After the planning: Implementing your strategic plan
Financial institutions continue to adopt agile strategic planning methods to help ensure that their teams can meet the ever-changing needs of their customers. However, once a strategic plan is created, many teams struggle with the implementation of the plan.
Here are five ways your team can maintain agility and improve your strategic plan implementation:
1. Ensure your plan is easy to understand
Part of strategic planning is making the complicated easy to understand. Is your plan a large document that most employees never read? Is it unclear, or does it contain complicated theories, actions and strategies?
A living strategic plan means that any team member picking up your plan should know where the organization is headed and what the strategic priorities are.
2. Understand the role of executive leadership
The role of executive leadership is to identify champions who can execute on the plan tactics, as well as help ensure that the plan has actionable tactics to support each strategic priority. Additionally, executive leadership should ensure that the strategic plan has metrics that help determine when and if strategic priorities are being achieved.
3. Appoint plan champions
Champions are leaders who introduce, promote, shepherd and guide the specific strategic priorities within the organization.
Every organization will have a different definition of champion based on its culture and structure. However, most champions will be focused on removing hurdles and barriers that are impeding projects, ensuring necessary resources are obtained, and fostering communication across teams and departments.
4. Develop a strategic plan cadence
Most plans fail to launch because executive management does not set a regular cadence of strategic planning within their organizational structure. At the start of the plan cycle, a cadence should be set as to how often executive management will meet to review plan metrics, what obstacles are being faced and how champions are shepherding each priority.
The cadence also helps support accountability by giving your people time to review how progress is being made on your goals and objectives.
5. Don’t be afraid to change what’s on paper
Agile means the ability to change as needed. If a strategic priority, tactic or metric is no longer relevant or valid, or if market or financial conditions have changed, it’s acceptable to change the strategic plan accordingly.
Often, plans aren’t implemented because they quickly become irrelevant. The plan document, and the strategic plan itself, is a tool in achievement of your organizational goals. As the industry changes and your institution’s objectives adapt, your plan should be easy to adapt, too.
How Wipfli can help
Wipfli is ready to help you take your plan from paper to action.
Our strategic planning services focus on giving you actionable steps that are customized to your vision of success. We can also help provide you with the tools and strategies you need to align your people, processes and technology in achieving your organization’s objectives.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your strategic plan become a reality.
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