Overall Strategic Plan Structure

1. Overall Strategic Plan Structure

2. What is a Strategy Map? • The Strategy Map is an active data table or grid, with a defined row structure. • Each Layer or Row is called a Perspective and it contains a number of medium-term goals, commonly called Strategic Objectives. • Upward pointing arrows are normally drawn between the objectives to indicate either cause & effect or strategic support.

3. What is a Strategy Map? • From top down there are 4 common perspectives:   Finance, Customer, Internal Business Process plus Learning & Growth. • Alternatively the bottom row is sometimes called: Research & Development, Organizational Capacity, Employees and Resources or a combination of these. • An extra perspective row is sometimes added to provide a special focus, such as Safety when applied to a Dangerous Environment

4. What is a Strategy Map? • The top row or layer is often considered to be the Organizational Public Interface and these Objectives in this row should show support for the Visionary statements. • Inside the map, each row is supported by the layer or row below, as indicated by the arrows. • These objectives are considered to be replacing the earlier concept known as Critical Success Factors. • Can still use the CSF term by renaming the text Objective to Success • Factor (many people rename the objective to use the terms Goals or Targets). • Can use a CSF column into the Objective or Initiative grids.

5. What is a Strategy Map? • The map objectives with the arrows are also considered to be the replacement for the previously used Value Chain concept which indicated cause & effect or process flow. • Many people consider the Strategy Map to be a group of linked or companion Value Chains.

6. What is a Strategy Map? • Strategy Maps can often illustrate a primary Critical Success Factor objective, such as a funding goal or an overall product quality issue. • In which case you would expect to see a number of arrows pointing both towards and away from any CSF objective.

7. Design and Analyze Perspective Layer Rows • Determine your initial focus for each Perspective Layer, starting at the top and working down. • Consider the relationship with the other adjacent layers. Why & How does this layer exist? • Is the layer in the correct position? • Should we define any SLA style support agreements? • When you have defined your layers and know why they exist, the Objectives in each layer row will fall into place, according to their need to support the layers above. • Improve what you have created over time with assistance from work associates. • Add 3rd generation statements that say why you have chosen that Objective and where it is heading.

8. Creating Objectives • Keep the Objectives broad so that they can be assigned to people from multiple departments • The employees will use this to build success-orientated communication links within the organization • Avoid project style objectives that have a short timeframe • Merge smaller objectives into a single broader objective • Get strategy map totally correct for 3-5 years before moving into balanced scorecard stage

9. Creating Objectives • The primary immediate outcome of the objective definition process is to enhance staff collaboration on each objective: • Staff should form teams from different departments to focus on each Objective. The Balanced Scorecard software should show who else in the Organization is working towards this Objective. • Objective Teams should provide presentations to other staff and take pride in their work. • You should expect improved Objective Collaboration, Engagement and Performance.