5 Ways to Implement a Strategic Plan Lacking Specifics

So many plans never document the proper level of detail to move directly into successful implementation. If the plan is overly detailed, you must wade through a document that looks like a job description, not a game plan for moving an important initiative ahead. Too little detail? You are looking at a plan to develop a plan. Then, the initiative implementation team must embrace completing work that should have happened during strategy planning.

5 Ways to Implement a Strategic Plan Lacking Specifics

If you are trying to implement a plan that’s lacking detail, go to school on the following five techniques. We frequently use these to advance what is available in a plan and to start identifying the action steps that lead to implementation:

1. If you know the desired objective, think through all the steps to advance the initiative toward the stated end result.
2. If you know the strategy’s critical success factors, look for what you need to do to create these situations that underpin success.
3. If the strategy’s goals are clear, start from there. Ask what steps are completed right before the goal. Then repeat for what’s before each step you identify until you arrive at the plan’s starting point.
4. If you have one (or several) tactics spelled out, identify what inputs and steps are necessary before each tactic can become reality. Also identify what you can do right after each tactic is completed to determine subsequent steps.
5. If you know who your most important audiences are, identify what you need them to know, believe, and/or do. From there, think through the steps necessary to achieve the audience-specific outcomes.

Never let a plan with too little detail stand in the way of implementing quickly and successfully. Depending on which situation most closely resembles yours, use these approaches to generate the specific action steps you need to start implementing your strategic plan ASAP.

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Strategy for Success: Strategic Planning Made Simple offers multiple paths to share and reinforce actionable lessons for improving strategy and results through targeted video lessons, downloadable guides, and turn-key exercises. From ideas to implementation, it's all there to make you a top-tier strategist who brings the simple and fun to strategy  planning and implementation! – Mike Brown

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