products and services and future enhanced
products. These are being organized and
made into a plan.
Lessons to Learn
Organizations of all stages, types
and industries – from startup to
multigenerational, from privately owned
to public sector and not-for-profit, from
manufacturers and banks to school districts
and health systems – can approach
strategic planning with a fresh mindset by
following these ground rules.
Transitions bring in fresh thinking, new
skillsets and different approaches to
leadership. Once a transition is complete
and a new plan in place, each person in
the organization needs to identify their
role. With performance management as
an important goal of strategic planning,
it is critical to cascade the plan to every
person and role in the organization to allow
individuals to effectively understand their
roles in the strategy. Job descriptions and
performance reviews that are in line with
the organization’s strategy will lead to
successful work and outcomes.
Many times, strategic plans remain at the
top of an organization with executives and
upper management. That prevents people
throughout the organization from gaining
buy-in and feeling involved, and it also
misses out on a lot of creative thinking.
One of the values of Lean Six Sigma
methodology is to get the people who are
in the process to design the new process
because they know what is wrong with the
old one. Similarly with strategic planning, if
an organization can identify creative ways
to engage people at all levels, management
will receive new insightful feedback and
critical buy-in.
This can be as simple as developing
a strategic survey for key individuals
throughout the organization to complete.
If an organization can
identify creative ways
to engage people at all
levels, management
will receive new
insightful feedback and
critical buy-in.
Taking it a step further, an organization can
choose some of its high-performing up
and comers for a focus group to discuss a
couple of the issues they’ve been exploring
in their strategic planning. That might be a
market or financial analysis, demographics
of customers, discussions of competition or
what they want in their pipeline of R&D.
Companies that are more entrepreneurial
give people licenses to be creative and
think of new products and services.
As seen in the
St. Louis Business Journal
online edition
Julie Eckstein
Principal,
Advisory Services
Brown Smith Wallace
636.754.0233
[email protected]
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