If your employees don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.

You know how they say you either fail to plan or you plan to fail?

Never is this more true than companies who don’t create a compelling vision and strategic plan to reach it.

Sometimes the stumbling block is that it seems daunting. In most examples, we’re told to take the leadership team offsite for two days to nail down the vision. Oh and throw in a couple more days for the Strategic Plan.

Yet time and time again, teams that have invested that kind of time have had little to show for it.

I’m all for the accelerated version of both of these types of meetings.

While you will need an experienced facilitator to keep you on track, the outlines below will give you the structure you need to get through these types of meetings in less than two days.

VISION/MISSION MEETINGS

A Vision/Mission Meeting sets the direction for the organization, division, department or team.

Objective:
Alignment of team
Prioritization and timelines
Identifying obstacles and challenges
Support requested

Attendees:
Leader
Leadership team
Facilitator (optional but recommended)

Possible Agenda: 3-4 hours
Pre-work (assessment, research, reading material, etc.)
Set context and desired outcome
Exercises with small groups
Sharing insights with whole group
Consensus and decision
Next steps

Meeting Format:
Unpredictable and Formal
To set the Vision/Mission, meet 1x per year

Common Challenges:

  • Most leaders think the Vision/Mission of the organization is clear. Yet many employees can’t recite it.
  • Thinking a Vision/Mission meeting has to take 2 to 3 days at an offsite. (Great if you can do it but this expectation is often why these meetings don’t happen.)
  • Many Vision/Mission meetings get bogged down by insisting on the “perfect” Vision/Mission statement. Don’t worry about semantics so much as the overall direction. (“Where are we going and why?”)

STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETINGS

A Strategic Planning Meeting sets the goals and initiatives required to reach the Vision.

Objective:
Brainstorm measureable goals and objectives
Prioritize the Top 5 Goals
Turn the Top 5 Goals into initiatives
Assign who does what by when

Attendees:
Leader
Leadership team
Facilitator (optional but recommended)

Possible Agenda: 2-3 hours
Pre-work (assessment, research, reading material, etc.)
Set context and desired outcome
Exercises with small groups
Sharing insights with whole group
Consensus and decision
Next steps

Meeting Format:
Unpredictable and Formal
Meet 1x per year to create the Strategic Plan
Meet Quarterly to review and update

Common Challenges:

  • Disagreement over the Top 5 Goals. Always return to the guiding Vision and use a voting method. If there are two that are tied, the leader can be the tie-breaker.
  • Getting bogged down in the details of the initiatives. Do this at separate, smaller project meetings with only those team members assigned to that initiative in attendance.
  • Not meeting at least quarterly (Strategic Plan Update Meetings) to review progress.

Next time, we will look at the most frequently held, yet ironically, the most often poorly run meeting.

~The DISC Wizard

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