By Michael Cruz
Every January we work on resolutions. Business planning often tops the list of things we want to do better. There are numerous articles about the coming year and predictions from experts. If you did a solid planning effort – great! If not, do not wait for the next new year.
This takes some work and should be done outside of your office in a planned event. The best planning events also bring in facilitators. A facilitator is someone outside your company who can discussions focused and move you through a solid process. Many of these discussions can become contentious. And, a good facilitator will make sure that everyone contributes and get you more buy-in from your leadership team.
A solid key to good planning is working on a SWOT with your leadership team. SWOT analysis is a framework for identifying and analyzing an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The primary goal of SWOT analysis is to increase awareness of the factors that go establishing a business strategy.
Strengths are those things that your company is good at. Often, they are things that make you stand out from your competitors. Weaknesses are those things that we should get better at. Opportunities are those things answered by the question ‘What if?’ For example what if we were able to add a new product offering? Finally, Threats are those things that are outside our control. For Threats we want (later) to have mitigation strategies. Examples include macro economic questions of the economy slowing down, government regulations and the like.
Working with your team, these key points are an important base for good planning. Your strengths are things you want your company to stay focused on and build upon. Your weaknesses become the solid factors that build out good action plans. Opportunities help provide a window to seeing things we can do to enhance the company. And, again, threats need to are things we need to be aware of and react to if they come to pass.
Another key to good planning is to identify your company’s culture. Every organization has a culture. For this, we are not talking about mission statements. Nor is it the aspirational statements like “We treat all employees with dignity.” It is best understood by the things employees expect to see when they get to work each morning. If part of your culture is to punish mistakes made by employees, then you will have a hard time encouraging risk taking. This plays into your strengths, but often also your weaknesses. There are tools for measuring this. However that is a topic unto itself.
With a solid SWOT you next examine your present status. Then set some goals for the coming year. Are these goals specific enough and measurable enough? There must be buy-in from the entire leadership team. Managers will make or break your success. Each plank of your plan also needs to have a champion. The champion is the person who is held to task for the success of watch out your plan’s planks.
Each plank must also address whether you have the resources internally to achieve your goals. If not, can you afford to hire to help you ensure success. Or should you look outside the company for some help. All plans need to focus on growth. Without growth, our businesses will shrink and eventually die.
Completed plans need to be shared with the entire company. Gather feedback from your workforce and adjust your plan if they see big obstacles to achieving your plan. Quarterly reviews are also critical. Plans fail because we don’t measure our progress. If there are things blocking progress, address them promptly. Waiting another year to measure success is not enough.
Finally, make plans to celebrate successes. Do so with the entire company. People want to be part of winning teams. Help them see growth and they will do more to sustain that growth. With that you will be celebrating a banner year in your business.