Strategic Planning: Is Your Organization Future-Ready?

For many organizations, November is a critical time in their annual planning. Some are busy turning strategies into actionable plans and others are wishing they had started strategizing earlier. Regardless of your fiscal year end, as the calendar year winds down, it’s a great time to think about strategic planning.

“Strategic planning is critical because it helps organizations and teams feel prepared for the future,” says Ted Kouri, Incite’s Founder and President. “A strategic plan readies your business for the future by establishing a unified vision for its direction and the best way to get there.”

A bonus, Ted adds, is that unlike a New Year’s Resolution, it will last beyond January.

People tend to balk when they hear “strategic plan.” We get why.

“Strategic planning is often difficult because no one can predict the future,” he says. “There are often more opportunities than available resources, and decisions usually need to be made with imperfect information.”

But hear us out.

Without a strategic plan, your business becomes reactive instead of proactive. Departments lack alignment and drift in different directions. Resources are spread too thin or wasted entirely. Success is difficult to measure, never mind celebrate. Sound familiar?

With a strategic plan, your organization gains focus, accountability, and confidence in your path forward. Benefits include:

• A future vision of what organizational success looks like and the decision-making framework to guide choices along the way
• A shared clarity on your priorities and goals, and focused, measurable success metrics
• Alignment on where to allocate resources, such as time, budget, and talent

Before strategic planning can start, we encourage our clients to engage in strategic thinking. This process can be difficult and uncomfortable, says Ted, but it’s worthwhile—and necessary.

He likens it to a buffet. Imagine you’re handed a plate.

• If we tell you to take whatever you like, no strategic thinking is involved.
• If we say you can take three items, but there are only three things you like, no strategic thinking is involved.
• If we say you can take only three items, but everything looks delicious, now you’re forced to think strategically.
  

Strategic thinking is the art of evaluating your choices and making trade-offs, sometimes difficult ones. When you invest in this deep thinking, you’ll walk away with a plateful of your organization’s most compelling priorities, which will inform a focused, resilient strategic plan.

There’s no time like the present to think about your organization’s future. Let’s get started.