Synergy Strategic Planning. Chris Alexander

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      Most people will not align themselves with bad business practices, executive greed, exploitation, verbal and emotional abuse, betrayal, and false promises. Avoid the mistake of thinking that employees will support any of these unethical practices under the disguise of being a team player.

      Most people can read between the lines; they share thoughts, assumptions, and information at the speed of the Internet. In today’s businesses, good, bad, assumed, and created news travels really fast. That’s why constant and transparent information sharing is critical and vital to organizational change. Facilitating change should follow a set of ethical principles to build a bridge of trustworthiness for employees to walk over without fear.

      Experienced consultants and “outside” change agents are invaluable, well-versed, and specialists in rapidly and successfully winning over the hearts and minds of a team. Change agents don’t want to captain the ship, they want to “pilot” it out of the harbor. A good captain of business recognizes and uses this talent to cost effectively move the organization forward, knowing that failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

      A good leader knows that the difference between a high-performance team and a group of people lies in the following: the strength of the relationships, the work environment, the importance of the goal, and the personal and financial rewards. In a high-performance business team, these factors are stronger, more positive, and applied more often—resulting in increased productivity, reduced costs, and elevated revenues.

      You Are in the Business of Directing Energy

      A vision is a clearly-defined mind image of what the final picture of success looks like. It is a uniquely human ability to imagine and visualize in detail where we plan to end up. To visualize is the most powerful ability we have. When we focus on a specific vision, and we discipline ourselves to hold an image constantly, our bodies become energized to bring about the vision’s physical materialization. Imagination is the source of possibility and the foundation of probability. It is the playground of potential, where the seeds of greatness are sown and the power of belief begins.

      Every day we draw great inspiration from the heroes of imagination who have come from every walk of life. The Wright Brothers, Einstein, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Flemming, Alexander Graham Bell, and Henry Ford imagined radios, televisions, telephones, computers, incandescent light bulbs, automobiles, aircrafts, highways, spacecrafts, and the Internet—and like Martin Luther King, most of them were incorrectly told to stop dreaming about the impossible. Yet, their dreams have proved to be more powerful than the impossible.

      Writing out a vision statement is fine-tuning the imagination and transporting it into the realm of reality. It’s realistic dreaming and is an integral part of a strategic plan.

      Equally as important as the vision are the supporting values and goals. Core values form the foundation, behavior, and personality of a business. Core values define and guide the business, allowing employees to identify with the larger purpose: what it stands for and who it serves. Values support the way people and teams communicate with one another and how they build organizational culture. When values are chosen wisely and practiced diligently, a climate of trustworthiness is built between management and staff. This inspires willing attitudes and teamwork. A good strategic plan recognizes that a high-performance team culture incorporates these core values, which is a distinct and powerful competitive advantage.

      The business world thrives on high energy, enthusiasm, ideas, and innovation. Ideas and innovation are the lifeblood of business—but the execution and achievement of goals, its energy source. Without clearly defined, written-out, step-by-step goals, a business runs out of gas. New products, solutions, concepts, and the best and most well-intentioned plans will fail consistently without accountability and goals.

      Leadership is in the energy business. Enlightened leadership teams are committed to the idea that a good strategic plan and the organizational culture are the primary operational driving forces in a business. This does not discount the importance of good systems and processes. A Synergy Strategic Plan takes into account the entire organization: all the internal and external influencing factors like the culture, people, systems, policies, resources, and leadership ability to succeed. Leadership commitment is an essential piece to the success of any change and improvement process (see Figure 1).

       The Synergy Strategic Planning Blueprint

      Figure 1. The Synergy Strategic Planning Blueprint.

      The four steps are:

      Step 1: Creating an internal mission statement.

      Step 2: The completion of a SWOT analysis.

      Step 3: Determining the execution essentials.

      Step 4: What gets measured gets done.

       If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

       HENRY DAVID THOREAU

      Figure 2. Step 1.

      

      Creating an Internal Mission

      Statement, Vision Statement,

      Core Values, and Goal Plan

      The Mission Statement

      A mission statement is the constitution of a business. It forms the basis for decision-making and should be a living, breathing part of every workday. This is one of the most valuable steps a leadership team can take and should never be treated lightly. It is often the missing piece in the puzzle of business success.

      A clearly communicated mission statement is an energizing phenomenon, a motivational connector. It is the end result of what a good business wants to become. A mission statement must work from the inside out, and it must include the entire team. Your team has to clearly identify with the mission statement. The only way to get a committed buy-in is through involvement and empowerment. That is why you must first begin by constructing an internal mission statement.

      Don’t fall into the trap of having an advertising agency write your mission statement. Many mission statements created by third parties sound good, but don’t have СКАЧАТЬ