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Don’t Forget About the “How”

Erica Olsen — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:49:41 +0000

As hundreds of thousands of organizations are finishing up their strategic planning retreats or offsite meetings this month, more than 70 percent will not take concrete action from those flip charts, sticky notes and whiteboards. Consider the huge cost of labor hours from people sitting in a day or multi-day meeting, only to have that time wasted. Honestly, it is human nature to get excited about a big idea, but then the excitement wanes as we get further and further away from the moment. If you just participated in a retreat, make it your charge to be part of the 30 percent of companies who do take action and here is how.

A fellow strategic planning consultant, Holly Green, wrote a great article that talks about not forgetting about the “how” by breaking down the process of getting from where we are to where we want to go into manageable steps. Below is the cliff notes version (Full Text).

Today to Six Months: Look at the gaps between your current reality and your future state. Determine what incremental steps you must take in operations, people (skills and capabilities), systems and process.

Six to Twelve Months: After you have succeeded in incremental changes, consider what new, substantial actions you need to take to reach your vision. Ideally your substantial actions are lined up to be implemented after your incremental changes have taken place and settled in. Again, consider the substantial actions in the areas of customer, operations, people and process.

Twelve to Eighteen Months and Beyond: Now you are ready to move into transformational change – maybe business model shifts or larger strategy adjustments that seemed impossible 12 months ago.

By thinking about your strategic plan in timed phases, it prevents you and your team from being totally overwhelmed. It also helps you put feet on the ideas from your retreat without thinking you have to perfectly action out the next 3+ years. Obviously the time phased items listed above are fluid and iterative. In my experience as a strategic planning consultant, no one organization will adapt the timed phases the same, but what they all do have in common, and I know you do too, is the strong will to change happen. So, don’t forget about the “how”.

Middle Eastern Businesses Select Strategic Planning Experts to Lead Summit

Ed Adkins — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:22:24 +0000

Nevada-based M3 Planning, makers of the online strategic planning tool MyStrategicPlan, have been tapped to travel to Bahrain to run a strategic planning summit for some of the region’s top businesses.

Reno, NV (PRWEB) November 6, 2009 — Middle Eastern business leaders have tapped global strategic planning experts from Nevada-based M3 Planning to lead a summit on strategic corporate planning, aimed at strengthening the long-term economic strength of some of the largest organizations in their region. From November 16 to 17 of this year executives from throughout the region will gather at the Sheraton Bahrain Hotel in Manama, Bahrain for training to better equip their organizations to evaluate current opportunities and align organizational objectives toward corporate vision and missions.

Strategy Expert and Author Erica Olsen

According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund, the current global financial crisis has contributed to a slowdown in oil revenues in the Middle East throughout the current year. Though the region has tapped into profits from previous years in order to weather the economic downturn, regional leaders have decided to take action by holding this unique summit with strategic planning specialists from M3 Planning.

Although this region was buffered from some of the crisis, these organizations are concerned with sustainable strategies to carry forth well after the economic crisis is over.

Summit presenter Erica Olsen says that organizations in the Middle East have developed a sense of urgency around planning. “Although this region was buffered from some of the crisis, these organizations are concerned with sustainable strategies to carry forth well after the economic crisis is over.”

Participants for training include executives from some of the largest companies of the region, such as Al Muhaidib Group, Saudi Cable Company, United Gulf Bank, Najran Cement Company, Aluminium Bahrain, Ministry of Housing and Bank Sohar.

Topics covered in this summit include: re-shaping organizations’ strategic plans to be on par with their proposed direction, designing and developing a strategic plan towards realization of corporate vision and mission, thriving in times of constraint through alternative growth strategies and aligning business plans toward complementing strategic plans.

Olsen, having recently also lead a summit for executives in Dubai as well, says that M3 Planning is proud to be selected to lead this summit. “Our team is excited to assist business leaders in Bahrain, and we share the excitement and interest in the region’s long-term success.”

About Erica Olsen
Through M3 Planning’s online client base and on-site strategic planning facilitation work, Erica Olsen has developed and reviewed hundreds of strategic plans for organizations across the country. She has also authored several strategic planning books including Strategic Planning for Dummies and was named Entrepreneur of the Year by The Business Report of Northern Nevada in 2007.

About M3 Planning
M3 Planning is a strategic planning firm that works with growth-oriented organizations to develop and execute their strategic plans. In addition to their online strategic planning system, MyStrategicPlan.com, the company is also a resource for other strategic planning tools, books, articles, workshops and facilitations

About Marcus Evans Events
Marcus Evans specializes in the research and development of strategic events for senior business executives. From their international network of 63 offices, Marcus Evans produces over 1000 days of events each year on strategic issues in corporate finance, telecommunications, technology, health, transportation, capital markets, human resources and business improvement.

Our Annual Retreat Re-Cap

Ed Adkins — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:07:31 +0000

Whew! Well, if you’ve been following along, you saw that we at M3 Planning recently held our own strategic planning annual retreat. What an experience it was for me to lead my first facilitation with a room full of strategic planning consultants!

In guiding everyone through the process (a full eight hour day!) I not only lost probably 5 pounds, but I learned a lot of important lessons. Below I’ll sum up how it went and what I came away with.

Strategist, Heal Thyself: What I Learned Facilitating a Strategic Planning Retreat for Strategy Experts

Make sure to have all of your materials ready the day before the retreat. My boss, Erica Olsen, always stresses the need to make sure that you print off all your documents, round up your resources and make your posters at least the day before you plan on facilitating. You may think that you could come in early the day of the retreat and finish something that you had to put off, but that never works, and will gaurantee that your printer will break, your markers will be missing, or your car will blow up. (ok that has never happened but you get the idea) Happily, I had everything ready and was well prepared- how great it was not to have to worry about that!
Make a clear agenda. We’ve all heard that when making a presentation you should “tell ‘em what you’re going to tell them, tell ‘em what you’re telling ‘em, and then tell ‘em what you told ‘em.” If you hadn’t ever heard it, you just did- assuming you were reading it out loud. Having an agenda that specifically lays out the plans for the day gets everyone on track and answers questions so people can focus on the tasks at hand. Throughout the day, having a clear agenda allowed me to keep the group on track- and with a room full of big-picture thinkers what can be nearly impossible!
Ask questions that are designed to get feedback. You may think that everyone’s got lot’s of input on a particular subject, but if you ask your questions how you normally might, you’re probably going to get one answer. Most of the time, we’ll say “how do we solve this?” or “what do you want to see done about…” but those questions are designed for one answer. Try asking questions framed this way:
- “What are some ways that…”
- “What are some things that…”
- “Let’s get some suggestions about…”
Plan for wiggle room. Nothing goes exactly as planned. Make sure that you don’t expect it to! Make your agenda and plan your day, but when a conversation goes longer than planned don’t freak out- adjust the plan a little and let everyone know you’ll have to wrap it up soon. But don’t stop just in the name of timing if the group is really coming up with something great.
Know when everyone has reached their saturation point. After a day of planning, people are going to get tired. There’s usually what I’d like to call the 2 O’clock Wall, or the Post-Food Coma. Watch out for that, and try to make sure that you have plenty of energy to get people going after lunch. Then, nearing the end of the day, know when to call it quits. I know you want to solve every situation your organization is facing, but once the group is done it’s done. Be sensitive to information and contribution overload- you’ll get way more out of them the next day or in a followup meeting set at a later date.

Well that’s all I’ve got. It was a great experience and we developed some fantastic plans for 2009 and beyond. Good luck with your own retreats, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you need more information!