Give your annual strategic planning a midyear tune-up

Back in April, I wrote an article in this space called "Breaking out of the strategic planning rut." I described Apex Strategic Thinking Teams and encouraged readers to look at strategic business planning with "Voomph," commitment and a focus on action. The article described the beliefs and business practices of leadership teams that excel at strategic thinking.

It's now June and an important time to inventory your annual tactical plan. Let's make two assumptions: (a) your leadership team took time this year to develop an annual tactical plan and budget that are based on your overall strategic business plan, and (b) your organization needs to keep those annual tactical plans moving along. If neither "a" nor "b" holds true for you and your organization, well … For the rest of you, a Midyear Strategic Plan Progress Review Session is in order.

You are (or should be) about 50 percent complete with your tactical plans for the year. Some of those plans are sequential in nature and interdependent. So, you may not be able to start one tactic until other tactics are completed. New ideas have popped on your radar and been acted upon tactically. Other tactics needed to be implemented right away in your fiscal year. (OK, there's a third assumption: that your fiscal year and tactical implementation year align with the Roman calendar. So, this 50-percent-completion figure is more of an idea than a fixed percentage.)

Let's say you have six strategic-plan-related tactical action items your entire organization is working on. How do you assess progress, accomplishments, setbacks and results? How do you make the implementation of those tactical action items a normal part of day-to-day business?

This is essentially a leadership capacity issue. It's often overlooked and a frequent cause of poor implementation. Here's what happens: When you and your team embarked on strategic business planning, you were already busy leaders. Then, along came the strategic business plan and a set of annual tactical plans to implement — on top of your already busy day, week or month. So, you found yourself quickly at 150 percent of your individual capacity. Working that much harder is all right for a few weeks or months, you figure, even though you suspect it will lead to executive burnout. Still, that is exactly what most leaders do when greeted with this 150 percent problem: work harder.

That's admirable, but the key is to work smarter. Apex Strategic Leadership Teams coach one another on roles, responsibilities and duties that can be delegated, consolidated, eliminated or reconstituted so they "create" time to lead. The best of the best utilize the annual tactical plan implementation process to empower less experienced managers and supervisors to step up and work on those tactical plans. This accomplishes three objectives at the same time:

• First, it engages more managers, supervisors and others to the overall strategic direction. Author and Harvard Business School Prof. John Kotter would call this "building the guiding coalition." More oars in the water, pulling in the same direction.

• Second, it helps up-and-comers work together, in effect building the leadership team of tomorrow. To become more strategic, young leaders need to think more strategically. Think of it as strategic mentoring.

• Third, it creates capacity for top executive leaders to focus on the vision, the big picture and other long-term matters. Unencumbered with day-to-day details, they're able to get back to their 100 percent of capacity, but now they're more strategic and visionary, which is important for the overall health of the organization.

During a Midyear Strategic Plan Progress Review Session, you should:

• Ask your leaders and managers to come prepared to talk about each of the tactical action plans underway. This is about implementation, accountability and results.

• Remind everyone in the session about the overall direction — mission, vision, core values, etc.

• Celebrate accomplishments and milestones. Apex Strategic Leadership Teams know that praise and a little revelry are missing in most organizational cultures. Just not theirs.

• Determine the exact nature of why some tactical action plans are behind, or teams are underperforming. It may be a team leadership issue or communication problems. There could be many culprits, but, it is unacceptable to let the tactical plan fail.

• Look for opportunities for cross-functional collaboration, or even consolidate some of the teams. It's important not to overcompartmentalize these action plans because organizations are more fluid than they first appear.

• Recast the tactical action plans for the rest of the year. This midyear time frame is a perfect time to push reset and lay out the road map for the remainder of the year.

I am asked frequently, Does this type of midyear review need to be live, in person? Short answer? Yes. We're talking about the annual tactical action plans that are linked back to your overall strategic direction — making this a very important gathering.

Research suggests that when it comes to matters of strategic import, video conferencing and most online methods fall short. Halo Collaboration Studios and others are rapidly changing this, providing us the possibility in just a few years of truly effective virtual collaboration. Until then? Get together and make your midyear review.