4 Areas to Evaluate When You Decide to Delay Strategic Planning

Your executive team has decided that it’s not the right time to update your current strategy plan. Instead, the senior leaders elect to extend the current strategy plan through at least the next year or two.

In a business situation like this, what areas do you evaluate to make sure the decision doesn’t backfire?

4 Areas to Evaluate When Delaying Strategy Planning

Brainzooming recommends looking at several areas to:

• Convince yourselves that the decision is sound, and
• Identify where you need to adapt the plan or the organization for success

The four areas to evaluate are:

1) Are we FOCUSING on the right things?

It’s vital to make sure that the current priorities make sense going forward, and if not, adjust. This evaluation includes updating the critical success factors and ensuring that the proper areas are receiving attention. Additionally, assess whether current progress and performance metrics suggest the opportunity to pass on planning right now.

2) What do we need to ANTICIPATE externally and internally?

You develop a strategic plan considering expected developments outside and inside an organization. Check what you anticipate will be happening during the timeframe for which you’re extending the current plan. Is the current plan still relevant given the current backdrop?

3) Where should we change the implementation SPEED across the strategy?

Examine the current initiatives. Identify what’s working that needs to keep going fast, what should slow down (or be eliminated), and what requires a shift to speed up progress. Look, too, for innovations that hold the potential for future surprises.

4) What’s looming beyond the HORIZON?

Beyond apparent situations that you are anticipating, explore and identify new developments that aren’t yet receiving significant attention. This is the opportunity to prognosticate. Reach out to lead users and assess what they anticipate beyond the horizon.

What does your evaluation say about strategy planning?

After addressing these four areas, how do you feel about the decision to delay updating your strategic plan?

If the current plan is progressing, anticipatory, and adaptable, it can be very smart to continue focusing all-out on implementation.

If the evaluation makes you hesitate, though, look for ways to streamline the strategy planning process. Then, you can work toward the best of both worlds: maintaining an implementation focus while staying ahead of changing dynamics through a simplified, focused planning approach. If you want my free thinking on how you can accomplish that, let me know, and we'll chat about making it happen! - Mike Brown

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