How can you create a sense of urgency around your strategic plan?

Its not so much about getting everyone to commit to your plan thats essential - I think its more important to get the whole team and stakeholders involved in the creation of the vision and the strategic plan to achieve the vision. The urgency comes from explaining why you need a strategic plan in the first place and a new vision of where you are moving to. Get everyone involved in identifying what that vision needs to be - all the perspectives should be included and the process creates buy-in. Then the group create the plan, identify priorities, communications, measures and milestones etc. While this feels like a longer process than a leader sitting down and just creating it themselves, it is more rigorous and compelling to action

Nobody likes to feel as if something is being imposed on them. Human beings crave agency. A question you should ask yourself as a leader is, why does the strategic plan matter to the team? If the answer is not more readily available, you need to do some more socialization to better define the “why.”

Its's important to also note the gaps, threats and risks faced by the organization and how this can move the dial in a different direction. Noting the challenges involved with the plan but the support and action that will be provided by the leadership group to remove these roadblocks is essential. You want to convey urgency to your people but not chaos. They have to feel confident you know the way forward so trust will be key. Trust is ultimately built by clearly stating motives and intent up front - and that people know you are good on your word. Even when faced with tough decisions.

I believe genuine urgency in a strategic plan can’t be forced; it has to be a natural response to the plan’s relevance. If your team doesn’t sense the urgency, it might be time to reevaluate the plan itself. Involving the team in plan development is a powerful approach. They often come up with better plans and take ownership, making it more likely for the plan to succeed. In essence, urgency should come from a real need and alignment with the team’s goals. When it’s authentic, the team is more likely to rally behind it and drive success. #StrategicPlanning #Teamwork we

A part of it is related to culture but a part of it is in your hands. You need to become a good storyteller. Try to convince with a good story related to business strategy - try to connect the dots of the bigger picture and avoid over complicating things. Make it as simple as possible with a good story intertwined - so the why is obvious.

Including and involving team members in contributing to a strategic plan is a way to build trust, get buy in, make employees feel valued and ultimately drive engagement. A study by HubSpot cited that companies with highly engaged workforces are 21% more profitable - so this action is business critical IMO, and if done right can have massive benefits beyond just “involving your team” in the planning process.

From my experience, a potent way to create a sense of urgency around your strategic plan is to involve your team actively. By inviting their input, ideas, and questions, and encouraging their participation in goal-setting and progress measurement, you build trust and commitment. Empowering them to take ownership of their roles fosters accountability and leverages their skills and creativity, enhancing both the plan and its execution. This collaborative approach not only drives urgency but also leads to more innovative and effective solutions.

Involving team members will make them feel more accountable for the results because they will feel responsibility for it and a sense of making sure it works. It's harder to ignore something when you're the one who made it. Also making them active in the process of creation and execution increases that ownership feeling which is the catalyst for the whole process.

It's key to get advice from the team and build buy in by having them identify and own solutions to skill gaps, threats and risks. Make sure you understand the team's workplace day to day so your expectations around how they can support the plan is fair and reasonable. Adding to existing workplace stress and increasing workloads won't give you the outcomes and impact you desire.

When you create short-term wins along the way in a long game, you are essentially increasing motivation & morale, proving out the proof of concept, and showing progress towards the end goal. No one wants to feel like they are throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. I’m a huge fan of OKRs & NCT frameworks to set those shorter term goals as a team. My Pro tip would also be to build out a dashboard for those key metrics that you can refresh weekly if not daily to see frequent progress and the trends over time, but also so that you can act quickly and pivot if things aren’t going according to plan.

During the pandemic lock down. We can only get the limited resource to parallel the ultimate goals with urgency execution with the NGOs. Local communities team leader to collaborate all short term resilient winning strategy. For far run..stay tune and look into Few pilars. Cycles and etc..

If there is something hard for the human mind is waiting for results - create small tasks that could be accomplished in the short term - but relate them to a a bigger strategy milestone - the more the feedback is immediate the easier it is to create motivation not only for your team but for other stakeholders.

Also make space for respectful truth telling to occur across and within teams. I have seen real growth occur when you allow people to safely deconstruct what hasn't gone to plan and why. Let people stop and reflect on lessons learnt when actions have not gone to plan and how they would approach it differently in the future. Teams are too quick to fall prey to the success bias mindset ( that is don't mention the things that don't work). This doesn't help individual growth nor the organizational bottom line.

Short-term wins help to reinforce that we are on the right path to gaining traction in our long-term strategic plan. It leads to reinstating the ownership, and accountability of each one towards the final outcome of the strategic initiatives. Tracking those short-term wins through KPIs, Key results or task outcomes should be the approach, and displaying it on the dashboard for everyone.

To create a compelling sense of urgency around your strategic plan, I believe it's crucial to proactively address barriers and challenges. From my perspective, this entails identifying potential obstacles and risks, developing contingency plans, and fostering open communication with your team and stakeholders. By providing the necessary support and resources to navigate change and uncertainty, you can minimize frustration, resistance, and complacency, ensuring a smoother and more determined path towards plan execution.

Strategy is a long hard process - to expect it to not have obstacles is increasing the chances of failure. So make sure that you're addressing what will be harder to achieve: such as changing culture, fighting with old way of doing thing etc

In my model of organizational development gaps, threats and risks are organically and continually identified and responded to cross teams and functions through out the project. Space and time is dedicated every week so people are kept across challenges and changes. Note teams are also involved in providing advice and direction from their side based on their on experiences. So there is no mad panic at the crucial end point of a project or key milestone. Words matter so let's replace roadblocks to barriers - people tend to respond more positively to the word change.

Imprinting in your leaders the necessity of having the end results in mind is essential. There should be a minimum of three results reflected on daily: operational result (step), tactical result (path), strategic result (destination). While the desire outcome is the destination, you need to achieve the purpose of each step and path. Which are respectively building good behavior and stamina. Realizing quickly the benefits and alignment of each step and path shorten the distance to your destination.

I think the best way is just keep repeating it and just be focused on doing it. The moment that you let it go the moment it starts to fade away. I've seen it many times that after the initial hype with strong action it's not working anymore.

The speed of the leader is the speed of the group. If you want things to be taken urgently - communicate the urgency, and why it's urgent clearly. This is pretty basic stuff. It's like a fire alarm - it's a blaring signal that says - move your ass - FAST

The sixth and final step to creating a sense of urgency is to lead by example. As a leader, you set the tone and direction for your strategic plan by: 1. Showing your passion, enthusiasm, and commitment to your vision and goals. 2. Demonstrating your willingness to learn, adapt, and improve. 3. Modeling the behaviors and values you expect from your team and stakeholders. 4. Inspiring and motivating them to follow your lead and join you. Leading by example can create a culture of urgency and excellence.

As with many things you must be able to walk the talk. Show them you mean business by promoting and advocating for the strategy. If you're going against it so will they. So understand that your actions are louder than your words.

Using data driven language is invaluable to persuade the leaders, secondly benchmarking your company's performance with peers is also a motive to perform better and create this sense, thirdly emphasizing the value proposition of your strategy not only benefits your department but also contributes to the overall success of the organization, and lastly link your strategy with the company and other leader's strategy. The effectiveness of this urgency will be doubled if you influenced some key individuals. If they believe in your strategy, for sure they will talk about it instead of you, and people will do so if they feel that this strategy will have an impact on their department also and if they have confidence and trust in your capabilities.

Creating a sense of urgency around a strategic plan as a leader involves effective communication and strategic actions. First, clearly articulate the rationale for the plan, emphasizing the consequences of inaction or delay. Second, set specific, time-bound milestones and regularly communicate progress, demonstrating the need for timely action. Third, engage and involve key stakeholders, fostering a shared understanding of the plan's importance and its impact on the organization. Lastly, lead by example, showing commitment and dedication to the plan, which can inspire and motivate others to act urgently and align with the strategic goals.

Not everyone does their best work when they think it is being done with urgency. The sense of urgency is something you should manage as the leader. Adjust your communication style to meet your teammates where they are in order to reach the finish line successfully.

Leadership has a lot to do with the sense of urgency, and urgency needs to be relayed carefully. Our vendor missed their mark. Their delay was going to put launch into Q4, a time that was specifically not an option due to holiday freeze. Instead of having the team’s back, they told the vendor if the product was delivered it would launch. In Q4, despite unworkability by our internal teams. I was devastated. As a PM, I deploy tools that make lives easier, not make the busiest time of year more difficult. A couple of weeks later, the project was pushed to Q1. My leaders told me it was never going to launch, they just wanted teams to “work with urgency.” This is a example of how NOT to create urgency.

The key for anyone in a leadership role is understanding the team's work styles/ethics and recognizing that some people may be used to working at a slower pace but still deliver. Balance the need for urgency with respect for these established work styles. While deadlines can create urgency, be mindful of these cultural differences around time perception. Set clear deadlines, but with some buffer room to account for unforeseen circumstances or a more relaxed approach to time management. This builds trust and avoids unnecessary stress.