Part 2: Planning for Success in the Home Stretch
July 24, 2024
Part 2: Planning for Success in the Home Stretch

Welcome to the 28th edition of The Pulse, your bi-weekly newsletter of Insights for Strategy Leaders. And welcome to all of the new subscribers since the last edition!

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In this edition:

  • 🎯 Planning for Success in the Home Stretch Pt. 2
  • Last Call: Blueprint 2024

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‍Part 2: Planning for Success in the Home Stretch

We are back for part two of this two-part edition of The Pulse. For those who missed Part 1, I shared how this time of year can be a tricky one for Strategy and Operations Leaders. While Leaders and most of their teammates are taking in the summer break, there can often be a sense of unease for Strategy and Operations Leaders about what the second half of the year has in store.

From ensuring your team is set up to successfully hit your operating targets in Q3 and Q4, to planning for your annual offsite and 2025, Strategy and Operations Leaders often have a lot on their mind.

Part one began by sharing a couple of examples of how Strategy and Operations Leaders can approach the second half of the year, regardless of how well or poorly the first half might have gone. As we shared, this season provides Leaders the unique opportunity to step back and take inventory of what’s working and what’s not.

So rather than diving right into ‘fix-it mode’, we want to first start by analyzing what we are doing well and what needs to be improved for us to reach our goals.

Now, after taking a step back and performing our retrospective, part two of this week’s Pulse sets the stage for actions that can be taken. Today, we will highlight how Strategy and Operations Leaders can control the controllables, while also setting the stage for success in 2025.

1. Ruthlessly Prioritize Your Leadership Meetings

For some, you are already doing this. You have a clear agenda, a process for bringing up and discussing areas of opportunity or potential hurdles, and there is a clear, accountable process for taking action on what’s discussed in Leadership Meetings.

If that’s the case, then stick with it.

However, if you find that your Leadership meetings are more about just reporting on yesterday’s news or simply doing roll call on the status of Leadership team Objectives, then you have to elevate the structure of this meeting.

First, send a pre-read of the status, commentary, and measurable outcomes for your team’s Objectives. This way we eliminate the roll-call format of going around the room stating whether an Objective is on-track, at-risk, or behind. Frankly, if you're running the meeting effectively, no one should be surprised about any progress or status update. The progress should be known, and the meeting should bring together Leaders to take action.

That's how you know your plan is living and breathing.

With this structure, the Leadership meeting now starts with discussions around those Objectives At-Risk or Behind. What’s causing the Objective to fall behind? How can the rest of Leadership help? Are there dependencies across other departments that we can resolve or address? Assign action items to be reviewed at the start of your next meeting.

Next, go through your Operating Metrics. These are metrics that have been deemed mission-critical to the business. Usually, they are your operating plan goals that have been communicated to Leadership and the Board of Directors.

Finally, an open forum. These can be action items assigned last week that weren’t addressed, new challenges you see on the horizon, or simply updates that need to be shared with the rest of Leadership. The ideal scenario is that Leadership team members are sending these to one dedicated person (Chief of Staff, VP of Ops, COO, etc.), who can compile a list ahead of time and send it out in the pre-read for folks to digest. However, if these items are brought up in the meeting, then no sweat. Just make sure you are assigning items that need action to be taken to individuals, and again, starting the next meeting with updates to those items.

Ideally, you are leveraging a solution that creates a unified view of all of the above, so that your meeting isn’t spent jumping around between spreadsheets, project management tools, and dashboards. A single source of truth for all the critical items related to the execution of your strategy.

2. Set the Stage for 2025 Planning with CEO Buy-In

While the first two items were about staying focused and aligned through the end of 2024, the final recommendation is to start planning ahead for 2025.

And look, we recognize that it can be challenging to look ahead while you’re in the middle of a difficult season or just trying to keep your head above water and hit your goals for the year. But so often, we see that a lack of planning creates a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to the execution of strategy. As Leaders, we acknowledge that the process isn’t what we want it to be, yet, we fall victim to the same misteps every cycle.

We allow the day-to-day fires or the pushback from Leadership to hyperfocus on a revenue target to blind us from the reality that we are just going to experience the same challenges again next year.  

Rather than controlling how we build, execute, and report on our strategy in a dynamic, proactive way, we are left waiting until after the current quarter to (hopefully) start planning for the next year or next quarter when we are already weeks into it.

If you’d like to reference our basic Strategic Planning Calendar, we recommend that as a starting point for setting the stage for planning.

But the reality is that it’s not just about putting dates on the calendar. It’s about getting people bought into the importance of ‘why’ strategic planning needs to be a focus this year.

The best individual to help you build this case is your CEO.

Frankly, they should be more invested than anyone, because it is their vision we are bringing to life. Their vision that we are executing across the business.  

So start with your CEO. Set the stage for a framework that guides how you set your long-term vision (3, 5, or 10 years). Again, we have plenty of material on how to build a Strategic Planning framework, but this needs to be agreed upon ahead of time.  

And if you happen to be looking for someone to help with building CEO buy-in, you’ve come to the right place. I’m always happy to meet with Strategy and Operations Leaders, as well as other CEOs to share insight or offer support as needed.

3. Bonus Recommendation - Host a Town Hall to Set the Stage for H2

I know, I know - we said there would only be two recommendations in this edition of the Pulse, but I had to throw in one more based on my own experience.  

At the last three companies I have been a part of, one of the things that has been commonplace is a monthly town hall for employees. The intent of the meeting is to give clear visibility for employees to the pacing and performance of the organization and ensure everyone is clearly aligned around the priorities and operating targets we have as a business.

While this is something I’ve done across multiple companies, the reason I bring it up is that none of the companies I’ve been with have ever had town halls introduced at the suggestion of Leadership. In every single instance, the idea of a 30-minute town hall has been the suggestion of an employee, who is seeking more clarity and transparency from the organization.

So why do I bring it up? Well, if you aren’t running town halls today, and misalignment or lack of communication is something that your organization is struggling with, then it might be worth proactively incorporating a town hall format to close out the year.

The format can be simple.

Start with your performance to date, where you are in relation to the company's goals, as well as some of your team's highlights. At Elate, I also incorporate ‘areas of opportunity’ or learnings we’ve had because it isn’t all about things going up and to the right. Often the missteps are the best teachers, and frankly, I think employees appreciate the fact that everything isn’t rainbows and butterflies.  

Finally, set the stage for the goals ahead of you as an organization. What are the main outcomes you are looking to achieve collectively? What are the key initiatives everyone needs visibility into moving forward? This will provide folks with the direction they need.

So there you have it. Three recommendations based on the challenges we’ve seen across countless organizations.

Again, these are designed to help ensure your team is staying focused on closing the second half of the year out on a high note, but more importantly, enabling you as a Strategy and Operations Leader to begin taking control of your Strategic Planning process.

If you would like to dive into any of the recommendations further, please don’t hesitate to reach out! I’d love to share more and connect.

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🚨 Last Call: Blueprint 2024 🚨

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially in something as fun to write as The Pulse. However, we are getting to the end of our available spots left for Blueprint 2024.

While we are incredibly grateful for the extraordinary support and wave of sign-ups we’ve received, we knew there was a chance we might run out of room.

So if you are still waiting for some reason to sign up for the event, now is the time to register.

I’m truly elated for the speakers we have participating in this year’s summit, and can’t wait to hear from world-class leaders at companies like DeepL, Authenticx, Versapay, FormAssembly, Transcend, and KIPP Atlanta Metro Schools.  

As if those speakers weren’t enough, and the chance to meet with other Elate team members and other Leaders traveling to Indy from across the country hadn’t quite gotten you over the hump, then maybe the incredible Elate pop-up swag booth will do it for you.  

I don’t want to give away what we will have available, but all I can say is our Marketing team crushed it. And best of all, it’s free. That said, swag will also be on a first-come first serve basis, so get there early.

🎤 Learn More About Blueprint Speaker: Tony Rhine, COO at Transcend

If you’re looking to hear from one of the speakers in advance of Blueprint, we are excited to share this story of how Transcend leveraged Elate to help align their global teams around a shared vision!

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A few resources you might be interested in:

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