Most strategic plans include the organization's vision and mission. Many companies also include these statements on their Web sites or in other corporate literature. The problem is they are often not very useful. They are not inspiring and they fail to provide any direction for the employees in the organization—one of the key purposes of these foundational statements.

First, from the definitions standpoint, a vision is where an organization is going—its future desired state. A mission is an organizations purpose—what it does day to day. A vision can be achieved (it's not easy, but can be reached) whereas a mission typically is not. When creating these statements, try to avoid platitudes and consultant speak like "best in class," "standard bearer," "recognized leader." Phrases like these mean very little to employees.

Next, less is more in terms of vision and mission statements; the more succinct and unambiguous they are the easier they are to understand, internalize and ultimately work toward. Putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade (and bringing him home safely) was a clear, succinct vision provided by President Kennedy during the early part of the 1960's—a vision that was ultimately reached. Finally, if you want a vision to be achievable, provide measurement to gauge success. If your organization wants to become number one, be sure you can measure when you are there in terms of units sold, revenues, et al.

Recommended Reading: Developing the Strategy: Vision, Value Gaps and Analysis (with Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton) Balanced Scorecard Report, HBSP, 2008

Recent surveys by consultants McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company indicate that about 80% of all large organizations perform strategic planning. Yet many of those surveyed—almost as high as 50%—believe the process can be improved. Two easy actions can help organizations improve their strategic planning process.

The first is to focus on understanding and addressing key issues. Many organizations perform some sort of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis or basic prioritization to identify key issues. What many organizations often fail to do is analyze the issues to try to understand what's causing the problem or the trend in the organization. It is this detailed analysis—prepared in advance of the planning meetings—that helps facilitate higher quality decisions.

The second action is to spread strategic planning meetings over several weeks. As fundamental as this sounds, organizations still limit their strategy-making meetings to a one or two day off-site. It is simply unreasonable to believe the most complex challenges an organization faces can be addressed in a matter of hours. Spend time preparing for meetings, socializing and pre-meeting to discuss issues and then break the key strategic planning events into manageable increments over time. Rushing to complete a strategic plan won't make it better.

Recommended Reading: Four Fatal Flaws of Strategic Planning, Harvard Business Publishing, March 2009

One of the shortcomings of traditional planning was generation of dozens of initiatives, the management of which was considered "strategy execution." And, as much as managers say they want fewer strategic initiatives, planning activities still do little more than generate pages of initiatives that somehow must be managed effectively with shrinking resources—especially today. A good strategic plan will focus on about 6-to-8 initiatives for active execution at any level. "How can an organization survive with so few initiatives?" some managers might question. The key isn't to have more of them—it's to have a more focused group of them that are accomplished faster. While there should be a limit to how many any one strategic plan has, there shouldn't be a limit to how quickly they get done.

There are literally thousands of business strategy definitions available today. A Google search of the phrase "business strategy" yields over 8.7 million results. Some definitions are better than others, however. One that I use (and there are many that can be used) is as follows: “a business strategy is how an organization intends to compete in a given industry.” While this may seem like a mundane definition, it contains three key points worth keeping in mind regarding a business strategy (the kind most often contained in a strategic plan). First, it should take stock of the industry in which you compete. Business strategy is most often housed within an industry, so understanding the dynamics of the industry is critical. Next, it should examine the nature of competition, and answer the question: "how are firms competing in this industry?" Finally, it should specify how your organization will compete given the nature of the industry and other competitors.

Recommended Reading: Ed Barrows Business Strategy Defined PTPS Brief

In a 2007 survey conducted by Business Objects and the Economist Intelligence Unit, greater than 25% of C-level executives said they believe management  "frequently or always" makes wrong decisions; further, more than 50% said decision-making is mostly informal or ad hoc. This doesn't need to be the case—rational decision-making processes and activities have been in place since the late 1950s. One simple and straightforward way to improve decision effectiveness is to use a decision making template. This simple PTPS Decision Template helps identify the problem, structure analysis and guide decision activities. The template includes the following fields:

1. What is the problem?
2. What is known about the problem?
3. What are the likely causes of the problem?
4. What courses of action are available?
5. What is the best course of action in given the circumstances?
6. Which was the chosen course of action and why?

Completing the template and sharing this key information before a decision-oriented meeting not only helps improve decision effectiveness, but also serves as a means of documenting (and then communicating) decisions made.

Recommended Resource: Ed Barrows PTPS Decision Template

Research from Cranfield School of Management indicates that as many as 75% of organizations use a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to help manage performance. A later study by Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (now Palladium Group) found that of the Balanced Scorecards in use, many fail to meet the basic criteria regarding what constitutes a good BSC. Here are a few quick tests to determine if your BSC is making the grade:

1. You use a Strategy Map with your Balanced Scorecard
2. Your Balanced Scorecard contains no more than 25 truly strategic measures;
3. Your management team regularly reviews the Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard and makes course corrections where and when necessary;
4. Your Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard are cascaded into your organization (e.g. to strategic business units, support activities and subordinate departments.)

Recommended Reading: Assessing Your Balanced Scorecard's Performance Balanced Scorecard Report, HBSP, 2004

Running an effective strategy review meeting is harder than it looks. What is supposed to be a vital strategic management activity can quickly turn into an operational one where the most pressing issues of the day crowd out truly strategic ones. Further, many managers simply don't know how to discuss strategy. They use budget-meeting behavior instead of problem-solving techniques, more interested in who's to blame versus identifying how to fix the problem.

To make meetings more effective, take the following simple steps: First, set up and hold regular strategy review meetings (i.e. monthly) and only talk about strategy. Also, make sure all the key players attend—no excuses allowed. During the meeting, don't allow operational issues to hijack the discussion, otherwise it's just another operations meeting. Second, use the Balanced Scorecard as a means to set the agenda. Understand that strategy execution is not just about measurement—it's comprised of management as well. Finally, dedicate your energies to identifying, analyzing and solving problems. A commitment to finding the best solutions to the most pressing organizational problems will go a long way toward making strategy review meetings more effective.

Recommended Reading: Walk the Talk: Effective Leadership Behavior for BSC Review Meetings Balanced Scorecard Report, HBSP, 2005