Overview
Strategic planning is the planning that occurs at the top level of organization by which the top level goals of the organization are established, and the basic steps that the organization will take to try to achieve those goals are formulated. Often strategic planning results in a single strategic plan, or strategic planning document.
The established strategy then is communicated down to business units and the employees. Strategy often becomes the measurement by which Programs and/or projects are judged.
Planning Issues
When engaging in strategic planning, a team must keep in mind several issues.
- Behavioural Traps
- Analysis Paralysis - analysis paralysis occurs when decision makers fail to make a decision, largely because they are presented with too many options and/or analyses.
- Confirmation Bias - when formulating a strategy, executives must be aware of their own confirmation bias. That is, the tendency to view all evidence as confirming their own opinions.
- Social Proof Bias - the social proof bias may drive uniformity of opinion during the planning process. Executives should keep this in mind, and try to find ways to foster independent opinions when considering options.
- Buy in - some plans are not easily implemented. In particular, the plan must achieve buy-in with the key stakeholders. This has implications for the planning process. That is, the planners must either include the parties that need to have buy-in, or at least understand how they will achieve buy-in after the plan is formulated.
Planning Document
- Strategic Goal or Objective
- Analysis of the Environment - industry analysis and competitor analysis
- Performance Measures - an indication of what success looks like including how the plan is to be monitored.
- Strategic Plan
- Required Resources
- Risks