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Most business owners would likely agree that strategic planning is important. Yet many companies rarely engage in active measures to gather and discuss strategy. Sometimes strategic planning is tacked on to a meeting about something else; other times it occurs only at the annual company retreat when employees may feel out of their element and perhaps not be fully focused.<\/p>\n
Businesses should take strategic planning seriously. One way to do so is to hold meetings exclusively focused on discussing your company\u2019s direction, establishing goals and identifying the resources you\u2019ll need to achieve them. To get the most from strategy sessions, follow some of the best practices you\u2019d use for any formal business meeting.<\/p>\n
Set an agenda<\/strong><\/p>\n Every strategy session should have an agenda that\u2019s relevant to strategic planning \u2014 and only<\/em> strategic planning. Allocate an appropriate amount of time for each agenda item so that the meeting is neither too long nor too short.<\/p>\n Before the meeting, distribute a document showing who\u2019ll be presenting on each agenda topic. The idea is to create a \u201cno surprises\u201d atmosphere in which attendees know what to expect and can thereby think about the topics in advance and bring their best ideas and feedback.<\/p>\n Lay down rules (if necessary)<\/strong><\/p>\n Depending on your workplace culture, you may want to state some upfront rules. Address the importance of timely attendance and professional decorum \u2014 either in writing or by announcement as the meeting begins.<\/p>\n Every business may not need to do this, but meetings that become hostile or chaotic with personal conflicts or \u201cside chatter\u201d can undermine the purpose of strategic planning. Consider whether to identify conflict resolution methods that participants must agree to follow.<\/p>\n Choose a facilitator<\/strong><\/p>\n A facilitator should oversee the meeting. He or she is responsible for:<\/p>\n If no one at your company feels up to the task, you could engage an outside consultant. Although you\u2019ll need to vet the person carefully and weigh the financial cost, a skilled professional facilitator can make a big difference.<\/p>\n Keep minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n Recording the minutes of a strategic planning meeting is essential. An official record will document what took place and which decisions (if any) were made. It will also serve as a log of potentially valuable ideas or future agenda items.<\/p>\n In addition, accurate meeting minutes will curtail miscommunications and limit memory lapses of what was said and by whom. If no record is kept, people\u2019s memories may differ about the conclusions reached and disagreements could later arise about where the business is striving to head.<\/p>\n Gather \u2019round<\/strong><\/p>\n By gathering your best and brightest to discuss strategic planning, you\u2019ll put your company in a stronger competitive position. Contact our firm for help laying out some of the tax, accounting and financial considerations you\u2019ll need to talk about.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2021<\/em><\/p>\n <\/body> Most business owners would likely agree that strategic planning is important. Yet many companies rarely engage in active measures to gather and discuss strategy. Sometimes strategic planning is tacked on to a meeting about something else; other times it occurs only at the annual company retreat when employees may feel out of their element and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,14,10],"tags":[8,11,12],"class_list":["post-15606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-business","category-news","tag-articles","tag-news","tag-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfw.cpa\/news-and-guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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