Strategic Planning Worksheet

Planning is not just thinking about the future. Planning also involves taking stock of the current situation and where the business wants to be in a stipulated period of time. Eventually, it involves effectively bridging the gap ‘Who we are’ and ‘who do we want to be’. Simply put, planning or more specifically, strategic planning involves understanding the actionable areas to achieve the desired results.

Why Strategic Planning?

Resources and limited and unless the road ahead to the future is very clear, these resources can’t be utilized effectively enough. When a strategic planning process is carried out diligently it takes stock of today to plan for tomorrow. It helps in working towards specific goals and targets for the future. A strategic planning process is essential to review one’s performance in an effective manner and from a goal based perspective in order to get to a specific level of performance that has been targeted.

The Strategic Planning Worksheet

There are tools which aid in the strategic planning process and one of them is the strategic planning worksheet.

The strategic planning worksheet creation begins setting clear and precise objectives for the future of any business. These objectives are then coupled with the necessary actions to create a documented roadmap for change. It can, in fact be used even on a personal level to review where one is, set personal milestones and list down what is needed to achieve those goals.
These goals are not just guidelines for the future but also a great motivational tool. These goals and objective illustrate the true potential of a business or an individual.

How is a Strategic Planning Worksheet Made?

A Strategic Planning Worksheet starts with the Mission of business, which is essentially the very reason that the business is in existence. The mission statement is the foundation of any business and thus, needs to powerful, ambitious and inspiring.

It should also be like an invisible connection between all the employees of the organization that binds them and imparts the feeling of heading towards a shared dream. The next step in preparing a The Strategic Planning Worksheet is the vision statement. This is a short term goal in comparison to the mission statement. A Vision Statement is more specific and seeks to distill down to the areas of action.

The Strategic Planning Worksheet then usually consists of objectives for a particular quarter or objectives that are described on the basis of each business area or functional area such as Marketing, Finance, HR, PR, Operations and so on. These objectives tend to be more quantitative in nature and hence expressed in volumes, deadlines, sales targets, operational efficiency and percentages.

The task here is to translate the objectives into tangible results and numbers. This is of utmost importance because in the end, it is numbers that drive the business.

Identification of Action Areas

A Strategic Planning Worksheet then seeks zero in on concern areas or action areas for each of these objectives i.e. identify and activate areas that need work in order to reach those objectives successfully.

These action areas need further planning and identification of change that can bring turnaround changes. It also helps determine the need for resources, bottlenecks in operational efficiency and how to rectify them.

These goal oriented steps help these areas head towards the objectives that have to be achieved for the business. When each area of action reports a positive performance and moves towards these objectives, the growth is holistic and the entire organization is enabled to moves towards higher performance.

Using the Worksheet to Reach Goals

A Strategic Planning Worksheet seeks to ask and answer questions about crucial areas of performance. These questions are important as they help to take stock of the current state of the business and the changes that are incumbent for improvement.

Businesses need to Ask Themselves-

• Have we performed satisfactorily in the last period that was under review?
• Which were the areas where we fell short and need to improve?
• What were the areas in which our performance was exceptional and what needs to be done to maintain and leverage upon them?
• Who are the people responsible for the growth and functioning of certain concern areas?
• Are they performing satisfactorily?
• Are they taking accountability for the performance of the business apart from their personal performance?
• What are the realistic and feasible deadlines for achieving these particular deadlines?
• What are extra resources that need to be allocated to reach this goal?

Most importantly, there needs to be an end in mind when it comes to the Strategic Planning Worksheet i.e. there should be specific targets that need to be met. Only then will every business unit will be able to crunch favorable numbers for the business. A strategic planning worksheet, when used to its fullest can really act as the change agent for any business that wants to optimize its performance.