We're too busy for this!

#stratplan

#ONETeam #SNAPS #SageandNotableAdvisesfromPatrickSalazar

One of the important activities of the year is the strategic planning session. I was surprised to find out that one organization is not using it. Some of the comments I heard from the leaders are:

“It’s just an excuse to treat your leaders to an expensive offsite activity “

“Is it top down or down up?”

“We are too busy for this“

“Just meet your revenue and EBITDA goals, everything else is less important “

Despite hearing all these.. I decided to conduct a strat plan for my Team.

We conducted all planning activities in the office to optimize the facilities, then spent the allocated budget for dinner.

The approach is both down-up and top-down. The pre-work came from inputs of frontline Associates to their Team Leaders. The TLs convert this to a SWOT Analysis consolidated by their Operations Managers. The directors and top Ops Managers & TLs participate in the actual Strat Plan where I cascade the directions of the executive leadership for the year. Both inputs (top & down) determined our Business Imperatives and detailed execution strategy for the year.

We identified the best time to conduct the full day strat plan and half day mid year check point and end of year retrospective.

We exceeded our revenue and EBITDA. We had record high NPS resulting to additional business. All high-potential Associates got certified for their training programs and we had a lot of promotion for the year. Our employee CSAT increased and retention greatly improved.

*About the photo

In another organization where Strat Plans are optimized to achieve & exceed the goals for the year, we often treat our Associates to a celebration dinner after the peak season. Here’s one of those after-a-delicious-buffet Team photos.