Organization Strategic Planning

Organizations are structures. And structures are specifically designed to satisfy certain minimum provisions. Within these structures are forms and forms have to satisfy conventional specifications and requirements These specification and requirements, management thinkers believe are embodied in the following: clarity, economy, direction of vision, understanding of the individual, decision making, stability and adaptability, perpetuation and self-renewal.

Clarity is defined as knowing where one belongs in the organization. If you do not know where you belong in the organization, you would be at a loss as to what contribution to make. Economy is defined as the minimum effort required to control, to supervise and to coax. Freedom in the work place and initiative gives way to large economic savings.

Direction is defined as the channeling of the organization towards performance and results. You cannot do business or have an organization without direction. That goes contrary to common conventions.

Decision-making is defined as the action on the right issues on the right level, converting it into work and accomplishment. Organizations live and breathe decision-making. It has to act and it has to convert its decision into work and accomplish something. Stability and adaptability is defined as the ability to work in spite of the turmoil around.

In a chaotic business environment one has to work notwithstanding the chaos and turmoil. You must focus on the important and disregard urgent. Perpetuation and self-renewal is defined as the capability of the organization to produce from within tomorrow’s leaders.

Ideally tomorrow’s leaders should come from within. However, in an environment where speed is a crucial factor in organizations, there might be instance wherein tomorrow’s leader might come from without.

These specification and requirements of clarity, economy, direction of vision, understanding of the individual, decision making, stability and adaptability, perpetuation and self-renewal would be difficult to accomplish without strategic planning. Strategic planning can bring these parts and combine them to make a whole that would be the vehicle to bring the company to the future.

The Organization must Visualize the Plan

Organizations cannot move ahead if they are not agreed on its direction. Should we concentrate on the local market this year and the international market next year? Or should we concentrate on both local and international markets this year? This question of direction if not fully answered and understood will put the organization to a standstill, a case of paddling your boat against the current. Agreement of direction is crucial for organizations to move smoothly and steadily toward its goal.

In order for organizations to be agreed on direction and other crucial issues, the strategic planner must be able to communicate clearly and effectively the strategic plan. This strategic plan embodies the why of the organizational direction, the how of the organization direction, and the when of the organizational direction.

The strategic plan answers:
Why are we going into that direction?
How are we going to that direction?
When are we going to that direction?

Some probable answers might be:
Why?
There is an unseen opportunity, they do not see it, but we do.

How?
We do it by stages, 25% of our resources for every time period.

When?
We start in summer, when potential customers are in an all time high.

Visualization is a continuous process. The strategic planner must be able to somehow communication the plan in a manner it is visualized by the organization. The mental imagery that he has developed, seen and understood well has to be made visible, available and comprehensible to the organization. The methodology is not the issue here, but the end result. The organization must continually be briefed, debriefed and reminded of the strategic plan. Continuity and regularity are key elements in letting the organization visualize the plan.