Imagine the scene at your organization: you have just finished your strategic goals; excitement and enthusiasm are permeating the air! But then you start to wonder…how do I take this grand vision, channel the enthusiasm, and turn it all into something we can do?
Communicating the strategic goals and your vision to your team is critical. Equally critical is translating the strategic goals into actionable work with appropriate time frames and owners.
Here are four simple steps to turn your strategic goal momentum into action. By following the guidelines below, you will be able to communicate to employees what the goals mean to them and what everyone will be doing to get them accomplished!
Step 1: Decide What (in Whitespace)
Tell your team, “we’re going to the whitespace!” This means taking the time to get out of your day-to-day routines (individually or as a group) to talk about all the new work that needs to be done to accomplish the strategic goals. List the work on a chart or a whiteboard. The exercise of putting it on the “whitespace” will formally separate and identify the new work from work that is already happening. More importantly, if there are other individuals working with you, great conversations occur when everyone asks clarifying questions and confirms that this is the right work to do. By doing this exercise, you are making the future distinct from the past.
Step 2: Decide When
Decide when this work needs to be completed by: in 3 months, this year or 2 years from now? Examine upcoming events, changes, and financial plans for your organization. When creating timelines remember to add in contingency (the ‘oops! We didn’t plan on that!’ buffer) and milestones to revisit and re-evaluate set dates.
Step 3: Decide Who
Decide who should do the work. Examine employee interests, career goals or work that staff members are already doing to determine if there is any overlap that will make owner assignments better.
Step 4: Decide How
Decide how the work will get done. Take the new work identified and break it into manageable chunks then allow owners to create timelines and milestones for delivery of their projects.
Step 5: Stay Focused and Continually Revisit
Finally, continually communicate your vision and align your team with this new work. Regularly revisit the progress of the work with your team to make sure they (and you) can accomplish the strategic goals.
Example of the Guidelines in Action
You have a strategic goal to increase long lasting donor relations with corporations.
Step 1: Whitespace the plan to increase long lasting donor relations with corporations.
Step 2: Estimate a timeline goal of completing the plan by the end of December 2010.
Step 3: Based on the high-level activities and communications needed, the ED will be the owner of the plan.
Step 4: The ED schedules tasks by week through 2010…
Step 5: … with bi-weekly team meetings to update everyone on the progress of this particular project and to brainstorm further ideas.
By following these steps with your strategic goals, you will turn your vision into an actionable reality. Good luck!
- Amy Maranowicz, Organizational Development & Training Manager
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