Did you know that nearly 70% of strategic plans fail to achieve their objectives? Or that only 5% of organizations are achieving at least 90% of their strategic objectives? Shocking, right? As someone who lives and breathes strategic plans—whether as a business owner, consultant, or volunteer—I’ve seen firsthand how these essential documents can either drive success or fall flat on their faces.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key Takeaways
What is a Strategic Plan?
A Quick Look at What Strategic Plans Are and Why They Are Important.
A strategic plan is a comprehensive document that outlines an organization’s goals and the strategies and actions needed to achieve them. It serves as a roadmap, guiding the organization in its decision-making processes and helping to align resources and efforts toward common objectives. Strategic plans typically include specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals, along with detailed work plans and timelines to ensure effective implementation and monitoring.
For me, strategic plans are one of the foundational plans of any business or non-profit organization. They set clear goals and work plans, enabling the entire organization to function at its best, regardless of its size. Unfortunately, not all strategic plans are created equal; in some circles, they have even earned a bad reputation. And let’s be honest, some of them deserve it.
In this article, we’ll dive into 5 reasons why your strategic plan might be failing you. More importantly, we’ll provide actionable solutions to turn things around. So buckle up and get ready to transform your strategic plan from a glorified paperweight into a powerful tool for success.
Empty Statements and Buzzwords
How Platitides are Killing Your Strategic Plan.
The number one reason I see strategic plans fail is that they’re full of platitudes.
Platitudes are those empty, overused statements that sound profound but mean nothing. Think of them as the fluff words and trending themes that sneak into your strategic plan and undermine it. If it’s not a SMART goal, it’s probably a platitude.
What Are Platitudes in a Strategic Plan?
Simply put, platitudes are statements that lack specificity, measurability, achievability, relevance, and time-boundedness (SMART). They’re the blanket statements that everyone nods along to, but no one can actually act on.
Definition:
- A remark or statement, especially one with moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.
- A flat, dull, or trite remark, especially one uttered as if it were fresh or profound. Synonyms: truism, cliché.
Let’s look at a couple of examples:
Here’s an example from a non-profit organization with a regional mandate:
Goal: Increase the internet presence of businesses, attractions, and experiences located in the region.
Let’s look at the first four words: “Increase the internet presence.” What does that even mean? Are they going to build people’s websites? How are they going to increase the internet presence of a region? This is not specific, measurable, achievable, or time-bound. Heck, it isn’t even relevant because I know organizations like this can’t increase the internet presence of businesses for an entire region—believe me, I’ve tried.
Here’s an example from a business:
Goal: Enhance customer satisfaction through improved service delivery.
Again, this is a classic platitude. “Enhance customer satisfaction” is vague and overused. How are they planning to improve service delivery? Are they implementing a new training program? Increasing staff? Offering new services? Increasing by how much? This goal is not specific, measurable, or time-bound.
These platitudes are too abstract to be goals. Do you know how I know that? Look at the string of questions—goals shouldn’t have questions behind them. Are you tired of failing because you’re working with a daisy chain of platitudes? Let’s examine the solution.
The Solution to Platitudes
Use Specific, Actionable Language and Set SMART Goals.
To avoid platitudes, use specific, actionable language and set concrete objectives. This is where SMART goals come into play:
Let’s rewrite those examples using SMART goals:
Non-Profit Example:
Original Goal: Increase the internet presence of businesses, attractions, and experiences located in the region.
SMART Goal: Develop and launch a regional digital marketing campaign by Q4 2024, aimed at promoting 50 local businesses and attractions through social media, SEO, and email marketing, resulting in a 20% increase in online engagement within six months.
Business Example:
Original Goal: Enhance customer satisfaction through improved service delivery.
SMART Goal: Implement a new customer service training program for all staff by September 2024 to reduce customer complaints by 30% and increase satisfaction scores by 15% over the next year.
Once your SMART Goal is in place, you can begin developing the strategies and actionable tasks (assigned to your human resources) that need to occur in order to achieve your goal.
Audit Your Strategic Plan for Platitudes
Ready to banish platitudes from your strategic plan? Here are some actionable steps:
By auditing your plan for platitudes and replacing them with SMART Goals and actionable items, you’ll create a strategic roadmap that actually gets results. So, grab a red pen and start cutting through the fluff. It’s time to make your strategic plan work for you.
Lack of Clarity and Focus
Why Your Strategic Plan is a Hot Mess!
A lack of clarity and focus is the second leading cause of strategic plan failure. Good grief, think of all the time and effort spent creating that paperweight. Yikes. Here are the three ingredients that make your strategic plan a hot mess.
Are Copying Others’ Plans?
If you can do a Google search and find ten other organizations with the exact same strategic plan as yours, then guess what? Your plan isn’t strategic. It’s a cookie-cutter disaster. Creating a strategic plan is not an exercise in Copy and Paste. This is the first sign your plan lacks clarity and focus—it wasn’t built for your business, your pain points, or your goals.
Are you trying to Do Too Much at Once?
The second sign of a blurry, unfocused plan is that it tries to tackle too much at once. This isn’t a strategic plan; it’s a wish list. Here’s the deal: every goal you set comes with a bazillion little tasks that need to be completed. Keep your goals in check—otherwise, you’ve got a laundry list of goals and no clear path to achieve them.
Are you Building Your Plan Too Far Into the Future?
Gone are the days of building strategic plans 5 to 10 years into the future. Sure, you might have visions of where you want to be in a decade, but setting a detailed roadmap with all the goals and tasks from now until then is a waste of time.
Your strategic plan should focus on the next three months to a year, depending on your organization or business. This approach will add so much clarity and focus to your life that you’ll be knocking it out of the park. Plus, you’ll leave room for new opportunities that haven’t even entered your realm of possibilities yet.
Example: A Strategic Plan Riddled with Mistakes
Let’s talk about one of the most spectacular strategic plan fails I’ve ever seen. Picture this: a community development organization that had a four-year plan. Yep, you read that right—four years (mistake one). As if predicting the future for four years isn’t challenging enough, this plan was so jam-packed with platitudes that I needed a shovel to dig through them all (mistake two). It was a buffet of clichés and buzzwords.
Then, the real kicker—I did the math, and it would take at least fifteen years to accomplish any of the “goals” set out in this masterpiece (mistake three). Talk about biting off more than you can chew! After conducting some research, I discovered why this plan looked so familiar. It was a carbon copy of other community development strategic plans in Manitoba (mistake four). Apparently, originality was the only thing not in this strategic plan.
Fast forward to our first review meeting, where things went from bad to worse. The board of directors couldn’t even agree on what each of the goals meant. It was like watching a group of people argue over the instructions for assembling IKEA furniture, but with less progress. And don’t even get me started on their resources. They didn’t have the time, money, or personnel to achieve these lofty goals (mistakes five, six, seven, and eight). It was a classic case of overpromising and underdelivering. Yikes.
Solution: We tossed the strategic plan and started from scratch, building on a framework of core responsibilities, SMART goals, actions, and work plans. In the end, the Board of Directors was presented with a one-year strategic plan that was so clean and focused that they were able to successfully implement and complete everything they set out to do—plus, they had their parking lot (see below) of next steps, which allowed them to move forward with ease.
Solutions to Bring Clarity and Focus to Your Strategic Plan
Here are three great solutions for making sure your strategic plan is clear and focused:
Make Your Own Damn Plan
First off, make your own damn plan. You know what you want to achieve, so why rely on someone else’s goals? They’re not going to do the work for you. Tailor your plan to your organization’s unique needs and goals.
Use a “Parking Lot” for Ideas
Keep a “parking lot” for less immediate ideas. Yeah, sure, we all have a lot of things we want to accomplish, but we’re not magicians, and we certainly can’t do it all at once. Establish a solid strategic plan that will get you on your way with a combination of short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals.
Map Your Time
Assign hours to each task in the work plan for each goal. The first time I was asked to map out my hours for an entire year, I thought I was going to lose my mind. But guess what? It was so useful that I do it every time now.
Mapping the hours allows you to see how much you can reasonably do in a year. It also tells you where you are going to fall short so you can make adjustments. For example, social media is a key factor in your community engagement efforts, but after mapping hours, all you have left for this very important task is 10 hours for the year. You know that’s not going to cut it, so go back and find the time by adjusting goals that are less important. Remember, a full-time person only works about 2,000 hours a year (40 hours a week for 50 weeks, because yes, your staff needs time off).
How to Make Your Strategic Plan Clear and Focused
Ready to bring some clarity to your strategic plan? Here are some actionable steps:
Review your plan with these steps in mind and transform it into a strategic guide that drives success. Get clear, get focused, and watch your strategic plan go from gathering dust to driving results.
Lack of Resources
Why Your Plan is Destined to Fail Without Them!
The third reason your strategic plan might be failing is a lack of resources. Time, money, personnel—you name it. Without enough of these, your plan is doomed from the start. It’s like trying to build a house without tools or materials. Good luck with that.
Are You Living in a Fantasy?
While most of us wish there were more hours in a day, it doesn’t appear that science is exploring this as a viable option. So we’re stuck with 24 hours a day and further confined by labour laws that limit our personnel’s time. This is your first reality check: Time. It’s the one thing we can’t make more of, yet so many strategic plans are built as if everyone has an extra 10 hours in their day. Spoiler alert: they don’t.
Do You Have a Money Tree?
The likely answer is no, you don’t have a money tree. Without adequate funding, even the best-laid plans will fail. Reality Check Two: Money. We can make more money, but until it’s in the bank, why the heck are you building your strategic plan like you have an unlimited supply?
Oh, yeah, and if you do have a money tree hidden in your backyard, give me a call!
Are Your Staff and Volunteers Superheroes?
There is only one answer to this, and it’s yes.
If you can’t say yes, then there’s something wrong. Maybe it’s that no one understands the strategic plan (like the board members in the example I shared earlier), or perhaps you created an overly ambitious plan that lacks the time and money needed to complete it. Or perhaps your plan is fantastic; it only lacks a few more hands to get the job done.
While I hope you are working with a team of superheroes (I do, and it’s the greatest), no one on your team is a miracle worker. Reality Check Three: Human Resources. You can’t build a strategic plan for ten people when you have a team of two. Trust me, even when working 24/7, math doesn’t work.
Example: Overly Ambitious Plans
Let’s take a look at a bed and breakfast (B&B) aiming to expand its product line to include experiential tourism products. Sounds exciting, right? But let’s see how the plan plays out in reality.
Overly Ambitious Plan
This B&B was run by a husband and wife team. The husband had a full-time job outside of the home, leaving the wife to handle most of the daily operations. Despite their limited manpower, they crafted a strategic plan with grand ambitions. They planned to offer five new experiential tourism products within a year. Each experience required detailed planning, marketing efforts, partnerships with local businesses, and staff training. However, the team was just the two of them with a very modest budget.
Reality Check One: Time
The wife was already stretched thin managing daily operations. Developing five new tourism products meant working around the clock. Spoiler: She didn’t have the time, and the husband’s availability was limited by his full-time job.
Reality Check Two: Money
Launching these experiences required a significant upfront investment. From creating promotional materials to setting up logistics, the costs quickly piled up. The B&B didn’t have a money tree, and their budget wasn’t prepared for such a financial strain.
Reality Check Three: Personnel
The small team struggled to juggle their regular duties with the additional workload. They needed more hands on deck, but hiring more personnel wasn’t part of the budget until cash started flowing in from the experiences under development.
The solution: We revamped the strategic plan to allow the very busy business owners room to breathe. We worked together to identify relevant goals that could be accomplished within the year, limiting the focus to one experience development project at a time. At the end of the year, the ambitious entrepreneurs, with some help from employment grants to hire staff, launched three of their five experiences and had a clear path to getting the other two launched in the upcoming year.
Solutions to Create a Plan that Works
Matching your Strategic Plan Goals with Your Available Resources!
I’m all for ambitious plans—I really am—but I do know my limits and the limits of my team. So there’s ambition, and then there’s ambition to the point of failure. You’ll have to find your sweet spot—that fine line between ambitious and delusional. Let’s talk about finding that sweet spot.
Be Realistic About Time
Know your limits and your team’s limits. We talked about time mapping earlier—use it and use it wisely. It’s better to overestimate the time it will take to accomplish a particular goal than underestimate it. Add a 10 to 15% time buffer to your goals. If you think it will take you 50 hours to complete, schedule 58.
Prioritize Your Goals
Prioritize goals based on the available time of your team. In your strategic plan, only include the goals that can be realistically achieved in the given time frame. Everything else should be in the parking lot. As you achieve your goals and more time becomes available, review the parking lot to see what new goals can be added to your strategic plan.
Align Your Plan with Your Budget
Be realistic about what you can achieve financially. If your budget is tight, prioritize cost-effective initiatives and look for additional funding sources. Don’t count your chickens before the eggs hatch. If you currently don’t have the cash to pull off a goal, then that goal should be in the parking lot, while the goal in your strategic plan should reflect establishing the financial means to carry out Goal X.
Shake that Money Tree
If your non-profit organization is tight on cash, your goal should be to shake that money tree. Be it through fundraising initiatives or grant hunting, neither are magical solutions, but they are definitely worth the effort. Again, the strategic goal is to find the money to support Goal X, not the details of Goal X itself.
Business owners may be able to find some available money through grants as well; it all depends on the type of project you’re trying to fund. Another option is to seek out investors.
Build Your Team of Superheroes
Be realistic about what your team can handle, and don’t overload them too much. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about working with superheroes, a good, ambitious strategic plan—one built in that sweet spot—will motivate them. Imagine, however, what could truly be accomplished if you increased your team’s capacity. Can you hire additional staff? Are you able to find volunteers to help with certain aspects of a project? Are there new tools available that could streamline processes for you, freeing up your team’s time? Can you bring in a consultant to help with certain goals?
Assessing Your Resources
Ready to make sure your strategic plan is actually doable? Here are some actionable steps:
By assessing your resources and ensuring they match your strategic ambitions, you can avoid the pitfalls of under-resourcing and set yourself up for success. So, take a hard look at what you’ve got and plan accordingly. It’s time to get real about what you can achieve.
Implementation: When Great Plans Die on the Vine
You’ve Made a Great Plan. Now it’s Time to Execute It!
Even the best strategic plans can falter in the implementation phase. It’s not enough to just have a fantastic plan; you need to bring it to life. The failure here often lies in the execution—or lack thereof. Let’s dive into why your well-crafted plan might be gathering dust on a shelf instead of driving your organization forward.
Example: Well-Designed Plan, Poor Execution
Let me paint you a picture. Imagine you’ve spent months crafting a brilliant strategic plan for your small business. It’s detailed, ambitious yet realistic, and perfectly aligned with your vision. You and your team are pumped, feeling like you’ve got the golden ticket. But here’s where it all goes wrong: instead of executing the plan, it’s allowed to lay dormant on the shelf.
Initially, everyone is excited, the plan is fresh in your head, and you get to work on the goals. But soon, the initial excitement wanes. Tasks pile up, daily operations take over, and before you know it, your strategic plan is forgotten. There’s no project management to keep you on track and no reminders of what needs to be done after completing task one. The plan starts gathering dust, and your goals remain just that—goals, not achievements.
Solutions to Ensure Successful Implementation
Let’s Get the Plan Working for You!
Here are four ways to help you get your strategic plan off the ground and into action.
Use a Project Management Tool
It doesn’t matter if it’s a basic Excel document or a fancy online program like ClickUp. The key is to use something—anything—that keeps you organized and accountable. A project management tool helps you break down your strategic plan into actionable steps, assign responsibilities, and track progress. It’s your roadmap to success, ensuring you stay on course and don’t lose sight of your goals.
Live in Your Strategic Plan
Your strategic plan shouldn’t be a one-time effort. It needs to be a living, breathing document you interact with daily. Check it every day to stay on top of the actions you’ve set. Make it a habit to review progress, update tasks, and ensure you’re moving forward. When your strategic plan becomes a part of your daily routine, you’re more likely to stay focused and committed to achieving your goals.
Assign Responsibilities
Each task in your strategic plan should have a designated owner. When someone is responsible for a task, they’re more likely to ensure it gets done. Clearly define roles and responsibilities so everyone knows what’s expected of them. Accountability is key to successful implementation.
Establish Accountability
Regular check-ins and progress reviews are essential. Hold team meetings to discuss progress, address challenges, and adjust plans as needed. Establishing a culture of accountability ensures everyone stays committed and focused on the strategic plan.
Put Your Action Plan into Action
Ready to turn your strategic plan into reality? Here’s what you need to do:
Developing a detailed action plan with clear roles and deadlines ensures your strategic plan doesn’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust. It’s time to bring your plan to life and start achieving your goals. Get to work and watch your vision become a reality.
Failure to Monitor and Adapt
How Even the Best Plans Can Fall Flat Without Monitoring and Adaptability.
The final reason your strategic plan might be failing is a lack of monitoring and adaptation. A static plan is a useless plan. If you’re not regularly reviewing and updating your strategic plan, it will quickly become obsolete. Think of it like trying to navigate with an old map—the roads have changed, and you’re likely to get lost.
Example: Small Museum That Failed Due to Lack of Adaptation
Imagine a small museum with a strategic plan aimed at raising funds for a new outbuilding exhibit. The plan outlined various fundraising strategies, including donations at the door, bake sales, and perogie drives during major holidays. Initially, the museum followed the plan diligently, but several issues arose:
Lack of Tracking and Allocation: The museum didn’t implement a system to track fundraising efforts and ensure that the funds were applied to the outbuilding project. This led to inefficiencies and misallocation of resources.
Ineffective Fundraising Strategies: The chosen fundraising methods—donations at the door, bake sales, and perogie drives—didn’t generate significant revenue. Despite the initial enthusiasm, these small-scale campaigns failed to meet the project’s financial needs.
Volunteer Burnout: The numerous small fundraising campaigns wore out the museum’s human resources. Volunteers who donated baking supplies and hours to bake were exhausted and demotivated, leading to a decline in volunteer participation.
Despite these challenges, the museum stuck rigidly to the original plan and didn’t adapt to the changing circumstances. They failed to explore new, potentially more lucrative fundraising ideas, sponsorship opportunities, a more aggressive donation program, grant applications, online crowdfunding, or partnerships with local businesses.
By the end of the year, the museum had failed to reach its fundraising goal and was facing volunteer shortages. The failure to monitor its efforts, adapt its strategies, and effectively allocate resources rendered its strategic plan obsolete and ineffective.
Solutions to Stay Flexible and Relevant
Keep Your Plan Relevant After Implementation.
Here are three solutions to help make sure your strategic plan stays relevant and produces the results you want.
Track Your Measurements
Remember those SMART goals you set? Track them. Seriously. Failure to track your measurable results is a failure to know when you’ve accomplished your goal. Regularly review your performance data to see where you stand. This helps you identify what’s working and what needs adjustment.
Be Adaptable
Every plan you implement is influenced by thousands of variables. Your strategic plan can’t be written in stone. It needs to be a living document that allows you to adapt to change. Whether it’s a shift in your resources, priorities, new opportunities, or global demands, you need to be ready to adapt.
Imagine trying to follow a recipe but finding out midway that you are missing some ingredients. Do you stop cooking? No, you adapt. Your strategic plan should work the same way—flexible and responsive to change.
Use Performance Data to Inform Decisions
Base your updates on real data, not just gut feelings. Use performance metrics, market research, and feedback to make informed decisions. This keeps your plan grounded in reality and responsive to actual conditions.
The Final Piece of the Puzzle
Ready to keep your strategic plan relevant and effective? Here’s what you need to do:
By monitoring and adapting your strategic plan, you can ensure it stays relevant and effective, guiding your organization toward success. Don’t let your plan become obsolete—keep it dynamic and responsive to change.
From Paperweight to Powerhouse
Are you ready to get started?
Well, there you have it, the main reasons your strategic plan is failing you. Any one of these pitfalls can turn your strategic plan into a glorified paperweight rather than a powerful tool for success.
Now, it’s up to you. Review your plan. Take out the empty platitudes and the goals you’ve copied and pasted from other plans. Reduce the number of goals to create clarity and focus. Make sure every goal is a SMART goal. Base your plan on your available resources and put everything else into the parking lot. Follow through. You put in the time and effort; don’t waste it by not living in your strategic plan. Last but not least, monitor and adapt so that you can keep moving forward.
We Can Help You Grow!
Let’s work on a Strategic Plan for your Manitoba business, non-profit or community development organization.
Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. If you need a helping hand to turn your strategic plan from a dusty document into a dynamic roadmap for success, we’re here to help. Let’s make your strategic plan the powerhouse it deserves to be. Meet the LM Creative Team and reach out to us for strategic planning services. Together, we’ll banish those platitudes and set you on the path to greatness.
The Right Team. The Right Solution.
Learn more about us and see if we’re the right addition to your team.
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About the Author: Cyndie Mitchell
