Strategic planning is a systematic process through which an organisation defines its long-term goals, strategies, and direction. It involves setting future objectives, analysing the competitive landscape, assessing internal capabilities, and allocating resources to pursue identified strategies. Implementing strategic planning in business offers numerous benefits that can significantly impact an organisation’s success and sustainability.
When a business neglects strategic planning, it may face various challenges that hinder growth, competitiveness, and even survival. Common issues include lack of clear direction, poor resource allocation, reduced competitive edge, operational inefficiencies, financial instability, inadequate risk management, decreased employee morale and engagement, stakeholder dissatisfaction, missed growth opportunities, ineffective communication, regulatory and compliance issues, and organisational misalignment.
At The Alternative Board, we excel in strategic planning and believe that diagnosing both the business and the team is crucial before creating a plan. We use our proprietary Business Builders Blueprint tools to diagnose the business, and DISC and the Six Types of Working Genius to assess the team.
The DISC assessment is a behavioural profiling tool that provides insights into an individual’s personality and behavioural tendencies in four areas: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Compliance (C). It is used to enhance communication, teamwork, and productivity. It is used to enhance communication, teamwork, and productivity.
The Six Types of Working Genius, developed by Patrick Lencioni, is a productivity model that helps individuals and teams identify their natural talents and areas of genius in the work context (Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement and Tenacity). By understanding these innate strengths and organising processes with the right resources and geniuses, people can improve job satisfaction, enhance team performance, and achieve better results.
The effectiveness of strategic planning largely depends on the people involved—their abilities, behaviours, and how well they work together. By using these models in conjunction with our tools, organisations can leverage individual strengths, optimise team dynamics, enhance collaboration, improve decision-making, and create more robust and effective strategies and action plans.
After numerous engagements with businesses in New Zealand and around the world, The Alternative Board has developed and refined a methodology to create robust and inspiring strategic plans. This approach aligns senior leadership teams and enables them to achieve more in a more productive and rewarding way. If this sounds interesting to you, get in touch, and we’ll have a chat about it.