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Secrets of Facilitation reveals the principles and techniques effective facilitators use to produce amazing results through groups. The author identifies 60 secrets that separate great facilitators from good ones. He then puts you right in the room through his case studies and numerous sample dialogues, so you can see and experience the techniques in action!

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Making Sure the Plan is Actionable

By Michael Wilkinson
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies

All too often strategic planning processes are high-level, pie-in-the-sky exercises that don't result in specific strategies that are tied closely to important, measurable outcomes.

When developing your strategic plan, we believe it is important for the plan to produce practical strategies designed to achieve specific measurable outcomes key to your success.

The first step in making the plan actionable is to translate your broad goals into specific, measurable objectives that define achievement of the goal. The sample below is from a strategic plan for an association.

Membership Goal

3-Year Membership Objectives

Maximize membership growth, retention and involvement.

Increase membership from 500 to 650

Increase average meeting attendance to 250

Achieve 10% committee involvement

This translation from goal to objectives is important, but it doesn't get you to action. The next step is to translate the measurable objectives into specific strategies for action by identifying barriers and critical success factors.

Critical Success Factors

Barriers

Dynamic presenters with timely, substantive topics to increase meeting attendance

High awareness of association by meeting planners to attract new members

Inadequate process for getting new members involved results in burn-out of a few and low retention

High membership turnover hinders consistent growth

Objectives

Strategies

Increase membership from 500 to 650

Increase average meeting attendance from 175 to 250

Achieve 10% committee involvement

Implement PR program to report activities to the local media for increased awareness

Utilize assessment survey and industry referrals to select quality speakers and topics

Revise new member registration process to ask desired committee

Hold quarterly committee fairs after meetings

While this last step is helpful, it is still missing timelines and resources. The final step is to take each strategy that is designated as a priority and develop an action plan showing specific steps, by when, resources required, etc. The example below takes one of the priority strategies and identifies the high-level action plan to complete it.

Strategy

Implement PR program to report activities to the local media for increased awareness

 

Action Plan

Responsibility

Due

Cost

Person-Days

1.

Develop standard press release kit

PR

3/1/XX

$250

3

2.

Hold monthly PR reviews to identify upcoming, newsworthy events

PR

By 5th of each month

0

5 people
1 hr/month

At Leadership Strategies, we use our Drivers Model to help move a team from broad aims (goals), to measurable outcomes (objectives), to specific approaches to achieve those outcomes (strategies), to the specific steps to accomplishing the strategies (action plans).

To learn more about these pitfalls and how to avoid them, consider our Strategic Planning training class or Springboard Online!, our online course.

About the Author

Michael Wilkinson is the Managing Director of Leadership Strategies - The Facilitation Company, and a much sought after trainer, facilitator and speaker. He is a Certified Master Facilitator and a Certified Professional Facilitator. As a past president of the Southeast Association of Facilitators and a board member of the National Institute of Facilitation, Michael is a national leader in the facilitation industry. You can get more tips from either of Michael's books, The Secrets of Facilitation or The Secrets to Masterful Meetings. You can receive a signed copy through our website.