Cancel Your Annual Strategy Day - It Isn't Worth Squat

I know you’ve got it planned already. Most of the team will be there, of course. Booked a boardroom in a swanky hotel downtown. Catering is sorted, 3 course lunch, cheese and crackers, plenty of coffee. You’ve got whiteboards and powerpoints, charts and graphs and sticky notes and other fun and beautiful stuff. It’s going to be great. Huge, even.

And it will. But…

You might as well cancel it, just don’t bother this year.

Why don't you give the team the day off? Go to the beach or maybe spend some more time with the family? You'll find something worthwhile.

But why go to the hassle of setting your annual strategy if you’re not going to implement it? Stick to it? Make it happen?

Admit it, you’re not. You already know that from past experience. Remember last year? Even before the warm and fuzzy feeling of your great and renewed purpose had faded and whilst the battle cry of “This'll be the best year ever!” was still ringing in your ears, you were already falling backwards into the mistakes of years past.

It wasn’t the shortage of ideas. Oh no, there were plenty of those. Who could forget Kevin’s suggestion on how to address the increasing competition on the eastern seaboard, which involved the recruitment of SEO specialists from Bangladesh and may or may not have been strictly legal. John had an idea of how to revolutionise the customer experience with puppies and there was a plan to get 20% more efficiency out of the warehouse using skateboards and GoPro cameras.

So maybe it was the timing? Or the fact that you lost direction when the sales manager left? Maybe the economy? Or climate change perhaps. How about the Government, you can blame most things on them if you try hard enough.

No, it wasn’t any of that.

It was simply the lack of a plan to implement your strategy.

And a strategy without a plan is like a car without an engine. Looks good, goes nowhere.

The strategy was great. Looked great on the wall. Sounded great when you talked about it. Felt great when you….. Oh no, that’s right, it didn’t happen.

You kicked off the year on the right note. You were inspired, the team was pumped, everyone was filled with fresh energy and vigour to take the business to the next level. That lasted for almost a week. Then the whirlwind hit - phones started ringing again, the problems came in and the too-hard basket filled up like a centipede's sock drawer. The ideas were still there, the strategy remained, but implementation just fell off the back of the truck.

The best idea in the world is worthless if it isn’t executed. Because the power of any idea is in its implementation. When you set your strategy, you need to follow up with the plan on how it's going to happen. Piece by piece, break it down. Make people responsible, give them the room to operate freely and tie everything back to your strategy. Review regularly and have a scorecard on how you're performing against your strategic goals, not just your operational goals.

So what's it going to be?

A new year, with a new strategy and a new way of getting things done? Or the alternative?

Because let's face it, the alternative is not an alternative. 

If you decide that you'd like to keep your strategy day alive, that's fine. But please, make sure you have a plan to keep your strategy company.

About the Author: Alistair Dent is a business advisor, consulting accountant and the managing director of Quantum Advisory. The team at Quantum Advisory help business owners right around the country supercharge their companies, become more profitable and plan for the future. You can find out more about QA by following their LinkedIn page or checking out www.qagroup.com.au 

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