Problem: Failure to Execute

While developing, planning, and aligning the organization’s strategy are all critically important, it is wasted energy if the strategic plan sits on a shelf and is never executed. But all too often, that is exactly what happens. After spending countless hours – and many months – creating a strategic plan only to see it shelved in a three-ring binder never to see the light of day, organizations quickly lose faith in the process and stop planning altogether.

This happens more than you might believe. The question, then, is why? Here are the most common reasons:

  1. Following approval and adoption of the strategic plan, the organization fails to establish a method for strategic plan monitoring, learning, and adapting.
  2. The people tasked with execution were not included in the development of the strategic plan and are either not bought in or simply don’t understand their roles and responsibilities.
  3. There is no systematic senior executive oversight of the strategic plan.

Solution: Best-of-Breed Planning Methodology

While the above issues can create a strategic planning death spiral, they are also easily overcome. strategicplanningMD has worked with many organizations to turn inaction into action, using the following services and tools that are imbedded in our Red Ocean Strategic Planning methodology and supported by strategicplanningMD:

  • Development and implementation of formal strategic planning monitoring and review programs designed to foster action.
  • Creation of strategic plan dashboards to track and communicate strategic plan results versus approved targets.
  • Facilitation of strategic planning work teams that create targeted action plans, generate buy-in, develop organizational esprit de corps, and foster a culture of teamwork.
  • Identification and development of linkage opportunities between the organization’s strategic plan and quality management system.
  • Formal reporting systems to front-line staff, middle and senior management, boards, and key stakeholder groups.

If you need help in overcoming systemic failures in strategic plan execution, then call us at
800-535-1559. We’ll show you the possibilities for turning inaction into action.