Ten Commonly Asked Questions About Strategic Planning What makes for an effective strategic plan? The short answer: an organization’s understanding and response to the future. A slightly longer answer would be that a strategic plan should include: The purpose of the organization, flexible enough to take into account various contingencies; The resources to fulfil the plan and make systematic changes to the organization; The fulfilment of short-term, intermediate and long-term goals as a means to long-term survival and growth; A description of the interests and involvement of those have influence and are influenced by the organization, and a way of obtaining their agreement; A way to measure the success of the plan, and the success of the organization as a whole. What’s the difference between a vision and mission of a company? A vision is some desired future state; A mission describes the purpose of the organization. Does our company really need a vision? No. More than that, a vision can be counter-productive, and here’s the reason why. When an organization focuses on one desired future, the often don’t plan for when the future is less than perfect. In addition, the future may not be perfect, nor bad, but just different that what you might expect. As a result, developing a vision rarely prepares your organization for the future. What are scenarios? Instead of developing a vision, organizations should develop alternative versions of the future, called scenarios. How do you develop scenarios? There are a variety of ways to develop these scenarios and can variety in their complexity and quantification. A simple way is to develop “best case- worst case” scenarios, but this method rarely encourages innovative thinking, and rarely takes into account disruptive technologies and economic activities. A fuller description of how to develop scenarios is in our new book, Nailing Strategy Jelly to Your Business Tree, available at Amazon. How are scenarios part of strategic planning? Scenarios are one of the first things an organization should create when they begin to develop their strategic plan. Otherwise, how can the organization develop a plan if they don’t have a clearer understanding of the environment they will confront in a few years? Depending on the scenario, an organization may need to drastically change itself and reshape its core competencies. What is a core competency, anyway? A core competency is a fundamental capability of an organization that performs 1) to world-class standards or 2) significantly better than any current or would-be competitors. What is SWOT? SWOT stands for strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. It’s a laundry list of things to look for when comparing your organization’s core competencies with the scenarios you develop. How do we involve employees in developing the strategic plan? Some organizations get input from employees on current issues and concerns as part of assessing their current situation. Others include employees in getting reactions to already-decided on strategic plans, while others actively involve employees in developing the plan itself. There is no one right answer: It depends on your circumstances. How do we deal with resistance to change? The more involvement by stakeholders, the lesser the resistance to change. These stakeholders can include owners, managers, customers, employees and vendors. How do we implement our strategic plan? Even we can’t answer that in one paragraph. You might want to read other articles on our website, or contact us for an in-depth talk. Ten Commonly Asked Questions About 360 Feedback What is 360 (degree) feedback? 360 feedback, also known as 360 degree feedback or multi-rate feedback, is a method to give information to a person, generally in management on his or her management style and/or performance by more than one group of people. What uses does it have? It’s usually used just for “development” purposes, but can also be a part of performance appraisal. If it’s used for selection, performance appraisal and the like, it may be subject to the usual laws and regulations regarding tests and other selection instruments. Who should receive this kind of feedback? Sometimes it is used for the person with “obvious” problems, though this is usually a mistake. As most behaviour of people is influenced by others, it is often best for teams of management to be given feedback, rather than just one or two individuals. If the whole team goes through this process, it’s a good idea for the manager of the team to get this feedback as well. Not only does he or she heavily influence what’s going on, it provides a good example for team members to follow. What conditions increase its chances for success? Good planning pays off. All participants, whether it is the person receiving the feedback, the describers and any other who might receive the 360 report should agree on the ground rules going forward as far as anonymity, use of, distribution of reports, follow-up, etc. Agreeing on these ground rules may take some time, but is well worth it. The 360 instrument should be well constructed, following our usual recommendations on this subject, including avoiding “agree-disagree” scales. Who usually describes the person? Usually the feedback comes from four aspects: the person being described, their peers, their manager, and their subordinate. Sometimes feedback can also come from internal and external customers. What kind of data are collected? Sometimes 360 data is only collected in numerical form, where describers use a 1-5 scale to rate various behaviours. Though this is necessary, it’s insufficient to get needed details. These data should be supplemented with open-ended questions asked on the 360 survey, and interviews by the consultant as well. Without these data sources, it may be hard to give specific examples of problem behaviours to the person being described. Who should see the data? There are really three questions here: Who should see the “raw data”, who should see the consultant’s summary, and who should know the plans for correcting problem behaviours. No one, except for the consultant, should see the raw data. There is just too much of a chance for miss-use by someone in the organization. Who should see the consultant’s summary is an open question. At times, we have given our summary and recommendations only to the person being described, though we don’t recommend this. At other times, we have shared our summary with the person’s manager. At the very least, the person’s manager should see the person’s plan for action, as he or she is the person responsible to follow through on his plan. We also have encouraged our clients to share their 360 data with their subordinates, and ask for their help in changing their behaviours. How should we plan for 360? After hiring the consultant, management must work with him or her to establish the ground rules for the 360: who will participate, and in what manner, how the ensure anonymity with sufficiently large groups of describers, to what extent the behaviours measured reflect the competencies desired by the company, etc. After the data are collected, the consultant should work with management to develop a feedback plan: where it will be, how much time it will take, how to track action plans, how much coaching is needed, etc. What are the follow-up steps? At the very least, a series of steps, with resources and timelines should be established and communicated to the person and the person’s manager. In addition, professional coaching can be a useful adjunct. How is 360 feedback integrated into coaching? 360 feedback is an excellent beginning for coaching, whether the coaching is done by a consultant, by the person’s manager, or done jointly. The 360 feedback data allows us to pinpoint problems, so the coaching that we provide is more effective. The same instrument used to obtain the feedback might also be used as a way of measuring progress. Frequently Asked Questions About Organizational Change How do I obtain commitment to our plans from my organization? There must be maximum consistency between your words, your own personal behaviour, how your subordinates act, and the compensation, organizational structure, performance appraisal and promotion/selection policies of your company. When these facets are in alignment, employees will receive a consistent message as to what is important and what they need to do to make your company succeed. How do I minimize resistance from middle management in implementing this change? If your intent is to eliminate them as part of your organizational change, make sure they are kept well-informed, provide financial and job (not position) security when you can, and provide emotional and technical support in their (internal and external) job search. If your intent is not to eliminate their function, involve them as much as you can in the change process itself by giving them meaningful roles in helping the organization shape its future. What buzzword should I implement? None of them. Implementing the latest management fad is an almost sure prescription for disaster. Oftentimes, one vice president becomes a "champion" of a management idea he or she has read of somewhere. S/he creates much hoopla and excitement which will change into cynicism and doubt once the initial enthusiasm is gone, employees realize few in management are behind the change, and there are serious questions as to how it fits into the long-term objectives of the company. A unique solution must be crafted by you and for you, one that meets the current and future needs of your organization. After implementation, if you want to label your organizational change as the fad of the day, go ahead. What are the common pitfalls when implementing organizational change? There are many reasons why organizational change fails. Among them are: 1. Inconsistencies between management's words and actions. 2. Unclear or overreaching expectations without a good measurement system to evaluate the change. 3. Not changing compensation, organization, information, promotion/selection systems. 4. Management not realizing successful organizational change takes persistent efforts that may last years. 5. Management blindly following a technique or buzzword - trying to force a square peg into a round hole. 6. Assuming training employees is the only change they need to make. See our articles on Training. Where do I start? Before you decide on any major organizational change, conduct a thorough, unbiased evaluation of your organization and what the future holds for it. Then assess the current state of affairs in your organization. Many companies use consultants in this effort. This way management may avoid MBSS - Management by Best Seller.