Collaboration or Competition?
Organizations develop plans for many reasons – strategic plans to chart a new vision; operating plans to accomplish growth; marketing plans to introduce a new product or service to market; and investor plans to help secure financing. A leadership team's approach to organizational planning covers the spectrum. Frequently, without knowing, the leadership team approaches planning as an internal competition instead of a collaborative initiative.
The benefits of running a collaborative planning process include: developing a comprehensive plan, understanding the steps necessary for successful execution and establishing measurement and accountability. The leadership team will need broad organizational support to create a solid plan. If key stakeholders are not involved in setting and forming that plan this broad support may be hard to achieve. Experience has shown – the longer you wait to involve the key stakeholders the more time you'll spend getting everyone committed and knowledgeable after the fact.
Inclusion
A collaborative approach is also an inclusive approach which brings diverse perspectives, experiences and viewpoints to help the organization develop a meaningful plan. An organization benefits from assessing the current situation and the new plan as understood and articulated by its many stakeholders – management, customers, competitors, and board members. Now is not the time for group think or self-congratulations, the organization needs to be honest and open about its core competencies, deficiencies and opportunities. This inclusion will result in the development of a comprehensive strategy.
Execution
A collaborative approach recognizes that a strategic plan is only as good as the organization's ability to execute successfully. It is important to involve team members at the point in the process at which their knowledge, expertise and skills are valuable. It probably doesn't make sense to have a customer service representative help create the overall operating plan for the organization. But it does make sense to have that person involved in establishing a process to meet departmental metrics. Make sure that you rely on and involve the experts in your organization who will be tasked to execute the plan successfully.
Accountability
A collaborative approach sets clearly understood metrics that are tied to the plan to instill organizational accountability. You want everyone in the organization motivated, excited and incentivized to achieve the goals. This collaboration provides a common sense of purpose and direction for the organization. Each function and role understands how their efforts contribute to the overall goals. The new plan becomes sustainable, and integrated into the day-to-day work, rather than an isolated project at the C-Level suite.
What Does That Mean for Your Organization
The leadership team wants the organization to finish the planning process with better organizational understanding, commitment and energy. A collaborative approach facilitates this outcome. If the planning process is competitive, often the team gets to other side feeling excluded, divided and worn out. If the success of the plan depends on the organization's ability to execute it – how do you want your team to feel as they start to execute?
