Plan Governance: Without it, you have a bag of strategy & a box of plans

Posted by on August 10, 2011

Strategic plans without follow-through will collect dust and never be executed as intended. Plan governance is the essential “follow-through ingredient” to set the wheels in motion for strategy execution.

Keeping The Wheels In Motion

The overall strategic plan must be thought of as a portfolio to be managed. The strategic plan portfolio represents the overall macroscopic view of all programs and initiatives involved with strategy implementation.

With the right planning process, the portfolio is constructed as the organization plans. During the operational planning stage of strategic planning, initiatives get defined that support the strategy’s outcomes. Those initiatives can then be broken down into bite-size projects so that they can be estimated, understood, and eventually – managed. Obviously, projects are much more detailed in terms of defining the time frames, HR requirements, technology requirements, and other details necessary to pave a successful path to delivery. To manage the overall strategic plan, however, we must have some different views of the work to be completed in order to successfully manage it. Grouping projects into programs provides a big-picture way of tracking, managing, and reporting on the tens, hundreds, or in the most extreme cases - thousands of projects that can arise from a corporate strategic plan.  Projects can be grouped into programs in terms of how they support the overarching strategy and goals or along budgetary lines. The overall group of programs is the portfolio. Plan governance then becomes the vehicle to manage the plan portfolio and ensure the of operational initiatives with plan goals and track progress of plan-supporting strategic initiatives through effective oversight at the corporate and operational levels.  

Plan Governance Offices

Organizations that have matured in their planning process have taken governance to another level and have implemented Plan Management Offices. Plan governance, whether implemented as a formal Plan Management Office or administered through a less formalized committee structure, should be responsible for the functions of selecting, managing and measuring of everything entering or within the plan portfolio.  Plan Management Offices benefit the organization by having better visualization into all efforts supporting strategic implementation. Plan Management Offices also position organizations to better manage the risks to be mitigated and the interrelationships of all the underlying initiatives - considering dependency relationships and constraints on resources. 

Performance must be managed, and in order to manage performance - it must be measured. Without proper accountability built into strategic and operational plans, you can expect them to fall short of expectations. There is simply no way to track to the delivery of the strategic goals of the business without defined accountabilities that allow for this to happen. Accountability requires specific time frames along with measurable targets.

Even simple tools such as RACI models (see explanation and example below) can aid in mapping out Responsibility, Accountability, Consult and Inform roles relative to the programs or initiatives supporting the plan.

As a function of the ongoing management of the plan portfolio, plan governance also involves refreshing the strategic and supporting operational plans to reflect changes as a result of completing plan goals and taking on new ones.  This structure allows for strategic and operational planning to become much more actively managed and based on a shorter time horizons.

Lastly, a plan governance model can harvest metrics and status reporting from across the portfolio of all programs and their underlying projects. Metrics are harvested from the tactical layer to provide historical acceleration data to offer continual improvement to the planning cycle.


In the end, planning governance helps organizations filter through the minutia of everyday tasks to focus on accomplishing key outcomes sought by executive leadership.

Suggested Articles And Content Related To This Topic:

• Mapping Out Strategic Execution: Part 2 of “Why We Fail at Strategy Implementation“ 
• The Golden Thread: Linking Strategy to Execution
• Guide to Operational Planning: Strategy Implementation Essentials
• Operational Planning

---

 

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.

---

 

New Change Management PDF Download Available

     

Download our Guide to Change Management

Our guide to successful change management, called "Transforming the Organization", is a 17 page complimentary resource to help your organization initiate a successful corporate change management program, accomplish organizational transformation and make it stick.

In this change management guide, we cover the following:

• Defining change management
• Exploring why change management is a big deal
• Examining why change management is considered difficult to do well
• Describing how to do change management effectively
• Discussing what challenges to expect during the change process
• Setting expectations about what to expect if change management is done well

Download Transforming the Organization in PDF format now. 

---

    

Do not miss these two important strategy-related PDF downloads for executives and business strategy professionals.

 

---

 

  Join the Strategic Planning Xchange group. 

Learn More

Method Frameworks is a leading business strategy and management consulting company, based in the Dallas / Fort Worth area and serving clients nationally and internationally.

Discover our capabilities and learn why Method Frameworks is the strategic planning partner chosen by Fortune-500 companies and small businesses alike. Let us show you how to realize 140%+ ROI on your strategic planning efforts through our unique Plan4^SM process that brings together strategy and execution into a powerful plan.   Plan4 is our proprietary business planning process that involves an integrated set of actions designed to help companies gain sustainable advantage. Download our brochure to learn more about Method Frameworks and our services or download our Plan4 Planning Process Overview.

You can contact Method Frameworks at 877-317-5264 (877-31PLAN4) or follow this link to request a meeting with a planning consultant. Check our articles and blog often at www.methodframeworks.com to get many more planning tips and information about our Plan4 process.

Locations

Atlanta	Chicago	Dallas
Los Angeles	New York	Washington DC

       

• Back to Main Blog
• Email Blog