The phased approach, Before we get on to steps three to five of the vision-based planning process it is worth quickly discussing phased planning. This refers to splitting your strategy into key development phases. These phases can be categorized into -;
- calendar-based,
- theme-based and
- business-based phasing, dependent on your strategy.
There are other phasing approaches but these are some of the most common.
Calendar-based phasing
This approach is as simple as it sounds. Phasing your plan to match your calendar is one method. You could start in January, aim to have your vision completed by February, establish your goals in March etc. This type of approach is common when there is no specific delivery date in mind, no essential milestone dates or your strategy is not integrated with any other pieces of work. That does not mean that the deadlines are any less important, but you can be a little more flexible with setting those deadlines at the start of the planning process.
Theme-based phasing
Theme-based phasing is used when your strategy has specific themes that would be logical to deliver together. For example, there may be specific customer experience elements that would be powerful to be delivered together such as a new training programme and online chat technology. There could be complementary marketing channel strategies that would be far more powerful if released together, such as direct mail and e-mail.
Business-based phasing
This phasing method is focused on aligning your strategic plan with the overall business goals. Your company’s strategic plan is likely to be made of key strategic pillars, which may in turn be delivering projects and change programmes. This may be less formalized in a smaller business but there will still be key areas of focus, and funding will be directed towards those. The business-based phasing approach means aligning the key parts of your plan with these pillars. This is a path of least resistance and will resonate with many senior stakeholders, but it can compromise the ideal timeline for your strategy.
Now we can come back to look at stages three to five mentioned in the vision-based planning process above. These are goals, objectives and strategies, and action plans.
Goals
Goals are high-level statements about what you need to achieve in order to deliver against your vision. Goals tend to be long term and therefore set out the underlying elements of your vision. They bring your vision statement to life by moving it towards a practical reality.
Goals need to be structured to meet a set of criteria. I call these the 4 Rs:
- Relevant: does it fit with your vision?
- Resonating: does it fit with your business’s values and goals?
- Responsive: is it adaptable and flexible so that it can change if needed?
- Recognizable: is it easily understandable?
Some example goals are:
- increase sales;
- improve profitability;
- provide best-in-class customer service;
- deliver a world-class digital experience;
- hire the best talent;
- become the thought leader;
- gain market share.
You should aim to set a limited number of goals that focus on the key aims of your strategy and fit with the strategic pillars of your business. They also need to be integrated so that they fit together without any conflicting elements. Your business strategy will have goals and each goal will have objectives, strategies and action plans below it. Some of these strategies may in turn have goals that have their own objectives and so through a waterfall effect the goals of your organization are delivered.
Your goals are unique in the planning process in that they require the least detail but the most thought. If your goals are not thought through then the river will be flowing in the wrong direction. How you go about meeting your goal of ‘increase sales’ is not something that the goal itself is concerned with. You do not need to focus on the ‘how’ at this stage, simply the ‘what’. Your objectives and strategies will deal with how these goals are met, as we will see below. Whilst goals should be grounded in reality, they do not need to be specific or be the result of thorough research. They therefore do not need to be entirely realistic. It may sound counter-intuitive to have a goal that cannot be met, but an aspirational goal can drive your business forward faster than a realistic one.
Objectives
Your objectives and strategies are where you start to build specific plans that create a journey for your overall strategy. Once these are in place, we can create action plans that demonstrate the detail of how we deliver them.
Objectives
Your objectives are specific, quantifiable and time-based. They are the steps or milestones that you need to take towards meeting your ultimate goal. Many businesses use a SMART approach to creating objectives. SMART is simply a mnemonic that helps us to ensure that the objectives are well thought through and ultimately will serve their purpose. The SMART method has a number of interpretations but the ‘SMART’ box below outlines one of the more common ones.
SMART
Specific: no matter who were to look at your action plan it should be absolutely clear what needs to be achieved for the action plan to be met. There must be no ambiguity. Using the five ‘W’ questions can help here – again, there are differing interpretations of the five (or sometimes six) ‘W’ questions but below are those that I find the most useful:
- Who: who will be involved in achieving the action plan?
- Where: is a specific location involved?
- What: what exactly needs to be achieved?
- Why: what is this action plan going to achieve?
- When: what is the deadline and any milestones along the way?
Measurable: how will you know when you have met your action plan? It is vital that there is a clear measure so that everyone involved knows when the action plan has been hit and there is no confusion. This also allows you to understand how much progress you are making towards meeting your action plan.
Attainable: setting action plans that are realistic is crucially important. If your action plans are not attainable then you can never meet them, which ultimately means you can never reach your goals. There is no harm in setting a stretching action plan – and indeed getting the balance between too stretching and too easy is important here. Setting an action plan that does not have this balance right can also cause demotivation amongst the team working on it.
Relevant: the action plan needs to be relevant to your goal. Having an action plan that does not tie in with the wider work is not only irrelevant but also a distraction from achieving your goal. Think back to the five Ws above and consider whether each of these are relevant.
Time-based: this is where the sixth ‘W’ comes in: ‘When’. Your action plan needs a time frame and also specific milestones. As with any piece of work, having a deadline gives the action plan a much greater chance of being delivered.