{"id":53891,"date":"2022-09-19T02:34:33","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T07:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/?p=53891"},"modified":"2022-10-03T13:34:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T18:34:00","slug":"6-ingredients-that-help-you-plan-for-the-coming-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/6-ingredients-that-help-you-plan-for-the-coming-year\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Ingredients That Help You Plan for the Coming Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strategic planning is an essential part of long-term business success. You might be able to fly blind into the future for a year or two, getting by on grit, know-how, and luck. But you don\u2019t drift to destinations you would have chosen. You can\u2019t arrive at a destination if you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strategic planning can sometimes feel like a black box. It\u2019s not taught in business school\u2014at least not well. The books I\u2019ve read on strategic planning are more academic than practical. They\u2019re geared almost exclusively toward multinational, multibillion-dollar companies. They don\u2019t have much to offer to the owners of small-to-mid-sized businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we created our Strategic Design framework, and it\u2019s one of the projects we\u2019re most proud of at Full Focus. It\u2019s a paint-by-numbers strategy for creating a vision for the next three years of your business and then turning that vision into action.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can access that content on-demand <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>. But before you begin, you\u2019ll need to set the stage. There are six essential ingredients you need to gather before beginning any kind of strategic-planning process. They\u2019re so essential that we require clients to have them on hand before beginning Strategic Design.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these ingredients involves collecting information on your past performance and present realities. The context they provide will be invaluable as you plan for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredient 1: Employee Survey<\/span><\/h4>\n

What are your people thinking? <\/span><\/i>I haven\u2019t always realized the importance of that question. It took me a while (too long) to recognize that my perspective on my business wasn\u2019t the right one or even the most important one. The people on the ground can provide perspectives, understanding, and ideas that are essential as our leadership team charts the course for our future.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve found that the best way to take the pulse on our organization is through an anonymous employee survey. Most of our surveys aren\u2019t anonymous at Full Focus, because candor is important in our culture. But we keep this survey anonymous, because we want to remove any obstacle to hearing the unpolished truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

We ask about engagement, benefits, and other topics directly related to morale. But we also ask our team what opportunities and challenges they foresee and what they believe we should address. Their feedback informs the priorities we choose as an executive team.<\/span><\/p>\n

It might be tempting to believe that an employee survey is unnecessary. After all, you meet with your executives, and your executives have insight into their teams. But <\/span>a recent multinational survey of 10,000 knowledge workers<\/span><\/a> conducted by Future Forum Pulse reveals just how misleading this reasoning can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

In it, researchers found that executives were nearly <\/span>three times <\/span><\/i>more likely to want to return to the office than non-executive employees, who tend to prefer remote work. Now imagine you\u2019re in a room with your executive team discussing whether or not you\u2019ll require in-person work during the coming year. You might assume everyone thinks it\u2019s a great idea, because everyone in the room thinks it\u2019s a great idea. But you\u2019ve overlooked everyone not in the room.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are the kind of gaps an employee survey makes it possible to catch. You don\u2019t have to agree with or act on all the feedback you receive. But you should take the time to hear what your team has to say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredient 2: Relevant Financial Data<\/span><\/h4>\n

It can be daunting to dive into financial data, especially if your business is in its earlier stages and it\u2019s not routine. But the facts are friendly. Understanding the financial patterns and realities of your business is essential to planning your future.<\/span><\/p>\n

What counts as \u201crelevant\u201d data? It will vary some by industry, but start here. Look into the past three to five years and begin compiling metrics such as the following:<\/span><\/p>\n