Making a plan but worried that it will get ignored, shelved, or die from neglect? In this video, Craig gives us three ways to help us keep our plans alive: align, report, and revise.
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Here’s what Craig says in the video
Hi everybody! Hey, it’s Craig Freshley here. Oftentimes when I work with groups on strategic planning or making any kind of plan I get asked, “How can we keep the plan alive? How can we keep the plan off the shelf?” Here’s three things to keep in mind.
One: Organize your plan the same way that your work is organized. Let’s say you’re making a strategic plan – you’ve got four goals. Wouldn’t it make sense to have four committees, or if you have four managers of staff operation, have those four managers be the same four managers aligned with the four goals? Now I know it might seem over-simplistic and even impractical, but as much as you can organize your plan along the same lines that you’re going to be implementing, that’s going to keep your plan alive.
Number two: Regularly report in terms of the plan. A lot of boards of directors or even corporate management teams have a weekly or monthly or quarterly meeting, and everybody reports, “Here’s what we did since we last met, et cetera”, but rarely do those reports align with the plan. They should. Whoever’s running the meeting should insist that every report not just be a random “Here’s what we did over the last few weeks”, but “Here’s what we did to support the strategic plan”. The report-outs should be in alignment with the organization of the plan.
Number three: If your practice drifts from what the plan says, don’t pretend you didn’t see that, don’t ignore that and just hope it will be okay, or think it’s going to be somebody else’s responsibility to fix that. Call it out, and do one of two things – either change the practice or change the plan. And let me tell you – it’s okay to change the plan. That’s actually how you keep it alive – by making it adaptable and changeable and in continuous alignment with your actual practices.
I know this sounds over-simplistic but this is what I’ve learned: three ways to keep your plan alive.
Thanks for listening everybody. I hope this helps your group make good decisions.
