According to a statistical report, 67% of leaders believe their organization is good at crafting strategy but only 47% believe their organization is good at implementing strategy. Developing a decent plan is not enough when it comes to implementing a specific plan for a business firm or organization. In order to be successful, project leaders and operational managers should be able to turn their worthwhile strategic ideas into an implementable plan, to get everyone on the same page, and to integrate the work into business as usual so that it actually happens. In this article, we will discuss the different types of organizational strategic plans, basic components, and steps in preparing an effective organizational strategic plan, plus we have various downloadable examples of organizational strategic plan templates for you to use such as health organizational strategic plan, HR organizational strategic plan, organizational learning strategic plan, etc. Scroll until the end of the article!
An organizational strategic plan is a clear and systematic document which comprises good organizational strategy goals, objectives, and actions that should be executed by a professional who owns and manages a business or company. This strategic plan is a beneficial management tool with the purpose of communicating strategy to the key individuals who are involved in a business firm or organization so that they understand where they fit and why their contribution is valuable. Project leaders should build the accountability culture as they take responsibility for what is in the plan especially when reaching further development and success.
A PMI report has shown that 61% of respondents acknowledge that their firms often struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and its day-to-day implementation. That’s why it is necessary that organizations implement their strategies properly as they force themselves to create something implementable, setting a formal mechanism for monitoring that implementation and being honest with themselves about what is actually getting accomplished, how well it is getting accomplished and what needs to be refined to get back on track. Thus, all kinds of working professionals like project supervisors, content strategists, marketing strategists, business managers, and business owners should effectively create a compelling and well-detailed organizational strategic plan.
Constantinos Markides said: “Designing a winning strategy is the art of asking questions, experimenting and then constantly renewing the thinking process by questioning the answers. No matter how good today’s strategy is, you must always keep reinventing it.” Also, you should be well-informed about the different types of organizational strategic plans that you will use for your business or organization matters. Here we will explain to you about the different types of organizational strategic plans below:
Creating a strategic plan in health care organizations is a fundamental method in performing proactive steps toward a goal, aside from resolving immediate problems when they arise. To attain a health care organization’s future success, developing an effective health care strategy is integral as it brings out the framework for formulating day-to-day choices in alignment with its objectives. Health care strategies differ in type (prospective or omergent) and organizational level (corporate, business, or functional) as stated by The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). For prospective strategy, health care providers focus on creating strategies that expect possible necessities for additional resources like capital and personnel. While for emergent strategy, it involves a retrospective analysis of events to contemplate better decisions going forward. Moreover, organizational strategies are often subdivided into corporate, business and functional levels: corporate-level strategy commonly involves a board of directors, executive leaders, and stakeholders; business-level strategy prioritizes specific product lines; and functional-level strategy supports the corporate and business levels as it is tied to the end products or services the company provides. Health care administrators and medical executives should prepare a comprehensive health organizational strategic plan to efficiently manage an entire health care facility, clinic or department.
Based on a report by Survey Analytics, companies that implement regular employee feedback have turnover rates that are 14.9% lower than for employees who receive no feedback. Including this aspect in a human resource organizational strategic plan is essential to boost employee retention and work productivity. Writing a strategic plan for human resource (HR) provides many benefits as it addresses key issues in a timely manner to avoid crises, brings a sense of direction to positively affect how work gets accomplished, provides a strategic focus to guide training and development initiatives, giving project leaders tools to help focus and implement their strategic initiatives, avoids costly and disruptive surprises that interfere with attaining goals, promotes employee productivity and overall organizational success and keeping employees maintain their concentration on organizational goals. Some goals that HR include in strategic HR plans are managing performance and designing a compelling rewards system to keep employees motivated, providing training and ethics to reinforce corporate values and many others.
Julie Dirksen, a learning strategy and design consultant, said: “Learning experiences are like journeys. The journey starts where the learning is now, and ends when the learner is successful. The end of the journey isn’t knowing more, it’s doing more.” Understanding learning as an enabling strategic resource and taking action to institutionalize learning in order to leverage opportunities it can provide are essential for organizations to catalyze innovation and sustain performance. Many organizations have transferred from rigid, hierarchical structures toward increasingly flexible arrangements. Doing this will help them to respond well to rapid shifts and challenges coming from uncertain and ever-changing environments. Structuring an organization learning strategic plan is a beneficial tool in various organizations that seek to leverage performance in support of strategy development and execution. Organizations should develop core capabilities that allow them to seek and utilize knowledge about changing environments to become more competitive and effective, to shift direction rapidly and to proactively build future environments.
A 2021 survey report found that 80% of U.S. employees believe it is the responsibility of company leaders to take action in addressing racial justice and equity issues. Business leaders should consider and think carefully to discuss racial and social issues in the workplace as these difficult issues could have an adverse impact on the organizations. Several reports showed that many employees would likely quit their jobs if their company did not prioritize addressing social or racial injustice and others said the lack of inclusivity in their workplace makes them less likely to select in-person work. Most of the employees would be willing to recommend their employer if they manage to prioritize the equity issues and make it a part of its corporate culture. This means organizations have a crucial role to play in the world nowadays especially in helping people grapple with challenging issues, engaging all levels of the organization in discussion and learning, and taking collective development and demonstrating that organizations and workplaces are becoming communities where this can occur.
In this section, you will learn how to construct a well-written and systematic organizational strategic plan. However, a one page action plan has different kinds of components. Include the following elements for you to create a professional piece of writing:
Richard Koch said: “To be strategic is to concentrate on what is important, on those few objectives that can give us a comparative advantage, on what is important to us rather than others, and to plan and execute the resulting plan with determination and steadfastness.” It is fundamental for project leaders and managers to focus on what is really significant and execute the overall strategic plan with strong eagerness and faithfulness. Below are some easy-to-follow tips that indicate how to write a clear and structured organizational strategic plan:
What are your specific organizational strategic goals and objectives? Think carefully about purposes, goals and situational requirements such as political, legal, administrative, ethical, and environmental requirements. Pay close attention to the particulars of context, including the decision-making context while designing the strategic planning approach. Also, understand and manage potential changes and uphold an optimistic attitude so that you are able to improve the chances of successful implementation of the organizational strategy. Clearly identify the areas to be improved and ensure that you indicate a realistic set of desired organizational strategic goals and objectives.
Next, formulate the essential steps or the strategic methods and procedures for your organizational strategic plan. The elements should maintain clarity and must be easy to follow. Include the important strategic methods in executing the strategic plan and outline them in a systematic manner which are aligned on systems thinking including the interrelationships among constituent subsystems. In this way, you are able to achieve your overall organizational strategic plan.
You need to focus on the SWOT or the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as competitive and collaborative capabilities and advantages. Also, focus on the future and how varying strategies might be utilized to influence it. Look closely at implementation challenges as strategies are formulated.
Prepare a careful evaluation during the organizational strategic planning process. So, check carefully on what is working and what is not working. Set an effective process for review and determining successes, challenges and growth opportunities.
Review your entire organizational strategic plan and make sure that you fully present all the core points in your plan. It should demonstrate the connection between the organizational strategic goals, objectives, resources, strategies and methods, activities used for accomplishing the objectives, and the evaluation of the people involved in the strategic plan. If you realize that you overlook some sections that need more elements, it is important to edit and revise the document as soon as possible.
The basic components that should be included in an organizational strategic plan are overview, goals and objectives, desired outcomes, resources, strategies and methods, time frame, and monthly progress monitoring and evaluation.
Some examples of organizational strategic plans are health organizational strategic plan, HR organizational strategic plan, organizational learning strategic plan, equity organizational strategic plan, turbulent organizational strategic plan, organizational excellence strategic plan, and many other organizational strategic plans.
The 7 organizational structures are hierarchical organizational structure, functional organizational structure, horizontal or flat organizational structure, divisional organizational structure, matrix organizational structure, team-based organizational structure, and network organizational structure.
Schedule and hold a formal meeting with the key individuals of the organization like the company executives, project managers, and others. Explain the reason why you are developing the plan. Then, structure a framework for teams to align their work with the organizational strategy. Reinforce the strategic plan in future communications. After that, convey your message clearly with visuals.
The book Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach explained that strategy is, in essence, problem solving, and the best approach depends upon the specific problem at hand. Your environment dictates your approach to strategy. It is crucial to assess the environment and then match and apply the appropriate approach. We learned in this article that an organizational strategic plan is a beneficial management tool with the purpose of communicating strategy to the project leaders and executives of the organization so that they are able to assess organizational issues and improve their organizational culture. To assist you in organizational strategic planning, you can learn and apply the tips aforementioned in this article. Plus, we have included several organizational strategic plan samples that you can download.
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