Leaders to Leaders Fifteen - Strategic Planning

Hello, leaders.

Not too long ago, we discussed preparing for your Strategic Planning conversations. Today, we’ll continue with the actual Strategic Planning process. As we discussed last time, the value of the planning process is invaluable.

Before we dive into the details, here are a few housekeeping items.

• Send out the templates ahead of time for your leaders to include in their pre-work. They should come to the table having put some thought into each as well as several potential key objectives for their department.
• Some companies meet all week. We like a day and a half, with dinner after the first day. This constraint reduces wasted time and puts an emphasis on the participants to do the pre-work.
• Have a facilitator who runs the planning session so all the leaders are participants. We’ve found a good facilitator is one who can keep conversations on track and pull deeper insights out of the participants. They should not consult during the planning process, only facilitate.
• Take breaks during the day. You’ll find it’s during these the best ideas and thinking happens.
• Have fun. Take the work seriously, but not yourselves. We like to keep the atmosphere light filled with anecdotes, quips, and light sarcasm.

Let’s start planning.

The following set of documents serve as the set of exercises and discussions we conduct during our strategic planning process.