Format to Print Page
Send this Page To a Friend
Volume 4.8 Table Of Contents
- Tip: Don’t let plans get in the way of achieving objectives
- Trend Watch: Clean Air Technology Triggers "Domino Effect" Across Sectors
- Digging Deeper: Minor events can trigger a need for major shifts
- Ask the Expert:
Don’t let plans get in the way of achieving objectives
If you’re not on target with your strategic plan and goals for this year, there may be a perfectly valid reason. It could be that the approach that was a perfect fit at the beginning of the year is no longer applicable toward achieving your objectives. Recognizing the signs that it’s time to let go and shift directions – even in the middle of the year - is as important to achieving objectives as identifying appropriate goals is during yearly strategic thinking and planning.
If the concept of letting go of carefully crafted strategies, plans, and goals to make progress seems contradictory, I assure you that it’s not. Determining a strategy and course of action still maximizes the likelihood of achieving objectives. However, even the best-laid plans are subject to the inevitable changes that take place with time. Here are just a few of the unexpected issues that can impact the relevance of the strategy, plans, and goals you set at the beginning of the year:
- New competitors grab market share
- New technology is introduced that can fundamentally change your product/service (see “Trend Watch” below)
- Your organization merges or is acquired by another organization
- Significant changes with outsource providers, alliance partners, suppliers, etc.
- Key managers and employees join or leave the organization
- Government legislation requires changes in operations
- Significant events result in major customers changing their own objectives, needs, policies, location, etc.)
The above issues are major enough to immediately notice and trigger adjustments. However, a series of minor events can also have just as large an impact over time (see “Digging Deeper” below). Periodically uncovering these issues and determining their impact on strategy, plans, and goals is just as important as paying attention to the major events.
Bottom line: Don’t be a slave to your strategic plan. Keeping your big picture objectives firmly in view while recognizing when it’s appropriate to rethink strategies and shift directions will keep your organization continuously moving forward regardless of whatever comes your way.
Trend Watch: Clean Air Technology Triggers "Domino Effect" Across Sectors
Clean Air Technology (which includes solar, wind, fuel cells, biofuels, and other methods of producing energy ) is gaining substantial acceptance. However, if you think this doesn’t apply to your company’s objectives, think again.
According to Gary Patterson, Fiscal Doctor (http://www.fiscaldoctor.com), executives in every industry need to consider the sweeping effect that Clean Air Technology is having on their business:
"The deeper my involvement with clean energy, the more I see that any company - whether manufacturing, distribution, service, or technology - needs to consider both new opportunities offered by the renewable energy sector and the daunting problems from how changes in that sector can and will affect the nature of existing industries. The strategies, organizational structures, and methods of doing things that have worked so well in the past cannot meet today's challenges. We need to find people with creative new strategies, fresh approaches, and collaboration skills. Most importantly, we need to learn how to manage our information and knowledge"
Based upon Gary’s insight, even though your organization may not have had Clean Energy Technology on the agenda for 2007, it’s critical to assess how it is already impacting your stakeholders, and what immediate shifts in strategy, plans, and goals you may need to make in order to sustain progress toward your company’s objectives. A few of the questions I recommend include:
- How are our customers and their customers responding to this trend?
- How are our suppliers, outsource providers, and alliance partners responding to this trend?
- What immediate shifts in strategy, operations, and organization do we need to make to prevent problems, accelerate progress, and leverage opportunities?
Bottom line:Strategies, plans and goals may need to change unexpectedly during the year if your external stakeholders change their strategy and operations. Staying tuned to their shifts is as important as staying in touch with what is happening in your own organization.
Digging Deeper: Minor events can trigger a need for major shifts
While it’s natural to adjust strategy, plans and goals in response to the major events described above, it’s the seemingly insignificant changes that can leave us blindsided. This is because they happen so slowly over time, that we don’t even notice them – until it’s too late. Learning when to pay attention to minor events can make a major difference in your organization’s ability to achieve objectives.
Just because you can’t easily see minor signs happen, don’t assume that your organization isn’t changing. For instance, when executives in one company I worked with assessed minor events that had occurred in the previous six months, they listed a series of new employees, such as: receptionist, customer service agent, and other front line positions. They also mentioned small shifts of job responsibilities that occurred with staff turnover, and new contacts at suppliers and customer companies. While none of these were major events by themselves, the cumulative effect was surprisingly strong. Some jobs had become redundant, necessary functions were missing, and work practices that had once been well suited to the organization’s needs were no longer adequate. Without knowing it, the company had slowly changed and lost its effectiveness to the point where their growth strategy was seriously threatened.
Because there’s no major triggering event to look for these changes, it’s important to set quarterly checkpoints, at a minimum, for you and your strategy team to assess minor events as well as major events. Questions include.
- What has changed since we developed our strategy, plans, and goals for this year? No event is too small to list. The more items you can generate for this list, the more helpful it will be.
- What has remained the same during this time period? Again, there is nothing that is too small to list. You want to include as many items as you can.
- What patterns and trends can you observe? For instance, if delivery time, policies, and contacts for a key supplier have changed over the last six months, you would take note of this without making initial judgments regarding cause or implications for achieving your objectives.
Using this exercise as a starting point for uncovering underlying reasons for what is happening, you’ll discover issues that signal new opportunities on the horizon (such as new capabilities that your organization has unexpectedly acquired), or a need to take preventive action to avoid problems ahead (such as a gradual shift occurring with your customers).
Bottom line: Taking regular inventory of minor events that occur over the year, along with major events, and uncovering their causes can guide you to a new, more appropriate path that will enable your organization to accelerate and sustain progress toward key objectives.
Call Pam Harper today or contact us for a complimentary meeting to discuss making your value statements jump off the wall and turn into action.
Q: Who should be involved in periodic checkpoints of strategy, plans, and goals?
A: In general, it’s best to get as many perspectives as possible. This is because the closer someone is to his/her own situation, the harder it is to gain the necessary information and perspectives to shed light on reality. However, if time or confidentiality prevents you from getting those outside views, be sure to look for concrete evidence supporting your perceptions before you draw any conclusions about next steps.