Strategic Plan Results Count in Business and at Work

Nothing can derail a strategic planning process more than failing to focus on 3- 5 strategic goals and the accompanying key performance indicators (KPIs) that tell the organization that you have all achieved your strategic goals.

A strategic planning process / session that does not include clear and measurable results is just a nice break out of the office – if you’re that lucky.

As a practitioner who regularly facilitates strategic planning processes / sessions and subsequently drafts strategic plans that produce results, more often than not, I’m either performing damage-control / clean-up on an organization’s past strategic planning sessions that produced nothing except a shared team experience, and/or working uphill to dispel team-wide skepticism to regain credibility for the strategic planning process, which has otherwise (in the past) been perceived as time wasted by the organization.

To ensure that your organization’s strategic goals are clear and achievable, each one should be:

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
• Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
• Achievable (agreed, attainable).
• Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).
• Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

For example:  a sample (and logical) nonprofit organization S.M.A.R.T. strategic goal:

• Long-term financial stability.

Desired results are:

• Increased budget, year-over-year
• Diverse, reliable donor base
• Funds that meet / exceed annual spending.

And to ensure strategic goal success, one example of a Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) is:

• Increase number of members / donors who commit at least $4,500 annually by 20% each year.

How will you and your team make your strategic goal results count in business and at work?