Over the years I have noticed that most companies do a pretty ineffective job of strategic planning. We all know how important strategic planning is to the long-term viability of an organization, but what’s really going on here? Well, many organizations never seem to get around to tackling this critical function. Others take a handful of executives offsite and create a binder full of documents. Unfortunately, these binders typically end up sitting on bookshelves and, quite often, the information never really gets to the folks who are actually getting most of the work done — what a waste!

During the last several years, I have become a big fan of the concept called “The One Page Business Plan.” We actually call these Success Charts and have done them for dozens of our clients. Success charts are popular because they are a simple means of incorporating Vision, Mission, Values, Strategic Goals, and Drivers (critical actions needed to achieve goals) on one page. These Success Charts are then utilized to align organizational goals, track progress, brainstorm new ideas and communicate the state of the union.

Organizations that get a taste of these 1-page Biz Plans or Success Charts never seem to go back to the more traditional means of strategic planning - why would they? Have you used this concept—If so, did it work for you?

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