Day three of the SHRM Strategy conference I sat in on Jason Lauritsen‘s “Strategic Planning – The Power of a Plan” session and here are some highlights.
First of all – you gotta love Jason and his style. He has a real way of engaging with his audience, and for a speaker – that’s huge! After all, who wants to sit there and be talked “to?”
Steering the Ship
His opening line was ”The only way to steer the direction of the ship is to convince others that you’re going in the right direction -that’s influence.” Not only having a plan, but being able to relay the plan or direction to others within the team is crucial. It’s about getting others on board with the plan, helping them to get a hold of the vision and seeing their part in it – while keeping them engaged throughout the process.
Influence before Implementation
Sometimes we get blindsided by all the other stuff going on while we’re trying to implement a plan – I’ll call them distractions. Maybe it’s dealing with the “everyday stuff of HR” and we say, “Screw the plan – trying to get these folks together is like herding cats.”
The definition of influence is - the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others. Now let me ask you – is this you?
We can talk about our plan and strategy of “where we are going next” but the buy-in is a whole other ballgame. This is what separates the #winners from the #losers – especially in “game strategy” is not just lip service (as one of my high school teachers use to say) but being able to actually sell it to not only the C-Suite, but to the company as a whole and then implementing the plan – and seeing it through to completion without being side-swiped or quitting.
And by the way, if no one trusts you and most people hate you – you’ll have a harder time influencing them to catch your vision.
What’s missing?
Strategic planning is all in the approach and being influential in stating the benefits and side benefits in a compelling way– to really moving your organization forward. It’s got to be more than “you’re such a great guy – we love playing follow the leader” and instead about “you have really great ideas, we trust you, we’ve seen your track record – and we’re on board.” After all – you are captain of this ship!
Results of Strategic Planning and the Power of a Plan:
- Helps you with key relationship building
- Perception management
- Performance linkage to the business and how we support them
- Builds confidence within the team
- You’re building a community of trust and loyalty
- Discovering what needs to take place– learning, curiosity, figuring out the game (what to do about it – research is key)
- Asking questions with a curious mind with a lack of defense
- Gathering info and discovering your path (even from your employees)
- Putting a Plan in Place
- Communicating clearly – your plan
- Influencing others and helping them see their part in the plan
- Seeing it through to completion