10 questions to jump start your strategic planning process 

Strategic planning goes off the rails for most organizations because they over-complicate the process involved. 

Over the past thirty years, I've helped many leadership teams with their strategic planning. I've noticed that the biggest obstacle to creating a genuinely effective strategic plan is getting caught up in complicated models and jargon. This often distracts from the real task: clearly understanding what happened this year and what needs to change for next year.

I find that simple questions cut through the noise, and the ten below will do exactly that.

These are not questions for the fainthearted.  In bald, unadorned print, some of them may seem brutal, even uncaring, but the reality is they get to the heart of where you need to begin any effective strategic planning process. 

Use them individually, or as a group exercise at your next strategic planning session:

1. What is the one thing your organization was worst at this year? What single thing most needs to happen to fix it?

2. What is the one thing your organization did best this year? What do you need to do to turn that success into a repeatable process?

3. Which individual was most responsible for standing in the way of your organization’s success this year? What are you going to do about it?

4. Which department, division, team or function was most responsible for standing in the way of your organization’s success this year? What are you going to do about it?

5. Which individual was most responsible for your organization’s success this year? What are you going to do about it?

6. Which department, division, team or function was most responsible for your organization’s success this year? What are you going to do about it?

7. What is the single metric or measurement you least liked hearing about this year? What will you do to prevent the same thing happening next year?

8. What is the single metric you will measure your success by (not how anyone else will measure your success – how you will measure your own success). What are you doing about it?

9. If you fired yourself today, and came back tomorrow as a new boss with a clean sheet, what would you do?*

10. If a ‘perfect’ competitor opened up across the street from you tomorrow, what would they be like?**

* See Hymowitz, Carol. 2006. Fire Yourself — Then Come Back and Act Like a New Boss Would. Wall Street Journal. October 9, 2006.

** See Seth Godin: ‘Small is the New Big’, Portfolio Publications, 2006.

What about you? How do you jumpstart your strategic planning process? 

Let Me Know In The Comments Below!