Strategic Plans: Turning Goals into Meaningful Change

Before you finalize your next strategic plan, ask yourself: Will it drive meaningful change? Or will it become another document that sits on the shelf, only to be looked at when it’s once again time to create a strategic plan?

Too often, the strategic planning process is carried out in isolation by people who are too disconnected from daily operations. The result is a strategic plan that may look good on paper but fails to achieve the intended results.

Don’t get me wrong. When done well, a strategic plan is a powerful tool. It provides a roadmap, aligns people with the organization, and can create momentum.

However, in my work with executive teams, I have identified three fundamental flaws in strategic plans and planning processes that hinder organizations’ progress.

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Why Pushback Isn’t Resistance

Does it sometimes feel like your best employees – the smart, capable people you depend on – are the ones who raise the biggest objections and create the greatest barriers to change?

It’s easy to label this behaviour as resistance. But what if they’re not resisting anything?

What if they’re doing exactly what their brains are designed to do, and you’ve been interpreting it completely wrong?

Understanding why people appear to push back on change can help you eliminate this apparent resistance and leverage one of your most powerful tools for enabling change.

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Three Steps to Prepare Leaders To Champion Change

What do we do when the change sponsor stops supporting your organizational change effort?

I have been asked this or a similar question many times.

You’re left frustrated, feeling abandoned, and wondering, Why am I even trying to implement this?

This scenario serves as a reminder that committed executive change leaders are essential throughout the transition.

There are actions you can take to ensure your changes don’t stall out and to build and maintain the leadership needed throughout the change process.

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Book Club-Emotional Agility

Emotions get a bad rap, especially in business.

As leaders, we are often told to leave our emotions at the door and act and think rationally. People also view leaders who show emotion as weak and poor decision-makers.

Yet clear, present and rational thinking requires leaders who can tap into and navigate their full range of emotions.

In a world that pushes leaders to be strong, decisive, rational and relentlessly positive, by either ignoring their emotions or focusing only on positive emotions, Dr. Susan David, author of Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life, offers an alternative.

Grounded in science, David’s approach helps you tap into one of your most powerful navigation systems for dealing with life’s challenges.

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3 Traps that Create Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is often cited as one of the greatest obstacles to change. However, it doesn’t need to be. You can prevent it.

The challenge is that leaders can easily fall into traps that cause them to interpret normal responses to change as resistance. When that happens, they can unintentionally create a toxic cycle that makes change more difficult.

Here are three traps that can deceive leaders into believing their employees resist change.

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