Follow These Guidelines For Successful Strategic Plan Execution

When it comes to growing a business, strategic planning represents ranks among the most beneficial, powerful processes.

Participation, buy-in, and support from founders, executives, and employees create a path for helping businesses develop deliverables and achieve milestones.

Key stakeholders collaborate to craft an actionable plan covering perhaps 12 to 18 months, complete with elements of accountability, prioritization, and alignment. By providing a roadmap for accomplishing goals, and for letting people and teams achieve measurable outcomes, your business’ strategic plan can yield solid results.

If strategic planning is such an important tool, then why do so many strategic plans fail? All the effort and energy that go into the strategic planning process can quickly fade as the effort and energy invested gives away to “business as usual” responsibilities.

More often than not, strategic plans end up being ignored because of common pitfalls. For example, research shows 60% to 90% of businesses fail to properly execute their strategic plans, in part due to implementation and execution that falls short.

Here, we’ll review how to beat the odds and wind up being among the 10% to 40% of businesses that successfully execute their strategic plans.

Key Takeaways

• Successful strategic plan execution is grounded in communication that creates organization-wide transparency, clarity, and understanding.
• Proper resource allocation forms the basis of the strategic plan, after all goals and processes are aligned, to ensure goal-focused investments. 
• Accountability and monitoring align executable tactics and processes with organizational goals, and the completion of deliverables and milestones show progress along the way. 

The Importance of Communication and Context in Strategic Plan Execution

The successful execution of a strategic plan stems from a combination of buy-in from company stakeholders, a comprehensive communication plan, and a commitment to objective metrics and accomplishments. 

Remember that strategic plans shouldn’t be developed in a vacuum, with the process driven only by C-suite executives who may be far removed from the company’s inner workings and practical realities. Without subject matter experts and other leaders who understand the challenges of execution, ground-level expectations might be unrealistic. Team leaders and stakeholders should be involved in coming up with activities, timelines, and resources so the plan can work out.

Also, keep in mind that unexplained changes in normal procedures can lead to confusion and disenchantment. At every level of the company, team members benefit from knowing about the company’s goals and direction. This knowledge and context will help them grasp how the activities they’ll tackle fit into the big picture, and help the company reach goals.

For both leaders and team members, effective communication makes it easier to share the vision that emerges from the planning process, providing a greater sense of purpose and mission.

“Without a playbook to keep employees on board and actively engaged in achieving the company’s objectives,” research and consulting firm Gartner says, “employee motivation goes down and resistance goes up, increasing the cost of execution.”

Picking the Right People for Strategic Plan Execution

As with any great team, companies must put the right talent and infrastructure in place to successfully carry out a strategic plan. The planning process itself answer key questions staffing and equipping the company to achieve its goals:

• Is the right mix of talent and skills in place?
• Are these people able to devote time needed to reach milestones that are relevant to them and the strategic plan?
• Are the right tools available to execute strategies and tactics tied to the plan?
• Are external resources available and financially feasible to help execute the plan?

Properly carrying out a well-developed framework for strategic planning enables effective decision-making surrounding acquisition of talent and other resources. Beyond that, monitoring progress enables real-time awareness of challenges, giving support to team members connected to the plan and keeping the plan on track. Changes can be made along the way to adapt new developments in your marketplace or the economy.

How to Monitor, Measure, and Adjust in Strategic Planning Execution

The milestones and deliverables tied to the plan’s execution must align with a timeline so those undertaking activities can access the appropriate resources. Meanwhile, accountability at the execution stage pushes the process toward measurable success.

Monitoring and measuring at regular checkpoints confirms progress, identifies shortcomings, and allows for adjustments that can avoid failures in execution of your strategic plan.

Tracking the progress of strategic plan execution gives room for progress between checkpoints, but not so much room that it’s tough to pivot when needed. Check-ins every other week are a common, well-regarded practice for managers to ensure people and teams understand what needs to happen next, and can pave the way for on-time, on-budget deliverables.

The Bottom Line

Strategic planning, communication, and accountability support team members to help them achieve company goals. Few things in life go according to plan, so the ability to quickly adjust is vital to delivering value when executing a strategic plan. Transparency and inclusion helps all team members figure out how they contribute value and how their work moves the organization closer toward achieving goals.

Learn how Sellerant can help you activate a strategic plan for your organization’s success.