Making the Most of Your Strategic Plan
This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.
Whether I’m gearing up for a long run or stepping into a new project, the first question I ask is simple: What will I need to feel ready?
Readiness matters. It’s often the difference between stumbling at the starting line and finding the stamina to go the distance.
Yet, when it comes to the ultimate readiness tool—an organization-wide strategic plan—too many organizations discover they are unprepared. According to Inc. Magazine, over half of leaders admit that their strategic planning processes ultimately fail them.
I’ve seen this story countless times: A Board approves a bold, visionary plan. The team celebrates the milestone. And then—just a few months later—the plan begins to lose steam. Not because the vision was flawed, but because day-to-day demands crowd out the strategies meant to carry it forward.
Here’s what I know for sure: A strategic plan is only as strong as the practices that shape it. Treat it as a one-time event, and it will inevitably collect dust. Treat it as a living process—a chance to align, learn, and grow—and it will become one of the most powerful tools you have to lead from.
So, how do we keep our plans alive? Here are five practices I return to, time and again, with the leaders and teams I serve.
1. Stand firm in your “why.”
Every effective plan begins with clarity: What do we stand for, and what are we solving for? Many organizations have no problem articulating what they stand against, but struggle to put into words what they collectively stand for. Yet that clarity—that sense of shared purpose toward something greater—is where values live. It’s the foundation that supports everything else. Once your team is aligned in its “why,” decisions fall more naturally into place. Without that clear grounding, everything else wobbles.
2. Match words with action.
Is your desired effort community-led or community-informed? There’s a difference, and those words matter. Your community will either be positioned as leading and directing the effort or informing it. Either way, the process must be designed to achieve its intended effect. Do what you’ll say you do, and do it well. Genuine engagement—not in word, but action—builds trust—and it ensures that the strategies you set aren’t abstract, but grounded in the perspectives of those who matter most.
3. Use the process to teach and grow.
A strategic planning process isn’t a platform to prove all you know as a leader. More importantly, it’s an opportunity to let others guide you and to co-create the future with you. Engage staff members to help facilitate, research, test, and review, while you use these opportunities to coach and mentor your team forward. When more people have a hand in shaping the plan, the result carries greater weight—and far more possibilities.
4. Keep the vision visible.
A 30-page document isn’t going to inspire anyone from day to day, but a one-page roadmap might. Distill your plan into something that can live on desks, walls, and screens—a visual reminder of that North Star driving your work forward. Share a version publicly, too. When more people see themselves in the vision, they will more likely support it.
5. Finally, don’t let it collect dust.
Don’t let that approved plan sit too long without revisiting it. I encourage teams to check in on their plan four times per year to ask: "Where have we made notable progress? What’s not working as intended? And, what needs to shift?" To avoid your plan getting "stuck on a shelf" syndrome, tend to it if you want to see your vision become a reality.
As a good friend once told me, “If you don’t have a target, you’ll miss it every time.” Strategic planning, at its best, gives us that target. Even better, it allows us to pull in the same direction—toward a shared vision of what’s possible.
Bottom line: Strategic planning doesn’t need to feel overwhelming. What it does need is readiness at the outset and commitment all the way through. Because the true measure of a plan isn’t how impressive it looks on paper—it’s how fully it comes alive in practice.
This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
