Summary:
Strategic planning is important because it allows leadership to closely look at business functions, strengths, weakness, and opportunities while focusing energy and resources towards goals. Developing a strategic plan is only half the battle; the other half is executing the plan. Once you have your plan, check it against reality. If it is an unrealistic goal, your motivation is likely to deflate as months pass.
Author Cat Mason describes what she calls a “life sandbox” -the life context that her business exists within. By allocating time to life demands such as work, home, personal goals, etc., she is able to more accurately fit her business goals into the time she realistically can provide. Finally, break down the goals into projects with timelines and block out time from your schedule to accomplish these projects.
Article Quote:
“Planning is great … but plans are only as good as our ability to implement them. So what can you do NOW, while you’re focused, excited and motivated about the year ahead to ensure your plan does get converted into action?”
Setting realistic goals and executing them by breaking them into manageable tasks, scheduling time to see that they get accomplished, and monitoring progress will greatly increase your chance of realizing your goals.
Performance technology can help keep you focused with instant visibility on the strategic plan, objectives to accomplish, daily to-do’s that work towards objectives, and monitoring capabilities that let you know instantly where you’re at in completing those objectives.
For more on strategic planning and execution, see http://www.performancesolutionstech.com/category/strategicplanning/