Strategic Planning is a necessary evil and can be very effective or defective.

Team Building Leadership Innovation Expert Michael Cardus

My calendar is filled with Strategic Planning Facilitation and meetings at the end of the year.  Where Managers, Employees, Team-Members, Entire Companies trap people in a room, look back at the magic last year, and project the WOW! of the upcoming year. It may have happened like that – and also in many other ways.

This planning time can make your head EXPLODE!

BUT it does not have to be all that bad, and this year may be the year that the company and you break out and achieve the goals you set.

Here are 8 Planning Questions that I have found useful to open and use in Planning Meetings;

  1. As far as you are concerned, what does NOT have to change because it is already going well enough? *This excellent question is from Doing What Works
  2. If this planning meeting is a success, and we were to meet again 1 year from now…what will be improved, different about your work at the company / on this team / in this community / in this family / on this iceberg / who moved my cheese / etc… ?
  3. If this planning meeting is a success, and we were to meet again 1 year from now…what about the company / team / relationship / etc… will be improved, different?
  4. With both questions above – How will you know? What tangible, observational, metric, can be used to measure this improvement?
  5. Do you have any ideas about how you might help achieve these goals?
  6. In past, when planning an improvement that was successful in the company / team / etc… or in your work, what was successful in making this ‘stick’ for the long-term?
  7. What part did you play in making that happen? What part did your manager play in making that happen? What part did you manager’s-manager play in making that happen?
  8. Knowing the company / team and your work as well as you do – what is needed to make 2012 more successful than it already is going to be?