I recorded a summary of my simple three-step Getting Started System on video for you here:
Strategic Planning
Good group leadership depends on good group facilitation. Throughout our site we feature information, tips and articles based around one of the central business leadership tasks in any organisation: group facilitation of Strategic Planning and how becoming or using a better workshop facilitator can help you.
Strategic Planning Resources
To assist you we have organised these strategic planning resources into a number of core ideas, including:
Group Facilitation
When it’s done well, group facilitation looks simple, although it isn’t always as easy to be a good workshop facilitator as it looks. Group facilitating takes skill and experience and it’s almost impossible to do if you also need to participate in the process as well as facilitate the group. This section offers tips on how to facilitate meetings for best results, as well as the value professional facilitators can add and group dynamics issues you must be conscious of in your group leadership role.
More details on group leadership and group facilitation
Team Building Ideas
I know some leaders and managers shudder at the thought of taking on responsibility for team bonding and group exercises, but if your team is in need of corporate team building activities, you will be acutely aware that your team is not performing to the standard you would wish. In this section we evaluate a number of team building ideas to help you create the team spirit that generates real results.
More details on team building ideas
Effective Meetings
For meeting planning to be effective, meetings need to promote group decision making and this doesn’t usually happen by chance. For important team meetings, for example where your objective is strategic planning that guides your future growth, an effective meeting may require business strategy consulting with the assistance of a professional meeting facilitator. An effective business strategy consultant will also be able to assist you with your business strategy implementation so it makes sense to ensure your meeting facilitator has the appropriate strategic planning skills and qualifications.
In this section we investigate the sort of group task that will benefit from an external facilitator or the facilitation skills you will need to have in-house to achieve the same results. We will also share a number of meeting tips that will help you achieve your work goals.
More details on effective meetings
While we will also explore many other aspects of strategic planning, including leadership styles, and look closely at your business management, web marketing and other marketing ideas and more, this is just meant to be a quick introduction to some of the central strategic planning resources you will find here.
Incident Reviews – Learning from Experience
Not everyone learns from their own mistakes, but the best do – as I’ve discovered through facilitating incident reviews.
Organisations which review any incidents and near misses are able to learn from their own experiences. However, the very best organisations are also keen to learn from other people’s experiences, not just their own.
The sad story of 10-year-old Sam Boulding, who died of asthma a number of years ago when his parents were unable to call an ambulance on their faulty telephone, offers your organisation an opportunity to learn from other people’s experiences and reflect on how incident reviews might help you avoid a similar situation.
Phone service provider, Telstra had not technically breached its customer service standards by not repairing the broken phone line. But community expectations of the information and service which should have been provided to Sam’s home were higher, with then Communications Minister Richard Alston describing as “pretty slack” Telstra’s system of dealing with priority needs customers.
Following the widespread criticism of its telephone fault repair processes and its handling of priority connections, Telstra faced rigorous new licensing conditions and reviewing operating policies, systems and processes to ensure such an incident does not happen again.
Lessons and Incident Reviews
Do any of your customers have special or critical conditions which might cause them to rely in some way on your products or services? Would you even know? If you do know, is the information available to all the people in your organisation who might need it? Have you had any ‘near misses’ that warrant formal incident reviews to avoid similar situations arising in the future? Are you ruthless in facilitating incident reviews internally, before external pressure forces an incident review on you?
Do you have the right operating policies, systems and processes in place to fulfil all reasonable expectations? (And given that community expectations of what is reasonable can change quickly, maybe even some which might seem a bit unreasonable?)
Reviewing issues such as these should be a central part of your regular business strategic planning process.
Quote of Note
“Yesterday’s miracle is today’s intolerable condition.”
Lewis D Eigen
Incident reviews help your organisation learn without having to endure the worst experiences some organisations face. Contact us for details about how we can help by professionally facilitating your incident reviews on site and in confidence.
Where to use the strategic planning process
The strategic planning process has value in many different contexts, not just at the top of an organisation.
Consider how you can apply it to different parts of your business, to specific projects or challenges, and to your personal as well as your professional life.
Strategic Planning Process Quote of Note:
“One person’s strategy is another person’s tactics – what is strategic depends on where you sit.”
Richard Rumelt
The strategic planning process is frequently even more important that the ultimate plan that is produced because it builds team commitment to your vision and understanding of the underlying purpose of your actions.
Effective Strategic Planning
The process of strategic planning is probably one of the most powerful tools available to an organisation, department or team. When a group work together to develop a plan they carry a strong commitment to implementing it away with them.
Yet too many people have had poor experiences with strategic planning sessions which fail to reach decisions, or where communication problems, dominant personalities and internal politics prevent constructive interaction.
There is a lot written about strategic planning, but much less on how to ensure your strategic planning session is effective.
What makes Strategic Planning Effective?
A successful and effective strategic planning session needs to:
Achieving all these outcomes, as well as generating a sound strategic plan, is more likely with independent, professional facilitation. A good strategic planning facilitator brings structure, an impartial perspective and useful expertise, experience and feedback.
Experience shows that when your strategic planning session is run by a team member the most likely outcome is a long staff meeting, with all the inherent dangers of entrenched positions, ‘group think’ and resistance to change.
An experienced facilitator who is expert in the strategic planning process can guide your group to a successful outcome by introducing new approaches and helping participants think creatively about problems, issues and opportunities.
By keeping discussions focused, on track and on time, and ensuring all voices are heard, key decisions are taken in a positive way, making sure your strategic planning is most effective.
Special Offer
If you are uncertain whether to use an external facilitator for your meeting, or you need to convince someone else to use one, have a look at our Free Fact Sheet ‘Why Use a Facilitator?’
(More ideas on how you can facilitate effective strategic planning in the Quick Tips below.)
Strategic Planning Facilitation Quick Tips
Involve your facilitator in designing your planning session. Their experience with many other groups offers valuable insight and new perspectives into what will be most effective in achieving your goals for the planning process.
A competent and experienced facilitator will have the flexibility, skills and ability to guide your group to its ultimate objective via a range of different paths. Encourage and empower your facilitator to modify planned activities in response to the group dynamic on the day.
Consider using an external strategic planning facilitator for other important meetings such as project debriefs, incident reviews, evaluations sessions, change implementation programs, employee forums, community or customer consultations and leadership programs.
…And Call us on 03-9859 3924 to discuss how we can help make your next strategic planning workshop your most effective yet!
Categories: Strategic planning - Tags: business strategic planning, business strategy consulting, effective marketing strategy planning sessions, effective meetings, effective plannin session, effective planning, effective planning days, effective planning in marketing, effective planning sessions, effective planning strategies, effective strategic meetings, effective strategic planning, effective strategic planning manual, effective strategic planning meetings, effective strategic planning session, Effective Strategic Planning Sessions, efficient strategic planning, facilitate a planning day, facilitate a strategic planning meeting, facilitate a strategic planning session, facilitate an effective strategic planning meeting, facilitate strategic planning meeting, facilitate strategic planning session, facilitates strategic planning sessions, Facilitating a Business Planning Session, facilitating a meeting to establish strategic direction, facilitating a one-day strategic planning session, facilitating a planning session, facilitating a startegic planning meeting, facilitating a strategic plan session, facilitating a strategic planning meeting, facilitating a strategic planning meetings, facilitating a strategic planning session, facilitating a strategy planning session, facilitating an it strategic planning session, facilitating effective strategic planning, facilitating planning, facilitating planning day, facilitating planning days, facilitating planning guide, facilitating planning session, facilitating planning sessions, facilitating strategic direction discussion, facilitating strategic planning meeting, facilitating strategic planning meetings, facilitating strategic planning session, facilitating strategic planning sessions, facilitating team planning, facilitating the planning meeting, facilitating visual strategic planning sessions, facilitation of strategic planning session, facilitation of strategic planning sessions, facilitation planning day, facilitation services, facilitator rates for strategic planning session, facilitator strategic planning session military, faciltating a strategic planning meeting, faciltating strategic planning, faciltating the strategic plan, format to facilitate a strategic planning session, group facilitation, group facilitator, guide Facilitation of a Strategic Meeting, guide to facilitating strategic planning, how can stragic planning be efficient, how long is an effective strategy meeting, How to conduct a strategic planning session, how to design an effective strategic planning session, how to do facilitate a strategic planning session, how to facilate a strategic plan session, how to faciliate a strategic planning session, how to facilitata a planning day, how to facilitate a business planning session, how to facilitate a church strategic planning meeting, how to facilitate a planning day, how to facilitate a strategic planning meeting, how to facilitate a strategic planning session, how to facilitate a strategy planning meeting, how to facilitate effective teambuilders, how to facilitate strategic meetings, how to facilitate strategic planing session, how to facilitate strategic planning, how to facilitate strategic planning session, how to manage an effective planning day, how to plan an effective visioning session, how to plan for a effective strategic planning session, how to run a stategic planning session, how to run a strategic planning session, how to run a stratgic planning session, how to run an effective strategic planning meeting, http://kmgconsulting com au/strategic-planning/effective-strategic-planning/, ideas for facilitating business planning sessions, ideas on how to facilitate strategic planning, leadership planning session, leadership planning sessions, meeting facilitation skills, planning a effective session, planning an effective strategy session, planning day facilitation, Planning Session Ideas, politics, professional facilitator, Resources for facilitating planning sessions, Running a Strategic planning session for Directors, running a strategic planning workshop, running a strategy session, running a team strategy session, selling a business strategic planning session, strategi marketing kmg, strategic business planning, strategic plan, Strategic Plan tips add comment, strategic planning, strategic planning day, strategic planning effectiveness, strategic planning facilitation, strategic planning meeting, strategic planning resources, STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION, strategic planning session ideas, strategic planning sessions, Strategic planning team days what to cover, strategy and planning consulting, strategy planning session, structure to facilitate day planning meeting, successful strategic planning meetings, successful strategic planning session, team plaaning session, team planning session, techniques that makes strategic planning effective, template for and effective planning session, The Need for Effective Strategic Planning, tips for a successful strategic planning session?, tips for an effective strategic planning, tips for effective strategic planning, tips for facilitating meetings strategic planning, tips for facilitating planning meeting, tips for facilitating strategic planning, tips for strategic planning meetings, tips for strategic planning session, tips on facilitating scenario planning sessions, tips with strategic planning sessions, trends in strategic planning, what is effective strategic, what is effective strategic plnnning, What is effective Strategy planning, What makes consultancy planning effective?, What makes for an effective strategic plan, what makes up a successful strategic planning session, workshop facilitation tips