Strategic planning can be an invaluable tool for helping your business achieve its vision. However, if you don’t make it part of your company culture and effectively implement your plan, it will fail to provide the growth and impact you seek.

The key to success with strategic planning is keeping it alive and dynamic, and making sure the goals you set are both realistic and achievable. This requires regular and timely adjustments to the plan in response to business changes, as well as ongoing training and communication to ensure that everyone is on the same page about what needs to happen to reach your objectives.

As a leader, you need to get the right people involved in strategic planning and make sure they are given the resources, support and time they need to do the work. It’s also important that your team understands the value of the process and how they can be part of it. This can help overcome resistance to change and build buy-in from the team.

Once your strategic planning group is assembled, it’s important to set a timeline for the project. Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, this can range from a few weeks to a few months. Choose a schedule that works best for your team.

In addition to the overall strategy, your strategic plan should include a number of key metrics that will be tracked and compared against the targets you set. This allows you to see how your strategic plan is performing and identify any areas that need additional attention or need to be shifted. This data should be compiled and used to inform the next strategic planning cycle.

During the strategic planning process, your team will come up with some ideas about where you want to take your business. Some of these ideas may be very different from how you currently run your business, but this is a good thing! Different points of view can provide a more complete picture of the opportunities, risks and threats that your business faces, and how it compares to your competitors.

Strategic planning is a great way to create a vision for your business and to give your employees something concrete to work towards. If you don’t keep the strategic plan alive and dynamic, however, it will become just another piece of paper sitting on a shelf or being ignored in favor of day-to-day operations. This is why it’s so important to appoint a dedicated strategic director, train your team on using OnStrategy and effectively drive accountability to ensure that your strategic plans are implemented and followed. This will allow you to get the most out of your investment in strategic planning and to continually evolve your organization’s direction in a rapidly changing business environment.