Hey Full Potential Zoners!

Success doesn’t happen by accident.

Is your strategy built to win?

Or just to exist?

Most plans fail.

Not because of poor execution—

But because they weren’t built for success.

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A strategy isn’t just a plan on paper.

It’s a guide to decision-making, a system to focus your efforts, and a tool to navigate uncertainty.

When done right, it moves you closer to your vision every single day.

Success isn’t a guess—

It’s a process.

Today we are going to help leaders master this by using:

‘Developing a Strategic Plan'. 

Let’s dive in!

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Define the Vision and Mission

Common Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Writing vague or overly broad vision statements that fail to inspire or guide the team.

• Skipping the step of identifying core values that should anchor all strategies.

• Not revisiting the vision regularly, causing it to lose relevance or impact.

Analyze the Current State

Common Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Misinterpreting or overemphasizing weaknesses without acknowledging strengths.

• Failing to involve enough team members in identifying threats, leading to missed insights.

• Overloading the analysis with unnecessary data, leading to analysis paralysis.

Set Strategic Objectives

Common Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Setting too many objectives, spreading resources too thin.

• Failing to align objectives with the larger company mission, resulting in fragmented efforts.

• Not defining what success looks like, leaving the objectives open to interpretation.

Develop a Tactical Plan

Common Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Overloading the plan with minor details that distract from critical tasks.

• Forgetting to include buffer time for unexpected delays.

• Ignoring team feedback when creating timelines and dependencies.

Implement the Plan

Common Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Assuming all team members understand the plan without providing proper training or clarity.

• Ignoring early warning signs when KPIs start to deviate from targets.

• Over-relying on KPIs without taking qualitative factors, like team morale, into account.

Review and Adapt

Common Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Waiting too long to adapt the plan, causing missed opportunities or escalating risks.

• Using performance reviews solely to critique past performance instead of identifying opportunities for growth.

• Failing to celebrate small wins during reviews, which can demotivate the team.

A mid-sized marketing agency I worked with faced several challenges:

• Teams lacked clarity on long-term goals and vision.

• Projects often overlapped, leading to duplicated efforts and wasted resources.

• They struggled to track progress or adapt to market changes.

• They weren’t leveraging AI or technology to streamline workflows, falling behind competitors.

Here’s how I worked with the company step-by-step to address these issues -

1. Clarified the Vision:

   • Led a visioning session with key stakeholders to define their mission and measurable objectives for the year ahead.

   • Ensured alignment across teams to create a shared understanding of long-term goals.

2. Analyzed the Current State:

   • Facilitated a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

   • Used the Pareto Principle to pinpoint the 20% of projects that were delivering 80% of their results.

   • Highlighted areas where effort and resources were being wasted.

3. Integrated AI into Tactical Planning:

   • Introduced an AI-powered project management tool to:

     • Prioritize tasks.

     • Automate scheduling and repetitive processes.

     • Identify resource bottlenecks before they became issues.

   • Helped the team adopt AI to streamline their workflows naturally without overhauling everything at once.

4. Set Measurable KPIs and Feedback Loops:

   • Helped the company define key performance indicators tied to their objectives.

   • Created a feedback loop using AI-generated real-time analytics to monitor project performance.

   • Encouraged data-driven adjustments based on insights from these analytics.

5. Monthly Reviews with a Balanced Scorecard:

   • Conducted monthly review sessions to track:

     • Financial performance.

     • Customer satisfaction.

     • Internal processes.

     • Team development and learning.

   • Used AI tools to generate clear, visual reports for easy understanding and decision-making.

The strategic plan created these outcomes:

• Increased Clarity: Teams understood their roles and how their work connected to company goals, reducing task overlap and inefficiencies.

• Saved Time and Resources: By cutting out unproductive efforts and redirecting budgets (e.g., reallocating from an underperforming marketing campaign to a successful social media initiative), the company optimized resource use.

• Leveraged AI Effectively: AI automation freed up time for strategic decision-making and gave leadership real-time data to pivot quickly when needed.

• Improved Productivity: The team experienced a 25% increase in productivity, with smoother workflows and better morale.

• Adaptability: Leadership had tools and insights to respond to market changes with confidence.

This approach not only resolved their immediate challenges but positioned the company to operate more efficiently and make smarter decisions moving forward.

Here's how you can make it real over the next 4 days:

Day 1: Clarify Your Focus

• Define the area you want to work on in your strategic plan.

  • Identify one key issue or opportunity your plan should address.

    • For example: "Improve resource allocation," "Set clear team objectives," or "Leverage AI in workflows."

  • Write down why this is the most important area for you right now.

• Be specific. A vague focus leads to scattered efforts. Break it into clear, manageable parts.

• AI Prompt to Help: "Act as a strategic planning advisor. Help me define the most important focus area for my strategic plan. Here’s what I know about my organization and current challenges: [Add details about your organization or challenges]. Suggest one focus area, explain why it’s important, and provide examples of what success in this area would look like.”

Day 2: Gather Key Insights

• Collect all the data and input needed to address your focus area.

  • For example:

    • If you're working on "Set clear team objectives," collect performance metrics, team feedback, or recent project outcomes.

    • If it's "Leverage AI in workflows," research available tools and how they align with your business needs.

• Don’t overcomplicate it. Stick to actionable data that directly informs your focus.

• AI Prompt to Help: "Act as a research assistant. I want to gather actionable insights for my strategic planning focus area: [Add your focus area, e.g., resource allocation, team objectives, or leveraging AI]. What specific data or input should I collect, and how can I prioritize this information? Provide three steps to organize and analyze this information effectively."

Day 3: Create a Simple Draft

• Develop a basic plan for your chosen focus area.

  • Write down:

    • A clear objective.

    • Two to three actionable steps to reach the objective.

    • A simple metric to track progress.

  • Example: "Objective: Streamline team communication. Steps: 1) Introduce a project management tool. 2) Schedule weekly check-ins. 3) Measure reduced email response time."

• Keep it practical and avoid overloading the plan with too many tasks or metrics.

• AI Prompt to Help: "Act as a project manager. I need help drafting a simple and practical plan for my strategic planning focus area: [Add focus area]. Help me create:

  1. A clear objective.

  2. Two to three actionable steps to achieve it.

  3. A simple metric to measure success."

Day 4: Test and Adjust

• Implement one step of your draft plan and gather feedback.

  • Take action on the first step you wrote in Day 3.

  • Collect input from others involved or reflect on how the step went.

• Don’t worry about perfection. Use this as an opportunity to refine and improve.

• AI Prompt to Help: "Act as a coach for plan implementation. I’m ready to test the first step of my strategic plan: [Add first step, e.g., 'Introduce a new project management tool.']

  1. What should I do to implement this effectively?

  2. What should I watch out for to ensure it’s working?

  3. How can I gather feedback and adjust the plan if needed?"

Clarity is the foundation of any strategic plan that works.

When everyone understands the mission, efforts are focused, and outcomes are measurable.

Breaking down challenges into actionable steps turns ambition into achievement.

Adaptability is your ally; every plan must evolve with shifting priorities and insights.

Planning isn't the end—it's the beginning of doing the right things at the right time.

Until next time and with lots of love,

Justin

This Week’s Growth Recommendations

Book To Read:  

"Good Strategy/Bad Strategy” by Richard Rumelt (see it here)

TED Talk to Watch

"Your strategy needs a strategy" by Martin Reeves (see it here)

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