Are you tired of spending hours crafting detailed strategic plans, only to see them gather dust on the shelf? If so, you’re not alone. Many mission-driven organizations struggle with the implementation phase, often due to common pitfalls. But fear not – this blog recaps a recent LinkedIn Live conversation between Jamie Yazdani of Yazdani Consulting and Ricky Chilcott, co-founder of Mission Met, in which they expose these challenges and offer solutions.
If you prefer to watch or listen – check it out on YouTube.
Ricky highlights several common mistakes in implementing strategic plans to bring awareness to them, as well as options for solving them.
Problem: Being overly ambitious without adequate resources.
Solution: One approach to mitigate this issue is to work with consultants or be thoughtful in the planning process to ensure realistic goals are set within the available resources. Additionally, he emphasizes the importance of tracking progress over time and being open to adjusting plans if necessary based on what is learned during execution.
Through regular reviewing, revising, and tracking, you’ll gain clarity on your current team’s capability, the seasonality of strategic work, and the confidence to know when to push or pull back.
Causey offers a powerful goal measurement feature so you can regularly track progress.
Problem: Creating overly complex plans.
Solution: During the planning process, it’s essential to focus on creating a plan that is easy to digest and understand. This involves actively working to simplify the plan so that all team members can comprehend it. By ensuring clarity and simplicity in the plan, individuals are more likely to engage with it and contribute to its implementation.
Simplicity doesn’t mean “dumbed down,” but rather making the information accessible and actionable. It means presenting the plan in a way that highlights the key points and priorities, removing unnecessary jargon, and breaking down complex concepts into manageable steps. This approach not only enhances understanding but also empowers the team to take ownership of the plan and work towards its successful execution.
If your organization is tackling complex challenges, it may be prudent to address them gradually over time rather than attempting to solve everything at once. This approach allows for a more focused and manageable implementation process, ultimately increasing the likelihood of success.
Causey has a simple two-section format for you to document your plan and keep it focused and simple along with structures to capture your Focus Areas, Goals, Action Items, and who is assigned to what.
Problem: Lack of team engagement in the planning process.
Solution: You must involve your entire team in the strategic planning process from the beginning. Ricky highlights that people are more likely to support and actively participate in executing a plan if they have had a hand in creating it. Allowing members to contribute to shaping your organization’s goals and strategies will ensure diverse perspectives are considered and increase buy-in and ownership of the plan among team members.
Causey makes it easy to collaborate on the plan by giving all team members access to the plan and showing different views of the plan such as presentation view and timeline view.
Problem: Absence of champions to drive the process forward.
Solution: It’s important to have champions, or advocates, for the strategic plan at both the organizational and goal-specific levels. These champions play a crucial role in ensuring that the plan is accessible to everyone, used effectively by team members, and remains on track for success. By assigning roles to individuals who are passionate about the plan’s goals and outcomes, organizations can ensure ongoing commitment and engagement from all stakeholders. These champions can help communicate progress, address challenges, and celebrate successes, thereby fostering a culture of accountability and collaboration throughout the implementation process.
In Causey, champions can be assigned to the overall plan, focus areas, goals, metrics, and action items. Specific automated emails are sent to these team members to remind them of important milestones and tracking requests.
Problem: Failure to track progress over time.
Solution: It’s important to establish a structured cadence of review and measurement to ensure accountability and alignment with strategic goals. Ricky suggests several practical strategies to implement this, including
- Scoring goals regularly.
- Providing status updates to the board and staff.
- Quarterly reviewing and revising plans based on lessons learned.
- Having a limited set of Metrics (impact or output) to ensure your strategic work is moving the needle.
By implementing these regular review processes, your organization can stay on top of its progress, identify areas needing improvement, and make timely adjustments to your strategic plan.
Using a software tool like Causey to centralize strategic progress tracking makes it easier for both board members and staff to access and visualize their organization’s performance over time.
Don’t Forget to Celebrate
A critical aspect often overlooked is celebrating success along the way. It’s crucial to recognize and celebrate achievements, fostering a positive culture within the organization.
Want to share a strategic planning success with Ricky? Connect with him on LinkedIn.
If you’re ready to start accomplishing more goals on your strategic plan and celebrating your success, visit www.causey.app to schedule a demo or start a free trial of Causey. We’d love to show you how our strategic planning execution software can help your organization document and track your plan.
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At Mission Met, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) is demonstrated through ongoing internal workshops that explore integrating DEIJ principles into our work. Our latest workshop focused on recent news and developments in the DEIJ landscape, highlighting their potential impact on our organization's efforts.