BIG Strategy Playbook- Addressing Common Challenges in Strategic Planning

At The Berkeley Innovation Group, we understand that strategic planning processes may present unique obstacles. We outline our approach and its success in meeting some of these arduous tasks.

Lack of Clarity in Goals

One of the critical hurdles of effective strategic planning lies in pursuing unstructured goals. Without clarity down to the individual stakeholder, aligning strategic efforts and allocating resources efficiently is challenging.

In the "Align: The BIG Plan" phase, we prioritize setting and communicating clear goals. Through collaborative workshops and discussions with your leadership team, we ensure that the strategic plan's objectives are well-defined, easily communicated, and measurable; setting an unmistakable north star that we translate into actionable KPIs provides us a roadmap that leads your organization towards one shared vision.

Resistance to Change

Strategic planning involves change; however, resistance can thwart its successful execution. Employees and stakeholders may resist new strategies and processes due to fear of change and concerns regarding roles and responsibilities.

Our "Ascend: The BIG Change" phase explicitly addresses resistance to change. By engaging stakeholders from all levels and offering clear communication, training, and support services, this phase aims to empower your workforce and encourage it to embrace your strategic vision while actively working toward its fulfillment.

Poor Alignment

Day-to-day operational challenges often dilute leadership’s ability to focus on their strategic plan. If the structural deficiency behind the operational challenge is not addressed in the strategic plan, progress will be slow and disjointed. Thus, attaining alignment of your organization’s structural deficiency (or core strengths) and daily challenges is a top priority. These misalignments will create conflicting priorities that impede an organization's ability to work cohesively toward achieving its strategic goals.

In our strategic consulting practice, we recognize the significance of organizational alignment for successful strategic planning. For example, our client entered their budgeting process without implementing a standardized process to quantify future investments, as suggested in the strategic plan. The result was three months of distraction, muted results, and hurt feelings.

Through this example, we highlight the need for collaboration and co-creation among various organizational levels and functions - this ensures all teams and individuals understand how their roles fit into creating the larger vision while cultivating an atmosphere of shared responsibility toward its achievement.

Inadequate Progress Monitoring

Tracking progress against the strategic plan with data is essential to ensure progress. Failure to monitor the data and coach employees to the numbers will result in missed opportunities to make required improvements and adjustments that would further advance business goals.

Our "Align: The BIG Plan" phase involves setting key performance indicators (KPIs), which go beyond traditional operational challenges to include human resources and their adoption of the strategic plan. Furthermore, with ongoing support during implementation, we closely track progress, identify obstacles as they arise, and make data-driven adjustments as required.

At Berkeley Innovation Group, our three-phase approach ensures your organization can successfully navigate common strategic planning challenges and implement successful strategies. By emphasizing clarity, change enablement, alignment, and progress monitoring - The Berkeley Innovation Group creates plans that set the groundwork for transformative change and sustainable growth -, we collaborate and support your organization toward becoming one that offers innovation, competitiveness, and strategic excellence in its pursuit.