blog posts, so I want to focus in on the skills gap today.
How do you create learning experiences that fill the skills gap and help your staff drive your organizational strategies forward?
Consider the learner. What is their role in supporting your organization’s goals? How familiar are they with the strategic plan? What skills do they bring to execute their responsibilities? What gaps exist? How do they learn new things currently? How are they motivated?
Prioritize the needs. What do you need them to start doing? What are they currently doing? What do they need to stop doing?
Identify the content. Once you know what you need your staff to do, consider what information they need to do those things. The order is important here. Focus on the doing first; the information should be a support tool.
Create the experience. Notice I didn’t specifically say training. I like to use “how might we” questions here. How might we support our staff in learning these new skills?
Create an ongoing conversation. How might we create feedback loops so you can adapt and pivot as needed? How might we create opportunities for knowledge and expertise sharing? How might we reinforce the learning over time?
Key Takeaways
If your strategic plan isn’t as effective as it could be, consider how you can support your staff with implementation. By following the five steps above, you can create the environment and opportunities your staff need to be successful. And then? Well, then, you can brush the dust of your strategic plan.
And if you want support in creating more strategic learning experiences, let’s chat.