Key Success Factors for Strategic Planning Meetings

Many companies realize that strategic planning is key to keeping competitive and on pace with technology innovation. What they often overlook are the basic requirements to ensure a successful meeting and actionable plan. Here are some of the key success factors to keep at the forefront during the strategic planning process:

Step 1. Select a facilitator with industry experience and without bias.

Find a facilitator who will follow an effective, focused approach. Though an internal facilitator knows your corporate culture and your products, they may bring biases into the equation. Biases may reflect corporate politics, job security or a business as usual mentality. External facilitators with experience in strategic planning may offer a more neutral approach and have no hidden agendas. They will also provide valuable insights into the process from previous experiences.

Step 2: Set the agenda.

Key decision makers need to be included to ensure they are committed to the process and plan. These individuals are typically heads of key functional areas and those who will be implementing the plan. To enrich the intellectual potential of the meeting, people with relevant company information (i.e., finance) or are especially creative should be included as well. The meeting should follow a structure, starting broad with the industry analysis, followed by an analysis of your company's capabilities. An action plan must be built towards the end of the process.

Step 3: Come prepared with data.

This step is pivotal to preplanning. Having a firm understanding of industry trends, key competitors and threats and opportunities will be an important backdrop for the strategic plan. You'll also want to come equipped with company data to serve as the foundation for your future goals. Industry and company data analysis should be conducted prior to meeting and shared with key stakeholders.

Step 4: Running the meeting.

Encourage brainstorming and out-of-the-box thinking. Ideas evolve from one another so all input is valuable. Keep to a structured process but be sure you have some flexibility to adapt to your audience.

Step 5: After the meeting.

Conclusions should be summarized and distributed to the team. All decisions must be specific and actionable. The post-meeting document must state your goals and HOW you will achieve them.