Strategic planning gives an organization the opportunity to set priorities, assign resources, and harmonize energy towards achieving a common goal. For an organization to thrive in the market today, it should invest in proper strategic planning and management practices. Involving multiple stakeholders is the only way to ensure that the organization collectively moves forward. The entire organizational strategic planning process is quite complex, with multiple steps and stakeholders. To increase the likelihood of success, organizational strategic planning should involve four main parts.
Involving all the parties
For an inclusive strategic planning process in an organization, it is essential to engage the multiple parties concerned. The most important of these parties include the various departments in the organization, the senior and junior administrative structure, the employees, and even shareholders. Involving all the parties gives the organization the opportunity to win the incentives and the support of everyone whose input is crucial to the ultimate success of the planning process.
Setting milestones
Successful strategic planning should focus on setting specific milestones, deadlines, and goals to be achieved. Bringing all the stakeholders involved in the planning process to agree on common deadlines for specific tasks helps ensure that everyone within the company works towards a common goal. Without milestones, persons responsible for specific tasks in the outlined goals will not be able to set the momentum.
Work with action steps rather than goals
Before wrapping up the strategic planning process, it is highly essential to set in place the strategic action steps that are required to achieve the strategic goals. Working with action steps allows your organization to achieve its milestones within the desired time as compared to working with broad goals. The steps should define the particular actions that the organization needs to put in place in order to achieve the identified milestones.
Have a strategic review in place
After completing the strategic planning process, it is vital to have in place opportunities for strategic reviews to be done. The idea behind strategic reviews is to have the company evaluate its past performance in terms of the progress made within a given duration of time. If the review process identifies that the organization is lagging on various milestones, it should prompt the company to contemplate the necessary corrective measures and adjustments.