Strategic planning tools can make or break your plan
There is a wide variety of valuable tools available to leadership for running an organization. Many of these can be molded into essential strategic planning tools. They include:
- Strategic planning SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).
- Affinity diagrams.
- Interrelationship digraph.
- Mission and vision statements.
- Hoshin Kanri or Hoshin planning.
An explanation of each strategic planning tool and its value follows.
Got a question on any of the tools listed? We want to help!
Strategic planning SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool in which participants brainstorm, list and evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for their organization.
In the strengths and weaknesses portion of the analysis, focus is turned inward. What are the organization’s key strengths that give it an advantage in the competitive marketplace? For example, a strength may be a proprietary process that is far ahead of the competition, while a weakness might be lack of marketing skill to get the process out into the customer’s hands.
While the strengths and weaknesses are looking inward, the opportunities and threats shift the focus outside the organization to what it must contend with to survive and flourish in the competitive environment. Opportunities and threats come in many forms: new discoveries in technology, shifts in demographics, state or federal policy, a competitor opening or closing its doors. Once brainstormed, strategic thinking and planning is required to truly capitalize on the opportunity or mitigate the threat.
In strategic planning, an effective SWOT analysis provides valuable information that can be developed into key potential strategic initiatives to grow the company, or into internal projects to resolve challenges holding the organization back from its full potential.
An affinity diagram
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The affinity diagram is an effective strategic planning tool for grouping similar potential initiatives or projects of an organization to allow better prioritization and organization of the options available. Affinity means an inherent similarity or relationship. In the affinity process, a large number of potential projects is brainstormed, then the teams work to group them by their common characteristics.
A key piece in creating an affinity diagram is conducting the process in silence. Usually the similarities among potential projects are obvious to all participants. But frequently there are similarities that are more subtle and difficult to see. It is at these junctures that the silent affinity process is most powerful. Participants are asked to really look at the two projects being compared, to think through the connection that other participants might see, but that some might not. Done well, an affinity process can bring a level of clarity to projects that simply defining them cannot.
Interrelationship digraph
An interrelationship digraph is a fabulous tool for prioritizing many potential projects to work internally on your organization. The tool is designed to compare a list of problems, projects or opportunities, one to another, to find those that are creating the biggest impact on the others. The theory is, if you fix a problem or grab an opportunity that is impacting other problems or opportunities you get more “bang for your buck.”
At Professional Growth Systems, we employ the interrelationship digraph to prioritize our potential improvement projects. The leadership team begins by identifying those issues that are keeping the team from optimizing the organization. Once that list is streamlined, we begin the interrelationship digraph process, comparing each issue with the others to find those critical few with the biggest impact.
Issues that have been identified by our clients as high impact issues to work on include:
- Job duties for management not clarified.
- The board’s lack of business understanding leaves the organization unstable.
- Training on job responsibilities is lacking.
- Clear and outlined job descriptions and expectations that remove duplication are missing.
Once those issues or problems that are creating an impact on others within the organization are clearly identified, leadership can create effective strategies to handle those key problems. In so doing, many smaller issues will also be positively affected, some to the degree that they are completely resolved.
Mission and vision statements
Mission and vision statements, goals, targets, purpose statements: There are many words given to those strategic elements that are meant to provide direction and focus for an organization: “What is the path we are on and where do we intend it to lead?” Though these terms are often used interchangeably, it is important to make some clear distinctions between a mission/purpose and a vision.
A mission or purpose statement explains why the organization exists. What is its reason for being?
The vision statement takes that “why” of purpose and asks what that looks like as it is worked out. What will we have achieved in the pursuit of that purpose? What does it look like in terms of accomplishments, what will the organization look like?
At PGS, we have taken a group of four of these elements and labeled them the core ideology. They include:
- Purpose statement: The “why” or reason the organization exists.
- Vision: What will the organization look like in 5, 10, or 20 years?
- Vivid description: What are the key initiatives or strategies we will use to achieve that vision?
- Values: What are the rules we cannot violate in order to reach our vision? That is, what are the beliefs or general truths that the organization upholds as it moves through its day–to–day work.
This core ideology forms the critical foundation for any organization. It provides direction, fosters alignment, and galvanizes support, as the organization moves through difficult periods in its history, and when it surges forward, creating the future it desires.
Hoshin Kanri or Hoshin planning
The last strategic planning tool we will touch on is Hoshin Kanri or Hoshin planning. Traditional Hoshin Kanri or Hoshin Planning is a planning system developed by Dr. Yoji Akao. Hoshin is Japanese for compass while Kanri means management.
Dr. Akao’s planning system shares many common elements with Vision Navigation®, Professional Growth Systems’ proprietary strategic planning process. These common elements include determination of a strategic goal or vision, dissemination of that goal throughout the organization and emphasis on staff accountability for their part in achieving the organization’s goal.
The combination of strategic planning tools
Each of the tools listed above has been incorporated at some level into the PGS strategic planning model called Vision Navigation®. If you are interested in learning more about how they fit together we encourage you to visit our strategic planning model page or view a picture of our Vision Navigation® chart, here. We have included examples of Vision Navigation® via case studies with our clients, here.
If you are ready to learn how Vision Navigation® can work to achieve extraordinary results in your organization, contact us at (877) 276-4414 for a free consultation.