How To Conduct A Strategic Annual Planning Meeting

Who should be involved?

• The strategic planning team should consist of between 5-7 key members of your organization, led by your CEO. The annual strategic planning process, when driven by the CEO, can provide valuable guidance for your entire organization.

Who runs the meeting?

• The strategic planning meeting should be run by an outside facilitator, such as a Six Disciplines Coach, who is certified and trained on facilitating such planning meetings. By using an outside facilitator, you’ll be able to spend quality time adding content and value, rather than running the meeting.

Where should it be held?

• The strategic annual planning meeting should take place off-site, away from phones, email, meetings – so that members of the team can "disengage" from day-to-day operations – and focus on the matters at hand. This eliminates disruption and encourages focus.

How can we save time during brainstorming?

• If you haven’t yet experienced the value and time savings of using the Six Disciplines 100 Point Exercise during your brainstorming sessions, contact your Six Disciplines Leadership Center for an explanation or demonstration of this unique experience. Once you use it, you’ll never do brainstorming without it!

What about budget discussions?

• Avoid combining annual strategic planning with budget discussions. Short-term financial issues can take over the discussion, and restrict the creative idea-generation process. Hold your financial/budget discussions at another time of the year -- or once you have settled on the major strategic elements of your annual strategic plan.

How do we communicate the plan?

• Once the strategic annual planning meeting is over, the “real work” starts. First steps include communicating the plan to the rest of the organization. Typically driven by the CEO, the plan and all of its key elements need to be communicated often. Continual interaction moves people from compliance to enrollment and from enrollment to commitment.

BOTTOMLINE: The value of strategic planning lies in the process. Engaging team leaders - and eventually team members - is essential to the success of a strategic planning effort. Different viewpoints on directions, goals, and strategies will emerge, but they can lead to creative solutions. Alignment begins to occur as a consensus is reached on vision, values, mission, goals, strategies, and objectives.