Yearend or Full Year Strategic & Operational Planning

Written and Recorded by Mike Ritsema, President & Partner, Directed by Molly Luxem, Marketing Assistant

Keith McFarland, author of The Breakthrough Company and Bounce and his keynote speech at ConnectWise IT Nation Conference

Levers to any company's Breakthrough win:

1.] Strategy

2.] People

3.] Execution.

People:

• “99% of success from people in the service industry.”
• "There's no such thing as culture, there's only how we treat each other."
• "The most powerful team building tool we all understand is a strategy that we all understand, we all helped build, and that we all believe in.  It is not the trust walk, trust fall, or ropes course."

Strategy:

• "Strategic Planning is dead & strategy has never been more important."
• "You can build a strategy in 48 hours that is 90% as good as one you could build in 3 months"  Most strategy sessions are:

- Too infrequent    (90 day resets)

- Too exclusive     (everyone!)

Create a company of insultants via Democraship to get at good ideas.  Ask 4 questions:

1. "Quarterly:  what are 20% of activities that get 80% of the results?"  Democracy is great at getting good ideas - but terrible at getting things done.
2. Last quarter, what were our 3 most important strategic accomplishments (how have we changed the field of play in the last 90 days)?
3. In the last 90 days, what were the 3 most important ways we fell short of our strategic potential?  Tap the CQ:  complaint quotient.  Channel the complaints into company improvements.  Things we're not doing that we should be doing.
4. What are the 3 most important things you've learned about our strategy?

Execution:

- Turn the crank faster.  (quarterly - 20% of activity make up 80% of results)

- Tie execution to Strategy: what is the one thing we can do to hit our 1-year mission?

Unanimity of agreement on the single initiative.  Big Rock.  Tie it to numbers.