How to create strategic plans that actually get executed?

Your Strategic Plan Is Collecting Dust, Isn't It?

You spent weeks creating a beautiful strategic plan. It had vision statements, SWOT analyses, and a detailed roadmap. And now it's sitting in a binder somewhere while everyone goes back to firefighting and doing the same things they've always done.

I've seen this movie before. The problem isn't that your strategy is bad. The problem is that nobody knows how to turn strategy into actual work. Most strategic planning processes are great at creating plans and terrible at creating execution.

Why Strategic Plans Die a Slow Death

Strategic plans fail because they're written in a language that doesn't translate to Monday morning. They talk about "strategic imperatives" and "core competencies" when they should be talking about "what are we doing differently this week?"

How to Bridge Strategy and Reality

1. Turn Vision Into Actual Direction

Stop talking about visions and start talking about choices. What are you going to do differently?

• Where do you want to be in 3 years? (Be specific, not inspirational)
• What are the 3-5 big things you need to focus on this year?
• What are you going to do this quarter to move toward those things?
• How will you know if you're on track each month?

2. Turn Direction Into Actual Work

Strategy isn't real until someone has a specific project with a specific deadline.

• Break big strategic things into 90-day projects
• Give each project to one person (not a committee)
• Define what success looks like and what failure looks like
• Check in every week, not every quarter

3. Turn Work Into Actual Results

Results come from systems, not just projects. What needs to change about how you work every day?

• What habits need to change to support your strategy?
• What processes need to be different?
• Where are you spending money that doesn't align with your priorities?
• What metrics actually predict success, not just measure activity?

4. Turn Results Into Lasting Change

The real test is whether your strategy survives the first crisis. Build systems that keep strategy alive.

• How will you make decisions when pressure mounts?
• How will you keep talking about strategy when urgent things come up?
• What behaviors do you reward, and do they match your strategy?
• How will you learn and adjust without abandoning the strategy?

The Three Ways Strategic Plans Die

Death by Binder

Your strategic plan lives in a document instead of in your daily decisions.

Fix: Build strategic thinking into your regular meetings and decision processes.

Death by Everything

You call everything "strategic" so nothing is actually strategic.

Fix: Limit yourself to 3-5 strategic priorities per year. Say no to everything else.

Death by Perfection

You keep planning and researching because the plan isn't perfect yet.

Fix: Plan to learn, not to predict. Start executing with incomplete information.

The Translation Test

Here's how you know if your strategic plan will actually work: Can you translate it into specific changes people will make next week?

• What decisions will you make differently because of this strategy?
• What will you stop doing that you're doing now?
• What new skills or capabilities do you need to build?
• How will you know in 90 days if the strategy is working?

Making Strategy Part of How You Work

Strategy isn't something you do once a year in an offsite. It's something you do every week in your regular meetings. The goal is to make strategic thinking so automatic that it happens without you having to remember to do it.

FAQ: Strategic Plan Execution

Q: How often should we review our strategic plan?

A: Monthly for progress, quarterly for adjustments. The plan should be living document that guides decisions, not a static document you review annually.

Q: What if our strategy needs to change mid-year?

A: Change it. A strategy that can't adapt to new information isn't strategic—it's just stubborn. Build in review points where you can pivot based on what you're learning.

Q: How do I get my team to actually follow the strategic plan?

A: Don't ask them to "follow" it—ask them to use it. Build strategic thinking into their regular work processes so it becomes how they work, not an extra thing they have to remember.

Q: What's the right timeframe for strategic planning?

A: 3-year vision, 1-year themes, quarterly initiatives, monthly reviews. Anything longer than 3 years is usually just fantasy, and anything shorter than a year isn't really strategic.