Archive - 2018

Writing down your goals and objectives is all part of business planning.

But how do you choose your goals and objectives, and do your flow from one to the other?

Many people sit in a business planning workshop, and when getting to the “Goals” part of the discussion, start plucking their wish list out of the air. Then, when asked for their objectives, they usually repeat the goals, but in more detail.

Goals should not come from a wish list or a to-do list. Goals should come as a direct result of examining where you are now, where you want to go, and how to get there from here. While some of your wish list may have come from some consideration of a vision, you need a more process-driven approach.

You can download your free worksheet on how to create meaningful goals and strategies to follow the process.

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One of the frequently asked questions I am asked about planning is how many strategies they should have in their strategic or business plan.

My first response is that they should have as many strategies or objectives and actions as are required to take them closer to their goals and their vision. However when I dig deeper, I find that their question comes from overwhelm. I find that as they progress through a planning process and do SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, identify gaps to bridge, realise the work behind the goals, they end up with a whole series of issues, good ideas and to-do items.

When faced with a myriad of these issues, how do they focus on the right strategies?

Planning is all about simplifying, and to simplify all the inputs I use the principle of “KSI’s”

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There is a common misconception that planning is all about the future.

Huh? Wait – Planning is not about looking ahead?

That’s not what I mean – I mean, planning is not all about the future. It is about the present and the future.

Planning is all about gap analysis – where are you now; where do you want to go, and how do you bridge that gap?

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I get a lot of questions about planning and one of the most common errors I find is that people get mixed up between strategic pans and business plans.

In my opinion, a good forward looking business needs both. The reason is that one cascades from the other, but people get confused and talk about strategic plans when they really mean business plans.

That’s why I created an easy to understand business planning process flowchart which you can download for free.

It explains what the difference is, but also, how one flows from the other.

So, what is the difference?

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