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Luminous Group Strategic Planning Services
We live in a results-oriented world where a well-functioning management team is
an oft-overlooked & underdeveloped strategic consideration. From the Luminous
perspective, while we value the kinds of results that are measured in terms of
deliverables, we are also keenly aware of the fundamental relationship between a
management team fully engaged in a strategic vision and the successful execution
of strategic business objectives.
We measure success in this area through three simple criteria that provides
significant business value: communication, accountability, and
monitoring status and progress.
That is why at Luminous, we apply our work for organizations with integrated
modalities supporting people, process, and technology. Our
work with people focuses on the human aspects of organizational dynamics. At the
senior management level, this involves working with management teams to develop
new habits to include strategic thinking in all aspects of the business. We have found that the best way to do this is to
work through the strategic planning process with the team and then support
everybody to bring the strategic execution process into their daily work in a
way that makes acting strategically habitual.
Communication
The power of any team is greatly enhanced with a shared commitment to ideas,
alignment behind goals, and enrollment to a higher sense of purpose. Your plan
articulates the ideas that motivate individuals to act from enlightened
self-interest, where they recognize that what is good for the whole will
ultimately serve them as well. When properly motivated, they are willing to do
things that before were low priority or did not get done at all. Articulating a
strategic plan as a team also clarifies the interdependencies between functional
roles and departments, which improves the shared understanding of how insignificant
actions in one area have a big impact in another. Communication is the key for
collaboration – while clear objectives and measurable goals provide the
foundation for productive meetings and constructive conversations.
Accountability
Measurable goals and outcomes within specified time frames let everybody know
what they need to focus on and how it affects others. It forces teams to think
about the quantifiable indicators that best represent the desired outcome.
These indicators become the management tools that provide feedback about what is
working and where to improve the effectiveness of the work. They also create a
dynamic of mutual accountability that is grounded in objective information.
Everybody knows what is expected of them and can manage their time and energy
accordingly. Starting from accountability, there is a solid foundation for the
conversations about the resources and support needed to deal with constraints
and leverage opportunities that make goals realistic and achievable. You have
the framework that allows you to manage your team proactively and based on
outcomes and they have the authority to figure out how to get their goals
accomplished.
Monitoring Status and Progress
The process of continuously working on your strategic plan is critical to
getting the best results. Your team needs to update the indicators of their
goals and review them in quarterly and sometimes monthly meetings. You will
discuss the progress, identify challenges and make necessary adjustments in
priorities, resources, and/or expectations. These meetings provide the forum for
continuous improvement efforts and learning. We are often forced to update
preconceived notions, concepts and ideas about what works and how it is working.
Such habits are invaluable to creating a management team that holds a decidedly
strategic view.
What is in a strategic plan?
Vision
The vision statement articulates what you want to accomplish in specific,
measurable terms. It usually looks three to five years out and may contain
financial benchmarks, market share, regional expansion, employee base, brand
recognition, or whatever else is meaningful to you and your team. Your targets
should be realistic and ambitious in a way that is highly motivating in the
context of your company culture. At the end of a planning cycle you want to be
able to objectively tell how much you have exceeded or how close you have come
to your stated targets.
Mission and Purpose
The mission statement articulates what about your work is important to you
and how it matters. It is aspirational in nature and looks to a purpose that
transcends the self-interests of the company and its owners. Money, market share
and the like do not provide the sustaining motivational power that value
statements and a shared higher sense of purpose can generate. Here too, it is
important to strike the balance between ambition and realism so that the
statement is motivating. If you aspire to certain values be really clear how you
live them in everyday actions. Lofty mission statements that do not have a felt,
lived sense in everyday work life sound hollow and may have adverse effects.
Strategies Your business strategies articulate all the ways the business
is making money. They interrelate to support each other where one strategy opens
doors to new customers, the bread-and-butter revenue generator, the
differentiator, the highly profitable up- and cross-sell, passive income, and
many more. Each of them face their particular challenges and the particular
balance between them creates your unique business. Think about all the ways that
shifting that balance will make your business more successful. You also want to
stay really clear about the fundamental business idea that you want to remain
true to and cannot change without turning it into an entirely new business.
Strategic Issues Every business and every situation has challenges and
issues that you are working hard to resolve in order to move forward. Many of
them are effectively resolved once they are clearly articulated and new actions
or processes are agreed upon. Others prove to be more persistent. They require a
broader, systemic view of all the business aspects that affect the situation.
The solution is found with Luminous' multi-pronged approach where often small
changes in aspects surrounding the issue will have a big positive impact. Your
plan coordinates these efforts and measures the effectiveness of changes, which
often provides surprising insights into the actions that have the biggest
leverage for change.
Initiatives, Objectives and Goals
Your strategic plan groups related goals into the broader contexts of
initiatives and objectives so that it is always apparent how they support an
overarching strategy. Generally, plans end up with five to ten high-level initiatives
that create the buckets for all the objectives and goals within the
organization. Some of them will fall along the lines of functional roles, while
operational or management initiatives span across the organization. Goals are
described in terms of specific measurable targets; they have an owner, and a
time frame for its accomplishment. You can add more details to your longer-term
strategic goals in action plans and milestones that track shorter-term progress.
The Management Process
Strategic planning is an ongoing activity where the conversations about
strategic business issues are conducted through the lens of a shared plan. You
have agreements about when to update the information of the goals and meetings
where the goals are reviewed in terms of progress and effectiveness. It is also
where you make adjustments to goals with your full team at the table.
About the Service
Luminous' strategic planning services are the result of a joint venture
between Luminous Group Consulting LLC and Volker Frank Consulting LLC. Luminous
Group work with companies who want to build healthy systems of practices in
their work and information flows. We offer an interdisciplinary set of
consulting services that span cultural, strategic, organizational, and
technological domains, ensuring that the investment companies make into their
technology has a strong alignment with strategic goals.
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