Help Writing a Strategic Plan
Writing the strategic plan is an important part of the strategic planning process. The strategic plan document should serve as a roadmap for the organization and all of its players to ensure execution. The strategic plan document should be written to clearly communicate with key players: the inputs to the plan; goals, objectives, strategies and tactics; timing and accountability; and measures of success. Documenting this information in a clear, readily accessible and easily adaptable format will ensure that the plan is a living document rather than a document that sits on a shelf gathering dust.
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Document the Inputs to the Plan
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Since the strategic planning document will be shared with people who were not part of the planning process, it is important that it documents the steps in the process and the inputs used. This can be done quite simply, by including the SWOT -- strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats -- analysis in a bulleted list or chart and providing an indication of the priorities that were assigned to each of these categories. This list of items is used to drive the creation of goals, strategies, objectives and tactics.
Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics
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Goals, objectives, strategies and tactics should be clearly outlined in the strategic plan document. Putting these items into a table or chart can help to show the relationships between them. It is also important to write each of these elements correctly. Goals are designed to be broad, general statements of a desired end point, increase market share. Objectives are designed to support goals in a measurable way and should be SMART -- specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound -- increase market share in XYZ market for XYZ product, for example, increase share by 25 percent over the next three months. Strategies are broad and indicate how the objectives will be met, create marketing campaign to introduce product XYZ. Tactics support strategies with specific action steps to be accomplished, such as develop a contract with advertising agency and a campaign theme.
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Timing and Accountability
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The strategic plan should clearly indicate timing and accountability for each of the action steps identified. This is an important part of the plan that will help ensure that actions are taken and that execution will occur. Writing the plan is more about documentation of key events than creating great literary content. Here, the plan writer will simply want to detail, for each tactic, the "who, what, when, where and how" that will drive the tactics' accomplishment.
Measures of Success
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In addition to indicating the timing and accountability for each plan action, the plan should also be written to clearly reflect how plan success will be monitored. For instance, perhaps meetings will be held on a regular basis to review results based on specific measures, sales data, consumer awareness data, customer satisfaction information, etc. The plan should indicate the specific elements that will be reviewed, who will be responsible for gathering these elements, how often they will be reviewed and the levels of performance expected.
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References
Resources
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