The roadmap to success is created through strategic planning. However, there is a time and place for everything. Let’s talk about some situations where leaders and companies should not be diving headfirst into the strategic planning process.

Strategic Planning Won’t Help You If…

As a leader, you have to know the right time to take the right action. Strategic planning is a process that every single company and leadership team should consistently be involved in. However, there are certain times that you should not be focused on planning for your business 5, 10, 15 years out. When would that be? Let’s talk.

Crisis Mode

If your business is being negatively affected by the pandemic right now, you should not be holding meetings with leaders and planning for your business 10 years down the road. If you’re struggling to survive for the next 3, 6, 12 months…it would be really difficult to successfully mitigate the risk during a crisis if you’re spending valuable time focus on a future that you may not even be around to experience.

If you’re in a financial crisis right now, you should not be strategic planning.

Skills Resource

In order to for strategic planning to bode well for your business, you have to allocate sufficient resources.

It’s critically important that the process is facilitated by someone who has the high-level skills to continue to help you improve your solutions through a strategically organized process. Hiring or training someone to become the skilled facilitator for your strategic planning process is essential to uncovering the absolute best solutions for the future of your business. Without this skilled resource, you risk:

-time spent in meetings that bear no fruit
-solutions that leave you left in the dust behind your competitors
-…and ultimately, decreased leadership morale, performance, and profits

Time Resource

If you cannot or will not allocate sufficient time consistently in your schedule for strategic planning, then you’re wasting the little amount of time you do give it.
The fact of the matter is that strategic planning is all about managing change. Because change is constant, your strategic planning process must also be constant. If not, you’ll put bandaids on places that need surgery. You’ll come up with solutions your competitors already thought of, ruled out, and have capitalized on. Ultimately, you’ll end up becoming a failure instead of a front-runner in the future. You don’t want that and I don’t want that for you!

Money Resource

Any financial resources put towards strategically planning for the future of your business – the right way – is a positive investment, not a waste of money.

If you invest a little in the right resources, you’ll likely get little results. If you invest adequately in the right resources, you’re more likely to have increasingly positive results for years and decades to come.

When done correctly, strategic planning is the process that will help you set yourself for radical success in the future. My question to you is, are you willing to make the investment…the investment of skills, time, and money?

Strategic Planning for a Solid Future

I’ll say it again, as a leader you have to know the right actions to take at the right time. When it comes to strategic planning, if you’re in the middle of managing a crisis, you should not be working on strategic planning. Additionally, if you’re not ready to invest the skills, time, and financial resources it’s going to take to consistently work through the process, you’re likely wasting your time with any effort put towards strategic planning.

In order to make sure you and your business are both relevant and successful in the future, strategic planning is critical. Establishing correct and calculated goals will give your entire organization a sense of direction as you move decision-by-decision into the future. When the time is right for your leadership team, we’re here to help you with all your strategic planning needs.

Want the BEST outcomes from your strategic planning process?

We can help.

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