Most organisations have a strategic plan. Far fewer have a strategy they are executing. The plan was launched with enthusiasm, printed in a smart booklet, presented to the board and then slowly forgotten as day-to-day pressures took over. If that sounds familiar, the problem is rarely the quality of the document. It is how the plan was built and what happens after it is approved.
Why strategic plans fail
- No real choices. A plan that tries to do everything is not a strategy. Strategy means deciding what you will do and, just as importantly, what you will not do.
- Too many priorities. When everything is a priority, staff cannot tell what matters most.
- No owners. Objectives without named, accountable owners rarely move.
- Disconnected from budgets and annual plans. If the budget funds last year’s activities, the strategy will not happen.
- No rhythm of review. Without regular, structured conversations about progress, plans drift.
- Built without the people who must deliver it. Ownership cannot be handed down in a booklet.
Three questions at the heart of strategy
Good strategy answers three executive questions. Where will we compete or focus? What will we prioritise? How will we execute? The first two are choices and the third is a system. Many plans spend most of their pages on the first two and almost none on the third, which is why they read well and deliver poorly.
Building a plan your team can execute
- Assess your position honestly. Review performance, stakeholder expectations, the market or funding environment and your internal capacity. Use tools such as SWOT or PESTLE as prompts for evidence-based discussion, not as ritual lists.
- Make the strategic choices. Agree your vision and mission, then limit the plan to three to five strategic priorities.
- Translate priorities into objectives and initiatives. For each objective, define the initiatives, the outcome you expect and a single accountable owner.
- Build a performance scorecard. Select a few measures for each priority, covering for example financial performance, stakeholders or beneficiaries, internal processes, and people and capability.
- Align annual plans and budgets. Each year’s implementation plan and budget should trace directly back to the strategy.
- Set the governance rhythm. Agree who reviews progress, how often and using which information.
- Adaptation plan. Decide in advance what evidence would cause you to revisit a priority.
The role of the board and management
The board’s job is to challenge and endorse the strategic direction, hold management to account for results and make sure the organisation has the resources and risk appetite to deliver. Management’s job is to translate the direction into plans, run the organisation against them and report honestly on progress.
Problems arise when the board is drawn into operational detail, or when management brings only good news. A scorecard reviewed quarterly, with clear red, amber and green status and a short explanation of each, helps both sides stay in their roles and keeps the conversation on what matters.
What a simple scorecard might look like
The measures below are illustrative. The right ones depend on your sector and strategy, but the structure travels well.
|
Perspective |
Example measures |
Review |
|
Financial and sustainability |
Operating surplus against budget; share of income from non-donor or diversified sources |
Quarterly |
|
Stakeholders and beneficiaries |
Client or beneficiary satisfaction; number of people reached; partner retention |
Quarterly |
|
Internal processes |
Share of projects delivered on time and on budget; audit findings closed |
Monthly or quarterly |
|
People and capability |
Staff turnover; training hours per staff member; leadership pipeline |
Six-monthly |
Make execution a habit
Execution is mostly routine. Hold a short monthly management review, a quarterly board review, and a full annual review that feeds the next year’s plan and budget. At each review, ask three things: what has moved, what is stuck and what decision is needed. Write down the decisions and follow them up at the next meeting.
It also helps to communicate the strategy in language every employee can use. If a front-line officer cannot say in one sentence how their work contributes to the top three priorities, the strategy has not yet landed.
The first 90 days after approval
The weeks after a plan is approved decide whether it becomes real. Within the first 90 days, confirm owners for every objective, convert each initiative into a costed work plan, load the first-year targets into the scorecard and hold the first quarterly review. Brief every team on what the strategy means for their own priorities, and agree what they will stop doing to make room for it. Organisations that skip this step often find, a year later, that the plan has changed nothing about how people spend their time.
How Melanel can help
Melanel supports organisations in developing strategic plans, reviewing vision, mission, and strategic direction, designing performance scorecards, and aligning annual implementation plans with the strategy. We also strengthen the capacity of leadership teams to execute, so that the plan becomes a working tool rather than a document in a drawer.
