When you know the direction you want your organization to go in, you have to have a plan of action to get there. Otherwise, you’ll remain stuck in a world of dreams. Every destination requires a map. If you want to achieve business growth and success, you will need a plan of action to get you there and then to sustain your growth.
A plan of action outlines how you will bridge the gap between your current state and your desired future. If you were going to go hiking in the woods, you would want to have a map before you enter the woods, not after you’ve already set out. Business is the same. I have encountered many organizations that have created bold visions of the future but they don’t have a plan of action on how to get there.
EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:
When organizations do a good job of strategic planning and communicating that to their employees, then employees wonder, “How am I going to execute on that?” This is where the problem comes. So I suggest that we chunk things down into smaller increments. I like to chunk things down into 90-day increments because studies have shown that 90-day increments are really important to organizational success. At the end of 90 days people start to get off track and lose direction. The next 90-day increment is an opportunity to bring them back and refocus their attention on what to do to move the organization closer to that one-year vision of the future.
Each department can say, “This is what we’re going to do in the next 90 days to get us closer to that one year vision.” Then they should write these things down. Just like the five-year, three-year, and one-year clarity of direction, you need to write down what you are we going to do as a department in the next 90 days to move yourselves closer to achieving that one-year vision.
It’s important to read it every day to reinforce it repeatedly in your mind. Then you can keep coming back to that, and if you ever have the question as to where you’re going or what you should be doing, you can ask yourself whether what you’re considering is moving you closer or further away from your 90-day goals and your one-year vision. This makes the decision relatively easy because you need to stay focused in order to make that happen.
You can create the business and the life of your choosing, but you have to have the courage to step up to the plate and say, “This is what I want.” To download your own reference copy, fill out the form below. You’ll receive a PDF of this episode of Seven Steps to Accelerated Business Growth and continued access to information that will help you grow and prosper.
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