Keeping Your Strategic Plan Adaptable in an Uncertain World
A strategic plan is not a document we just establish and execute. Rather, a strategic plan is the launch of an ongoing responsive process that continually evolves. A strategic plan helps an organization prepare for the future in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (also known as “VUCA”) world, and provides a way to navigate changing circumstances.
Our VUCA world creates many leadership challenges including lack of clarity and focus, overload of priorities, difficulty building relationships, short-term thinking, and burnout.
We ensure our strategic planning processes are adaptable and stay relevant by:
Facilitating an inclusive process throughout. We wrote earlier this spring about how to form an inclusive strategic planning committee. This inclusive committee and early planning process ensures that critical constituents, both internal and external, participate in building the plan. Not only does this help get good content and insights into the plan, it also ensures the plan is successfully implemented because the participants are already engaged and owning it. Furthermore, the process of planning strengthens the team and builds their collective muscle for navigating, predicting, and preparing for changes.
Proactively identifying and planning for obstacles and opportunities. One way to do this is via scenario planning. Obstacles can include external uncertainties in the environment, or internal capacity challenges that the organization will need to bolster. Building contingency plans or a Plan B may be useful in certain cases as well.
Building in a rhythm for monitoring and evaluating the plan once it is adopted. Department and employee annual goals should track to the strategic plan. We recommend quarterly strategic reviews to report progress toward the strategic plan and provide an opportunity to discuss and assess what has changed and if there are any initiatives that you should start, grow, adapt, or stop in light of changes.