Strategic Planning Road Map for Success in 2025

"Vision without execution is hallucination.” - Thomas Edison

Greetings!

As the end of the year nears, one of the most frequent facilitation requests I am receiving is for a strategic review and operational planning session in preparation for 2025. These sessions are designed to meet each organization's specific needs, ranging from 1 to 2 days in-person and can even be conducted virtually in 2 to 3 sessions over Zoom.

Some common deliverables for these sessions include: 

• Conduct an "after action review" to understand what we have done well this past year executing on our plan, what challenges we faced, and how we might overcome those going forward.
• Given those learnings, and with a view to the broader organization and the external environment, reach agreement on our highest priority areas for the coming fiscal year.
• For each priority area, determine what success looks like on 12/31/25 and how we will measure it.
• Develop an action plan with clear milestones, due dates, and accountabilities.
  

To ensure your session is as productive and engaging as possible so that you maximize the ROI of everyone's time, I recommend you keep these 3 key points in mind:

• Preparation. In advance of the session, determine and share the key session deliverables, the agenda, and what is expected of the participants so they will fully prepare and bring their best thinking to the session.

• Facilitation. Engage an experienced facilitator so that you can fully participate in the session. It is very difficult to be neutral if you are vested in the outcomes. A professional facilitator can provide advice and counsel in the design of the session and ensure that you get everyone's best input and achieve your session deliverables.

• Accountability. The first 30 days after this session is the most critical. If the team leader doesn't maintain focus and hold people accountable for their commitments, then you will surely lose the momentum for change as "the tyranny of the urgent" takes over. Keep the commitments visible through your staff meetings and your one-on-ones.
  

Once you have had a chance to review our e-book and apply your thoughts to the templates provided, I invite you to call or email me to discuss your strategic and operational planning objectives and how I can help guide you to achieve them as you look ahead to 2025.

Wishing you and your team success,

Kimberly

P.S. If you would also like to increase the cohesiveness and effectiveness of your team, let's discuss incorporating that objective into this strategic planning session. In my experience, teams that come together to collaboratively create their vision and plan ultimately are much more successful in the future.