A Fresh Start...

Robin Throckmorton, M.A., SPHR

Since September 11th, how many of us have stopped to evaluate ourselves and made some changes?

"Are we doing the right thing?" "Are we getting the most out of our life while we have it?"

Day after day, I am approached by individuals that are doing just that - re-evaluating what they are doing in their lives and adjusting accordingly to be sure they are treating each moment as though it may be the last. Although we should be doing this every day, for many of us it took the events of September 11th to get us thinking that way.

But what about our businesses...are we doing the right thing there, too? Are we getting the most out of our business? Besides evaluating ourselves, we should also be evaluating and setting clear goals for our businesses and what better time than the beginning of a new year. Now is the time to pull out your old strategic plan and blow off the dust. Better yet, you may even want to just throw it away and get a fresh start.

Internal and External Analysis

First things first...you can't create a plan for where you want to be if you don't even know where you are. The first thing you need to do is the good old "SWOT" analysis - identifying your internal Strengths and Weaknesses as well as external Opportunities and Threats.

Internally, this includes assessing your human, financial, and technological resources, as well as the culture and values of the organization and its leadership team. An external analysis requires you to evaluate what's going on in the environment around you and how it may affect your plans. To do this you may want to look at economic trends, current and pending legislation, technology, and social issues such as demographics and lifestyles. Gathering this internal and external information will give you a snapshot of where you are now - your starting point.

However, a starting point, by itself, will not enable you to achieve your goals. Like going on a trip, you need both a starting point and a destination. Remember my favorite quote:

"Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where-" said Alice
"Then it doesn't much matter which way you go," said the Cat.

- from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Vision

We need to determine our destination - in other words our Vision or preferred / target future. A Vision is a short statement that is easily understood by all and describes something different or better. For example,

"To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind." - Steve Jobs - Apple Computers

Mission

Next you need to develop your Mission statement or a statement explaining why you exist. Generally this is no more than a paragraph and only occasionally changes. It describes what the organization intends to do or is in the business to do in order to progress toward it's Vision.

Objectives

Now to answer Alice's question to the cat…Once you know where you are and where you want to go, you can then map the directions for getting there. In other words, you can identify the key objectives that must be met during this planning horizon to progress toward your Mission and Vision. Generally, you will have no more than 5 - 6 key objectives that are specific and measurable. They need to be ambitious but realistic and only focus on what needs done not how, that's next.

Action Plan

For each of your objectives, you will then need to create a detailed action plan. I've had the most success with this using the "6 CheckPoints for Implementation" by DDI. If you can answer the following questions for each Objective, you should have a clear action plan:

1. OUTCOMES - What results we are looking for from this objective?

2. BENEFITS - Why is this important?

3. BARRIERS - What might prevent us from completing this objective?

4. SUPPORT - What resources are available to help us with this objective?

5. APPROACH - What steps must we take to achieve this objective? (Be specific on each step indicating who will do what and when)

6. EVALUATION - How will we know when we've successfully met this objective?

Implementation and Evaluation

The hardest step in this process is the next one - implementation! It will be easy to do all of this planning and throw the end product on the shelf until next year. But, then where will you be and will you be any closer to your preferred future? To help ensure that you are proactively working toward these goals, you need to check back on things every so often - at least quarterly. Has anything changed? Are you on target? Do you need to modify any of the plans? This plan is a living document so it may change; this is okay as long as you are aware of the changes and make them yourself rather than them being made for you.

This isn't an easy process and can be extremely exhausting. But, if you create an effective and realistic strategic plan, you may be able to realize any or all of the following benefits:

• improved organizational performance by focusing resources on the long-term results;
• proactive operations rather than management by crisis;
• warning of future threats or opportunities so you can capitalize or minimize the impact or change;
• ability to evaluate the organization's performance, and more importantly, link individual goals and awards to the strategic goals of the organization; and
• team building by gaining consensus and ownership with the "team" developing the plan.

The most important benefit of effective strategic planning is that it provides you with a fresh start by clarifying where you are, where you are going, and how you are going to get there. You really should re-evaluate your strategic plan on an annual basis using a planning horizon between 2 - 5 years. Each year, you may find that a great deal changes but your preferred future will stay status quo until you reach it - and you will! Good luck with your fresh start!

(For help with your strategic planning, you can either contact Robin at 513-697-9855 or Robin@StrategicHRinc.com or refer to "Effective Strategic Planning" by Christine Keen, a primary source for this article).