Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed at the close of the year, juggling between wrapping up projects, Christmas events, and planning for the new year? If you haven’t realised yet, it’s that time of the year again, and you’re not alone. As the festive season approaches, the traditional cycle of annual planning comes around, with a mix of anticipation and anxiety. But what if there was a way to break free from this cycle, to transition from a rushed year-end planning to a structured, year-round strategic journey, allowing for a proactive approach to tackling challenges and seizing opportunities?
Post Contents
Breaking Free from the Year-End Planning Cycle
It’s time to say goodbye to the old, rigid annual planning ritual and embrace a more fluid, pragmatic approach that keeps you and your team on track all year round. Annual planning is dead.
Welcome to the new era of strategic business planning—where the focus shifts from merely ‘planning to plan’ to ‘planning to succeed’, driving your company forward irrespective of the season.
In my 25+ years’ career, as a manager, consultant, and entrepreneur, I have been part of many annual strategy and planning sessions. And while we often achieved a lot, I’ve seen plenty of failures as well.
As a business coach for entrepreneurs, I have come to realise, that this is not exclusive to my personal experiences, but is a repeating topic in the entrepreneurial landscape.
Strategic planning and goal setting improves with time and practice. And there is hope, because we all can do a lot better by using the right toolkit. But most of all, we must stop with those rigid year cycles.
Envisioning Your Bold Future
To set the scene, let’s first define what we mean by Strategic Planning. This is the process that enables companies to envision a bold future and prepare a plan with objectives and goals to reach that envisioned future.
For entrepreneurs I often say that this is the moment to share their dream before we will start living it.
A robust strategic plan defines the direction your company is headed, the strategy to outshine, the responsibilities each member needs to undertake, and the mechanisms for reviewing and adapting the strategy.
But should your strategy change every year? Not when it’s up to me.
Personal Yearly Planning Experiences
The season for yearly planning at my own company, Goyello, was always very busy. As the final months of the year approached, our schedule would be filled with internal activities and celebrations, alongside a push from clients to wrap up projects before the year’s end.
The tasks seemed endless – from conducting employee appraisals to organising the year-end company party, alongside evaluating the current year’s achievements and planning for the year ahead. The pace was constant, and the pressure escalated with each passing day.
Finding time for strategic business planning for the upcoming year amidst this bustling schedule was a tough task. The rush often led to plans that were grand in vision, but often too high-level, lacking the detailed focus needed due to the constant juggling of many year-end tasks.
Despite the rush, we cherished a tradition of unveiling our plan for the next year during our Christmas Party—a tradition I would have happily upheld to this day.
In retrospect, it’s clear that our planning process kicked off rather late, making it a somewhat isolated activity. We struggled to integrate it seamlessly into the year-round planning cycle, an oversight that made a smooth transition from one year to the next challenging.
The Call for a Pragmatic Approach
The traditional planning approach often led to a detailed yet rigid annual plan. However, as the months rolled by, the initial enthusiasm diminished, new ideas popped-up, and the carefully crafted plan would gradually be set aside. The primary reason was the lack of an actionable roadmap that translated the grand plan into day-to-day activities.
In a previous discussion on GrowthTailor.com titled “Rethinking Strategy: A 7-Step Agile Business Strategy Approach”, I explored the high-level process of adopting a more agile business strategy approach. Let’s therefore now see how to get there.
Shifting Gears: From Planning to Succeeding
Do you recognise my personal experiences? If so, you might feel as well that you need a more pragmatic and result-driven approach, forcing you to include it into your daily practices.
So, is annual planning dead? May be not. What I do mean is setting annual plans and only adapting and changing them once a year is dead.
Monthly or quarterly strategy reviews are the periodic check points that make the difference between creating a living, breathing plan with the culture to execute it and one that is left behind and forgotten in the drawer.
The strategic management process is essentially a journey from A to B, aimed at traveling this path more effectively and efficiently, while enjoying and learning from the journey. It embodies two core elements: the strategy, which dictates “how” you travel along the chosen path, and the execution, “what” you will do, which ensures regular check-ins along the way to maintain the right direction.
The timeline for this process can span three to four months on average, yet the pace can vary depending on the unique dynamics of your company.
It’s essential to find a rhythm that resonates with you and your team, leveraging this process as a resource to keep your strategic business planning on track.
The objective is clear: we need to ensure that the strategic plan remains a guiding document for focussed execution throughout the year. Here’s a distilled version of a pragmatic four phases approach as promoted by our friends at OnStrategy, to ensure that your strategic business planning translates into actionable execution:
- Assess Current Position: Start with a thorough analysis of the current year’s performance, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).
- Develop Strategy: Based on the assessment, draft a strategy that aligns with your long-term objectives, ensuring it’s adaptable to unforeseen circumstances.
- Build the Plan: Translate the strategy into actionable tasks, distributed over manageable timeframes. This step is crucial to bridge the gap between planning and doing.
- Evaluate and Control: Engage in regular reviews to follow the progress, making necessary adjustments to stay aligned with the outlined objectives.
Combining Strategy with Action
This simplified approach is about creating a culture of continuous execution and adaptation. It’s about ensuring that the strategic plan is not just a document, but a guiding framework for action throughout the year.
As the strategic planning season nears, it might be worth considering this more pragmatic approach that goes beyond the yearly planning ritual, ensuring that the strategic objectives are translated into actionable steps, driving the company forward throughout the year.
Engage with Our Upcoming Series on Strategic Planning and More
The above is just a sneak peek of what is to come. In the next weeks we will publish multiple posts as part of our Strategic Business Planning Series to explore the various facets of strategic business planning, providing a comprehensive guide on effectively translating your annual strategic plans into a roadmap for consistent execution.
The shift from ‘planning to plan’ to ‘planning to do’ is not just a change in approach, but a transformation in mindset, propelling your organisation towards a trajectory of continuous growth and achievement. It is in our opinion the best way to keep your strategy alive and kicking. The next step in this process is laying the groundwork, which we have described in our next post “Transforming Strategic Business Planning into a Tool for Growth“.
Register to stay tuned
We’re just scratching the surface here, and there’s a lot more to explore in our upcoming series on strategic business planning. Don’t miss out on the valuable insights that could drive your business forward. Register through the newsletter form below to subscribe and we’ll ensure you stay updated.
Your experiences and insights are valuable to us and the community. Share your thoughts, challenges, or success stories in the comments below. Let’s foster a dynamic discussion that can lead to actionable solutions for everyone.
Need a Nudge in the Right Direction?
Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh perspective to overcome the hurdles in strategic planning. Whether you need a couple of discussions to unlock new potentials, frequent check-ins to stay on track, or even interim management, we’re here to tailor our support to your needs. Don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consulting call. Our engagement is about providing the right amount of support to help you succeed in your strategic business planning journey.
0 Comments