Have you ever wondered why 90% of strategic plans never
get implemented? Here are three possible reasons:
1.The plan is too big. It’s common for
strategic plans to be 20 – 50 pages or even more. Plans that take an hour or
more to read go straight to the bottom drawer never again to see the light of
day.
2. You didn’t write it. If
the words aren’t yours or you didn’t contribute to writing the plan, then it’s
hard to muster energy or interest. It’s another reason to leave the plan on the
shelf gathering dust.
3. It’s still in your head. If
the plan is still primarily in your head, even if supported by random notes on
the backs of envelopes, on crumpled serviettes or on your iPad, your strategy
can get jumbled.
Whatever the reason, unimplemented plans limit your
personal and/or organisational potential. Having a plan is not enough. Dwight
Eisenhower famously said “Plans are nothing – planning is
everything”. Without a living breathing implementation process your
strategic plan, no matter how worthy, will be stuck in the day-to-day mire.
If you have an unimplemented strategic plan or no plan at
all, the TES™ three stage strategic implementation process can help.
TES| Strategic Implementation Process
Stage I: Translate | Translate what you
have in your bottom drawer, on the shelf or in your head into a doable VeSPA™
one page plan
- Gather and
collate existing plans, past plans, everything relevant
- Plan the
implementation kick off meeting with a facilitator
- Invite
cross-functional stakeholders from CEO to shop floor
- Develop the
focusing question
- Translate
current vision, mission, values, goals etc into a one page high level plan
- Get buy-in
from cross functional leaders and other key influencers for the high level plan
Stage II: Execute | Execute the one page
by developing plan collaboratively with all relevant stakeholders
using the
QUEST™ Change Facilitation Toolkit
- Run the
kick off meeting
- Develop
prioritized project plans
- Run first
project meetings at kick off meeting
Stage III: Sustain | Sustain the planning
process with VITAL™ dynamic project meetings
- Run regular
cross functional project meetings
- Run regular
champion review meetings
- Celebrate and
give recognition for achievements
The TES strategic implementation
process is invaluable for organisations of all sizes and a variety of purpose |
Business [SME, Corporate, Micro-Business] | Community [NGO, Local Gov, Gov,
Associations]