Strategic Planning

If you are a business owner or business leader and you haven't taken the time to do strategic planning in your business, it's like running a race blindfolded with your legs tied together.

You'll have trouble figuring out what direction you're supposed to head and almost as much trouble getting there.

In the military, they talk about 2 different levels of planning:

The first is the tactical level.

That is, what do the individual squads and platoons do, on the field to create the results that they need to.  How do they move as a team, who shoots where and that sort of thing.

The second, is the strategic level.

This is the level that the commanders work at.  This level of thinking makes sure that all the smaller units are working towards a common objective, that supply lines are open, chains of communication are clear and that everything that is being executed is being done to achieve a common objective.

As leaders move up the ranks in the military they have to learn how to operate more strategically.

The same needs to happen for you as your business grows or your position on the corporate ladder increases.

And that's where the problem lies...

When you first started your business or career, if you're like 90% of the people I work with, you were being rewarded for working at a tactical level.  You were getting tasks and to-dos done, filling orders and doing what your boss told you to do.

At some point, you hired a worker or got promoted and had people working for you.  Now you could increase your productivity because you had another person to do more tasks for you. 

At this point most people then continue working tactically and sharing their to-do list with their new person.  At first, it's great - more stuff is getting done!

At some point however, as you added more people, you started to realise that people require maintenance as well and you got less done on your to-do list as you spent more time managing people.  This is where the split occurs for many people...

One group continues working harder and harder trying to do everything they used to do and also managing people.  I know a successful business owner who still packs some of his own orders, despite a very competent staff!  This is a sure way to stall your career, business and burn out.

The other group realises that they can't do it all and that their job is becoming progressively more about getting things done through other people.  They are at the helm of their business or department steering it through both calm and turbulent times.  This is often followed by another scary realisation...

They're not too sure where they should be steering things.  They've been trained and rewarded to get tasks done, and because of this, they've given very little thought to the longer term visions of where things need to go.

This is where learning to think strategically comes in.  Understanding the big picture, designing it and then being able to articulate it to your people is one of the most important tasks a leader can do.

The Strategic Planning Seminar is designed to:

• Teach the skills of BIG picture thinking.
• Learn how to design a future from the big picture perspective.
• How to use Mind Mapping as a planning tool.
• How to co-design and enrol your people in the vision.
• How to turn your vision into specific actionable tasks that can be executed at the tactical level.
• How to use strategic thinking in organisation and time management

To read more about strategic planning and mind maps specifically, visit the Coaching Strategic Section

To view samples of mind maps, click here and go to the mind map section

 To learn how this seminar can take you and your business to the next level of planning, contact Dr. Peter at PeterDeShane@peterdeshane.com or call him at 519-630-9171.