RETHINKING STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR LASTING RESULTS

Tailored strategies that align with your business needs, guiding you through a focused, dynamic, and results-driven approach.

Introduction: Why Strategic Planning Needs to Evolve

In today’s fast-paced business environment, traditional strategic planning approaches often fall short. Strategies that were effective years ago now lead to outdated plans that gather dust or fail to adapt to the ever-changing market dynamics. Many businesses struggle with plans that are either unrealistic or disconnected from day-to-day operations.

At Shifft, we challenge this broken system by introducing a modern, more agile approach to strategic planning. Our focus is on creating plans that are not just aspirational, but actionable and continuously relevant. With decades of experience with business, industry and government, we provide a proven process designed to empower leaders, engage teams, and deliver measurable success.

The Challenges of Traditional Strategic Planning

The traditional strategic planning process typically involves lengthy workshops, dense documentation, and vision statements that don’t align with real-world constraints. There are several common challenges that we address in our unique approach:

Limited Focus

Team members often attend planning workshops while distracted by other work, resulting in unfocused sessions that lack the depth needed for meaningful strategy development.

No Time for Reflection

Traditional plans are often created in short, time-pressured sessions, leaving little room for incubation of ideas or critical thinking.

Symptom-Focused, Not Rooted in Causes

These plans often address symptoms of problems rather than the underlying causes, leading to superficial solutions.

Team Dynamics Dominate

In group settings, strong personalities or team dynamics can skew the strategy, leading to plans that reflect individual biases rather than the collective needs of the business.

Vanilla Plans

Without a robust process, many strategic plans lack creativity and fail to differentiate the business from competitors.

Unrealistic Goals

Big, bold objectives often sound good in a workshop setting but fail to translate into practical, attainable strategies.

Our Unique Approach: Strawman Planning

At Shifft, we’ve developed a strategic planning process called Strawman Planning. This innovative, iterative methodology addresses the shortcomings of traditional planning by allowing teams to build, tear down, and refine plans through a series of focused, reflective sessions.

The Strawman Plan starts as a flexible draft that your team isn’t wedded to. Through multiple iterations, we systematically refine the plan, improving it with each pass. This allows for continuous learning and adjustment, ensuring that the final strategy is robust, practical, and aligned with your business goals.

How Strawman Planning Works

Our Strawman Planning process is structured around three key phases:

1. Building the Initial Strawman

We begin by collaborating with your leadership team to create a draft plan. This plan outlines the key components of your strategy, but it is intentionally flexible, allowing room for improvement. We’re not focusing on getting everything perfect from the start; instead, the goal is to create a strong foundation that we can build on.

2. Iterative Refinement

With the draft plan in place, we take your team through a series of focused sessions where the plan is broken down and rebuilt. Each iteration allows for deeper analysis, reflection, and adjustment. We address any emerging issues, incorporate new ideas, and ensure that the plan remains adaptable to your evolving business environment. This iterative process encourages thoughtful, strategic thinking rather than hasty decision-making.

3. Finalisation and Execution

Once the plan has been refined through several rounds of review, we finalise it, ensuring that it is both realistic and actionable. The final version includes clearly defined objectives, timelines, and action steps. We also focus heavily on change success by integrating our insights on what makes change initiatives successful. On average, only 30% of strategic initiatives succeed due to poor execution. Our process increases that likelihood by providing concrete tools for success and helping your team stay aligned throughout the execution phase.

A Tailored Approach for Your Business

No two businesses are alike, and no two strategic plans should be either. Our approach is fully-tailored to your organisation, industry, and specific goals. We work closely with you to understand your business environment, challenges, and opportunities, ensuring that the final plan is designed to meet your specific needs.

Our strategic planning services are ideal for businesses that:

• Want to break away from the status quo and explore innovative strategies.

• Need practical, realistic plans that drive long-term growth.

• Seek team engagement and commitment to a unified vision and strategy.

• Operate in dynamic markets where flexibility and adaptability are crucial.

Our Process in Action: Key Elements of Success

To ensure the success of your strategic plan, we incorporate several critical elements into our process:

Engagement & Commitment

We engage your leadership team at every step, fostering a sense of ownership and commitment to the plan. By involving key stakeholders throughout the process, we ensure alignment and buy-in, making it easier to implement the strategy later.

Data-Driven Insights

Our strategic planning process is informed by data and analytics. We use market research, industry trends, and internal performance data to guide decision-making, ensuring that your strategy is based on a solid understanding of both your business and the market landscape.

Adaptability and Flexibility

Unlike rigid traditional plans, our process encourages adaptability. The iterative nature of Strawman Planning ensures that your strategy can evolve alongside your business, allowing you to respond quickly to new opportunities and challenges.

Practical Implementation

Strategy is only as good as its execution. We help you identify the key success factors for change and provide practical tools to ensure your team stays focused on the plan’s objectives. By working on both the strategy and its execution simultaneously, we increase the chances of success.

Why Choose Shifft for Your Strategic Planning?

Our strategic planning process has been developed over 34 years of experience in management consulting and business coaching. We’ve seen firsthand the frustrations businesses face with traditional planning methods, and we’ve designed our approach to address those pain points directly.

• Proven Methodology: Our Strawman Planning approach has been used successfully with businesses across industries, delivering real, measurable results.

• Tailored Solutions: Every business is unique, and so is our planning process. We build your strategy from the ground up, ensuring it aligns with your business goals.

• Ongoing Support: We don’t just create a plan and leave. We provide ongoing support through the execution phase, helping you stay on track and adjust as needed.