Your Strategic Plan in 7 Days

Is it possible to create a corporate strategic plan in a week?  The answer depends from where you are starting.  Are you starting from the most current plan?  What results are wanted out of the process this time around?  What are the definitions you want to attach to “strategic plan”, and to “done”? 

In a recent online discussion with a colleague, this topic was debated.  I want to give him credit for the schedule and plan disclosed below without disclosing his name and information.  My colleague’s assertion was that a good strategic plan can be completed within a week’s time, using the following schedule:

• First Day: The executive team reviews a binder containing all pertinent information from each functional area of the business
• Second Day:  Used for reading and thinking
• Third Day: Used for discussion of ideas
• Fourth Day:  Another day for reading and thinking
• Fifth Day: Off-site workshop to discuss recommendations again and reflect on budget implications
• Sixth Day: Used to finalize and adopt the plan, inclusive of defining implementation timelines and budgets
• Seventh Day:  A day of rest

The truth is, it is possible to accomplish the creation of the enterprise strategic plan in seven days.  The keystone is that the organization must have a mature and effective planning process already in place. 

Just compiling the data to go into the “magic binder” referenced above in the plan for the First Day can be a daunting task for a large multi-national company.  Setting that aside, even if the plan is created in a week’s time, is the job really done?  Has everything that needs to be done to support the strategy roll-out been addressed?

Again, what is the definition of “done”? 

The approach as outlined above misses many critical points that planning should encompass, which prompted this response:  Order now and get a free 2-minute egg timer!


Strategy Cannot Be Ordered-up Like a Set Of Ginsu Knives

Creating strategy requires intimate business knowledge, collected systematically through a process that pulls from all parts of the organization.  What my colleague described doesn’t sound like the finished product of comprehensive strategic planning, nor does this approach address any operational input or detailed planning to ensure that the plan can be implemented once it gets handed off by the executive team.  To execute on the plan, it must be communicated and understood.  The plan also must have been defined using realistic input so that it really can really be executed within the timeframes they’d decided.

Operations / Tactical Plans

Defining enterprise strategy is not the same as creating an enterprise (e.g. corporate) strategic plan.  A strategy defines the direction, but a holistic plan defines goals (key outcomes) that support the strategy and must address the tactics of execution within operations that will accomplish the goals.  Comprehensive strategic and operational plans that are capable of accomplishing the goals of the enterprise strategy take more time to create than just one week.  Such planning is dependent upon integrated initiative management that sorts out resources needed, cost to implement, timeframes to deliver, who will do what and when they will do it.  Accountability for plan execution must be engineered into the tactics so that performance can be measured and managed.

Communication and Change Management

What gets included in with the scope of strategic planning?  What is and what isn’t included in the scope of planning drive the time frame to develop the plan.  Time invested in up-front planning saves far more time on the back-end when companies go to execute their strategy.  Communication and change management are examples of two areas where companies shave off time in the planning process to the detriment of the outcome.  These essential components are too often overlooked, even though they are important factors in strategic planning and directly affect the successful results of execution. 

Why is this?  I believe it is attributed to the failure to consider the organization’s culture and the organization’s framework for organizing and managing work initiatives related to the strategic plan’s goals.  Let’s face it, strategy goes hand-in-hand with business execution. 

Since one without the other spells trouble, why not consider the layers of the organization that actually will be doing this work?  Employees are entitled to know the vision of their organization, and likewise, need to have an understanding of the strategy.  Creating the understanding in and of itself requires effort, and of course...planning.  This becomes even more critical when they are directly impacted by the strategy, either through process changes or through integration with newly acquired units. 

Each of the following must be explicitly defined and understand as part of the planning process:  


• What levels of the organization are directly impacted?
• What roles at those levels are directly affected?
• When and how must the employees who will be impacted by change be notified?
• What is the best way to make the information actionable to them?

This is where change management and good communication help alleviate the fear, uncertainty and doubt that develops in the minds of good and capable employees who are uninformed as to the strategy and operational tactics planned by the organization.  Getting people on board with the program and educating them about how they will be asked to participate, assist and be held accountable to the strategy is vital and takes more than a week to accomplish.  Just for management to define how enterprise goal attainment will affect operations via tactical plan execution takes (repeat after me)...time.  Each role is relative to the big picture:

• changes to job responsibilities
• measurements of the plan
• rewards / consequences as a result of execution

All must be considered.  The culture or cultures of the organization will also drive the formula for the communication plan and the change management approach.

Ongoing Execution

Governance is a day-by-day activity that is arguably not part of the strategic planning process itself, but is the essential component of the very definition of being able to consider the job “done”.  In my opinion, it should be considered part of the planning process, not only because governance is used to manage and track execution but also the success of strategy itself.

So How Long Should Strategic Planning Take?

As a leader in your organization, the answer is up to you.  You can adjust the definitions to meet your expectations requirements and desired key outcomes.  Executives must define the vision so that the planning process can be executed to meet that definition of success.  This is true of of all aspects of execution planning as well.  All roads lead back to the executive leadership’s ability to set up a planning approach that enables successful outcomes from the effort.  Yes, the answer to how long it takes to complete strategic planning is dependent on the scope of the process, the expectations of the outcomes and the discipline leaders are willing to put into the approach.  The good news is, at least you know ahead of time what to expect as well as what you cannot expect from the process.

Like most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

For permission to use or reprint any portions of this copyrighted article, contact Method Frameworks at articles@methodframeworks.com.

About the Author:

Joe Evans is the President and CEO of Method Frameworks.  Joe is a published author, frequent speaker and recognized expert in corporate strategic planning. To contact Method Frameworks about scheduling Mr. Evans about an upcoming speaking engagement, visit www.methodframeworks.com/business-speaker or email requests to media_relations@methodframeworks.com.

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