Will a Strategic Planning Facilitator Improve Organizational Focus?

A company that lacks focus will suffer immensely. Time, manpower, and resources will all be wasted if the company does not define a clear set of goals and explain how the organization will reach them. By using strategic planning, organizational leaders can determine long-term objectives and plan operations around these objectives. The three types of strategic planning that businesses might engage in include:

• Goals-based planning. This is the most common approach that refers to defining the organizational mission, creating goals relative to that mission, and deciding which steps are necessary to achieve this mission.
• Issues-based planning. This approach focuses on a specific issue that the company needs to address. Organizational leaders must define the problem, and then determine a set of steps that can be used to solve the problem.
• Organic strategic planning. This approach focuses creating a plan of action that aligns with the company's values.

Once a business decides on the desired method of strategic planning, it will be time to hire a strategic planning facilitator. These professionals help to maximize the efficiency of the meeting where the planning takes place, so that businesses are not forced to hold another planning session because the first plan does not work. While a company might be tempted to assign someone from within the organization to this task, the truth is that hiring an outside facilitator services will lead to better results for the company. Here are a few reasons why:

• They bridge the information gap. Without all of the important information, companies will not be able to make sound decisions. A strategic planning facilitator typically speaks with organizational leaders and employees before the session to acquire the necessary background information. That information is then distributed to meeting participants so that everyone enters the meeting on the same page.
• They encourage participation. While organizational leaders might be able to pull responses from participants, they run the risk of overpowering participants. Individuals who want to voice a thought that is not in line with what the meeting leader believes might be dismissed, or will opt to keep the thought private. A leader might even unknowingly put down the individual who shared the idea, which will make others hesitant to share ideas of their own. A strategic planning facilitator will not bring any personal biases to the table, which will result in individuals being more open to joining the conversation.

Writing Business Articles on Strategic Planning

Not long ago, I was talking with a fellow online article author, she has well over 100 articles on strategic planning advice, articles with case studies, stories, and "how to ideas" to develop a winning business strategy. She also writes a column for her local metro newspaper on business topics. I've been very impressed with her work; in fact it has inspired me to reminisce about my own business career as a Franchisor Founder prior to retirement you see.

Indeed, following her lead I have been considering all the business plans, marketing plans, regional expansion plans, 5-year plans, and growth strategy objectives I had put together over the years. How our Blitz Marketing teams would go in to capture new business of our best market segments, and how we would recruit the best people to ensure we could deliver on our sales and marketing promises. Think about your own business career and what you had to do to succeed, consider that many going into business or perhaps struggling to survive could benefit from your expertise in strategic planning.

Why not put together a few sample plan outlines to help them get it done? Why not offer tips on putting together a strategy team or planning session? Why not explain to them the reasons for constant review and how a business plan is just a picture, but plans change and planning is a process, not something you ever complete or allow to remain static or throw it into a drawer or tuck away some obscure labeled file on your computer never to look at it again?

If you're going to become an article author specializing on business topics then you at least need to have a decent number of articles in the strategic planning category. I invite you to read some of my articles, as well as some of the other top articles in this venue, and perhaps you could lend your expertise to the cause of helping American entrepreneurs, as well as small business owners around the globe. You might even be surprised and shocked yourself to find your articles are even better than mine, and offer new and unique examples, case studies, and real-life situations which have never been told.

It's not difficult to write articles on strategic planning, it's only difficult to do it correctly and prepare relevant information that today's entrepreneurs truly need. If you can do that, you deserve all the success you acquire as an online article author because you are helping the entire business community; small, medium, and even large corporations. Remember; "those who fail to plan, are planning to fail." Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.