One of the primary pillars of effective strategic planning for your organization is collaboration.
In other words, assembling a team of individuals to participate in your strategic planning initiatives will aid the overall success of your organization.
Why?
Because including a variety of people means benefiting from a variety of perspectives.
That’s a good thing! When a group of people comes together to plan and work for a common goal, you have the benefit of pulling from different skill sets, experiences, and insights to create a comprehensive and well thought out strategic plan. The opportunity to innovate. To create something bigger and more impactful.
Sounds simple, right?
Perhaps you’re thinking: “Great! Let me go send my team a Zoom link and we’ll get this strategic planning show on the road!”
Not so fast…
Assembling your collaborative team is not as simple as inviting ten people to a Zoom meeting or calling an “all hands” meeting in your conference room. There should be some intentionality and thought that goes into who is a part of that team and what role each individual will be given.
In my blog post, Assembling Your Lead Team: The WHO Behind Strategic Planning, I take a deeper dive into how to choose the members of your strategic planning team.
However, here are a few key points to get you started:
WHO do I include?
✔ Representatives of each key department (ex. Human resources, accounting, marketing, community relations etc.)
✔ Significant investors
✔ Representatives from the Board of Directors
✔ Community Volunteers
Once you’ve identified your planning team members, it’s time to determine what specific role each person will play in the planning and implementation process. This can be done by taking an inventory of everyone’s individual strengths and weaknesses in conjunction with their job description.
BUT DON’T STOP THERE… Go deeper than the obvious or expected.
Start looking for your team member’s hidden talents – the things they do so seamlessly they don’t consider themselves anything special. Ask others who they think is especially great at a certain role in the planning process. Then STAY open to it being someone you did not anticipate. This is your chance to grow your team.
For more insight on assessing your members’ strengths and determining their ideal roles and responsibilities, check out these blog posts:
? Assessments For Personal Growth
? Assessments For Your Organization
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Article was contributed by: Maria Lees, Team Writer with Sarah Boxx
