Strategic planning tools.

When facilitating strategic planning sessions, there are a number of tools we find effective. 

Facilitating strategic discussions, whether with a Board of Directors, a leadership team, family business owners or not-for-profits, there are a few tools we turn to.

​These include:

• Whiteboard. There is something special about a good old fashioned whiteboard. It allows people to be free flowing with ideas, given they can be rubbed out and scribbled over. It also gets people looking up and thinking big, rather than small as they tend to if you use paper or a computer.
• Agenda. A thoughtfully planned agenda with enough wriggle room in there for your facilitator to read the room and direct conversation is essential. It aides with psychological safety of the group knowing where we are going, what we are covering, what to expect, so they can then concentrate on the task at hand at surrender to the process.
• Catering. Keeping people together over coffee breaks and lunch adds to the essence of the day. Often the banter over a cuppa is the spark required to ignite the next session. Sending people away at breaks to get their own food is never a good idea. 
• Follow up. If you have reviewed a strategic plan during your session, distribute it to the attendees as soon as possible after the session. If you have started a process, like a strategic plan, and now need to operationalise the plan, schedule the next session ASAP, keep the ball rolling. One of the key pieces of feedback we've heard over the years is 'we've had one of these 3 years ago - and nothing happened'. As leaders it's important that the investment in big picture discussion is more than just a discussion. It must result in some sort of action or agreement, which includes communication of the agreement or action.
• Your objectives. Be really clear about what your objectives are - even if you end up keeping this between you and your facilitator. The visible objective might be to write the next strategic plan. However, the more important and not so visible objective would probably be to have the leadership team all owning that strategic plan. Think about this when planning the day. Don't ever under-estimate the power of the journey.  

When thinking about your next strategic planning session, keep these things in mind. We hope your session is productive and you get something from the tools in our tool kit.