How to Plan for Business

In the last 30 days, I’ve led four strategic planning sessions for companies in four different industries: financial services, healthcare staffing, heating & air conditioning and window coverings.

Whatever the size, whatever the industry, organizations looking to improve performance must answer these four deceptively simple questions: 1) Where are we? 2) Where are we going? 3) How will we get there? 4) So what?

My experience is that questions #1 and #4 are most often ignored, overlooked or underestimated.

You can’t develop a plan until everyone on the leadership team has agreed on the current situation. So I invite you to take my free 10-minute Accountability in the Workplace assessment to evaluate the building blocks and stumbling blocks in your organization.

Agreeing on the starting point is essential in order to develop your plan to get more of what’s working and to correct what’s not working.

The fourth component of planning is just as critical – and usually the component that’s most often ignored. Leaders of your organization must be clear about the rewards for success and the penalties for under-performance.

Lack of clarity about how to address under-performance is the single greatest barrier to improving your performance.

How effectively does your 2012 strategic plan address the four parts of planning?