It is frustrating to spend time creating a strategic plan for your company and then see it fail. As a business owner, you need to understand the barriers that prevent planning from being implemented successfully. Watch for these six barriers to effective planning, so you can address the issues that may stop your plan before you launch it.
Being a leader is about more than a title following your name. It requires developing a strategy and then expressing the vision in a clear way, so the entire team understands the goal. When a vision is clearly laid out, business leaders must inspire team members to join the program for the new vision and implement new strategies.
Advertisement Article continues below this adEven when leaders do all this well, they still need to be constant motivators, project managers and evaluators of the strategy's implementation. Without motivation, new strategies fall behind as workers return to their habitual ways of doing things.
Too many distractions present a significant barrier to effective planning. It could be that a leader is trying to implement too many things at once, and the team is confused about the priorities. Another way that a distraction prevents effective planning implementation occurs when a leader attempts to roll out a new program during a peak business season.
Advertisement Article continues below this adYour team can't focus on new strategies and processes if they are working overtime taking care of clients. As the leader, understand that timing the implementation of new strategy carefully is as important as the strategy itself.
Having the right systems in place to support a new strategy is important for success. Systems could include hardware or software systems or could be something as simple as the fulfillment process chain of events. Leaders need to look at the resources in place before implementing a new strategy. For example, a new customer-retention management program might help the team become more efficient from the sale through the delivery of goods.
However, if the computer systems haven't been upgraded, the new program could overload the computers and cause crashes and freezes. Team members can't be productive while using a system that isn't working correctly.
Advertisement Article continues below this adSome strategies require a bigger labor force. Without it, seeing a new strategy implemented effectively has potential problems. For example, a new lead-generation plan could do a great job of flooding your sales team with leads. However, if the sales team doesn't have the capacity to follow up with all the leads, the strategy wastes money and burns prospects.
Additionally, the new influx of orders needs a fulfillment team capable of handling the new orders. Make sure you have the right people in place to execute new strategies effectively.
You may have a great plan but don't have the resources to execute it properly. A lack of resources can impact marketing, talent acquisition and new distribution programs. Bootstrapping new changes can strain the team as it implements something that isn't ready to go. When you don't have the funding, segment the strategy and roll it out in phases that meet budget limitations.
Advertisement Article continues below this adSome ideas are just not practical. Don't be stubborn about the execution of a new strategy. A strategy is a concept that is fleshed out during implementation. Business leaders must be flexible to see what is working and what isn't working in the strategy and make adjustments accordingly.
Just because something seems like a good idea on paper doesn't mean it will translate into practice without any glitches.