"Every year we have a goals retreat and nothing ever really comes of it. Last year's was incredibly expensive. We covered a lot of territory, but everything seemed to get tabled. Lots of good intentions, but no results. Where are we missing the boat?"
Have you ever experienced any of these common "failure to execute" challenges:
- Lack of communication of goals and action plans to the teams required to implement
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Lack of commitment to the goals and plans of actions decided upon
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"Someone else will do it" mentality from failure to assign ownership and accountability for each decided upon goal or initiative
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Treating Strategic Planning & Execution as an "event" and not part of an ongoing process
The Recommendation
To overcome these and other common "failure to execute” hurdles, consider structuring your Strategic Planning Session like this:
Agenda Planning
In advance of the session, conversations about executive strategy need to happen with the executive team to ensure there is consensus or a collective perspective on where you want to go. This is the step where you identify the topics, particularly hot buttons, and design the conversation in advance. Individual interviews with executives/participants, prior to the event itself, can help ferret out agenda items that may rear their heads later.
Facilitation
Whether you choose to use the professionals at Excelerant or not, we recommend that you include an objective and active Facilitator. Use that Facilitator to manage the meeting itself and facilitate effective discussions allowing you, the leader, to engage as a participant.
Someone external - who can help you handle those hot buttons and facilitate the critical conversations - can be vital at this stage. A third party who is given the power to stop counter-productive talk can keep the meeting on track based upon the decision-makers' pre-approved agenda.
Collective Agreements
During the session, you and your team will make decisions based on your collective agreements. Equally important is removing tabled items from their "parking lots" and converting them to Action Items. But most importantly, to ensure accountability for results - assignments must be made and deadlines established.
Proactive Conclusion
This is an often missed or overlooked step following a goals retreat. We feel it is essential to provide you with observations and recommendations with an eye to the future - what needs to happen next, by whom and by when.
If you are the owner or president of a company considering a strategic retreat or important business planning meeting, you may benefit from an outside process and perspective when it comes to establishing and tracking goals.
THE EXCELERANT OFFER - Strategic Consultation
Our process always begins with a strategic consultation between you and one of Excelerant’s Managing Partners to assist you in clarifying your goals for the Strategic Planning or Goals Retreat and whether we are the appropriate resource for you.
Agenda Planning -> Session Facilitation -> Executive Debrief
Agenda Planning
Interview with Key Participants
Agenda Document
Session Facilitation
Action Item Follow Up Document
Executive Debrief
Recommendations Document
Email us or call Excelerant to inquire about our Meeting Faciliation service at 1.888.201.0155 or 337.344.4573 ext. 710.
