Bringing Your Strategic Plan To Life

Most strategic plans are never implemented. Yet we must be strategic about how we spend our time and financial resources given the pressure to deliver more services with fewer resources. Pick up a highlighter, get comfortable, and select the actions that will make your plan a reality. Bringing Your Strategic Plan to Life: A Guide for Nonprofits and Public Agencies is full of practical tips, forms, and best practices that will move your organization beyond the paper plan and into implementation. Paris divides the action into five stages: creating, evaluating, communicating, implementing, and budgeting. Ways to align the plan throughout the organization are described in detail, and a self-evaluation of your organization’s planning process is included.

How to close the gap between strategy and execution Two-thirds of executives say their organizations don’t have the capabilities to support their strategy. In Strategy That Works, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi explain why. They identify conventional business practices that unintentionally create a gap between strategy and execution. And they show how some of the best companies in the world consistently leap ahead of their competitors. Based on new research, the authors reveal five practices for connecting strategy and execution used by highly successful enterprises such as IKEA, Natura, Danaher, Haier, and Lego. These companies: • Commit to what they do best instead of chasing multiple opportunities • Build their own unique winning capabilities instead of copying others • Put their culture to work instead of struggling to change it • Invest where it matters instead of going lean across the board • Shape the future instead of reacting to it Packed with tools you can use for building these five practices into your organization and supported by in-depth profiles of companies that are known for making their strategy work, this is your guide for reconnecting strategy to execution.

Your life is serious business, but who says you can't find joy along the way? As a person with unique gifts to offer, it is your responsibility to use your talents wisely and it is your right to enjoy yourself while doing so. Just as a successful business requires a mission and a plan, so does a fulfilling life. In The Joy of Strategy, Allison Rimm provides a structured, step-by-step program to create a business plan for your life. Through conventional business techniques and unconventional wisdom, The Joy of Strategy is the go-to guide for achieving satisfaction both in and out of work. Delivered with compassion and humor, The Joy of Strategy presents eight practical steps, useful tools such as the Joy Meter, and real success stories to help build and motivate your personal plan. With the perfect mix of soul and strategy, The Joy of Strategy will get you organized and on your way to a fulfilling life.

Your total guide to putting a powerful management tool to work in your organization Why strategic planning? Because a well wrought strategic plan helps you set priorities and acquire and allocate the resources needed to achieve your goals. It provides a framework for analyzing and quickly adapting to future challenges. And it helps all board and staff members focus more clearly on your organization's priorities, while building commitment and promoting cooperation and innovation But to be effective, your plan will need to address the special needs of the nonprofit sector. And for more than a decade, Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations has been the number-one source of guidance on all facets of strategic planning for managers at nonprofits of every size and budget. This thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded edition arms you with the expert knowledge and tools you need to develop and implement surefire strategic plans, including tested-in-the-trenches worksheets, checklists, and tables--in print and on the companion website--along with a book-length case study that lets you observe strategic planning in action. Packed with real-world insights and practical pointers, it shows you how to: Develop a clear mission, vision, and set of values Conduct SWOT analyses and program evaluations Assess client needs and determine stakeholder concerns Set priorities and develop core strategies, goals, and objectives Balance the dual bottom lines of mission and money Write and implement a solid strategic plan Develop a user-friendly annual work plan Establish planning cycles, gauge progress, and update strategies

Effective strategic management brings with it the clarity, accountability, trust, and focus that will dramatically improve your chances of ongoing, sustainable success. To be an effective strategic manager, you develop effective, implementable strategic plans. Real strategic planning is not an event, nor is it a document that sits on a shelf after an executive retreat to gather dust. Instead it is an ongoing process of accountability and transformation. This book will show you how to create that process inside your organization, ensure the involvement of stakeholders, and make sure strategic priorities are actually implemented. There is no shortcut to successful strategic planning. It requires full support and commitment from the senior ranks of the organization. You will need to involve as many key stakeholders as possible to ensure buy-in and then unwavering focus on daily execution of the plan. If it sounds like hard work, it is. It requires deep thinking about what your organization stands for, its values and its goals. Just because it is hard work, however, does not mean that you can get someone else to do it for you. Plenty of consulting firms will offer to write your strategic plan for you. Dont let them; to be effective, the plan must be yours. Show those who would attempt to handle everything for you the door. This book is a distillation of the Rhiness Groups philosophy, showing leaders and managers how to cut through the myths and obfuscations of strategic planning to embrace a powerful and comprehensive process that they can use to transform their organization. It is not a magic bullet or a one size fits all planinstead, it will teach you how to create and implement your strategy, the one that will see you and your organization through an uncertain future to sustainable success.

Popular motivational speaker Zig Ziglar was fond of saying, "Most people aim at nothing in life and hit it on the nose every time!" A seasoned strategic planner observed that most people invest the majority of their time and resources "maintaining their momentum" (just getting by) rather than "managing their potential." Living On Purpose - How To Develop A Strategic Plan for Life was created to guide you on the exciting journey of discovering and implementing your unique, God-given life purpose. A practical self-help tool, this book will lead you step by step through three key stages of discovery: Analyze: 7 assessment tools for discovering how God has uniquely wired you for significant accomplishment; Adjust: a gentle nudge to reconsider how you are investing your resources; and Accomplish: adapted from the professional strategic planning process, developing a precise plan to accomplish your highest potential and thus honor God's purpose for your life.The book may be studied as an individual or in a group setting.Teaching videos are available to enhance your journey. WARNING! This tool could radically alter the outcome of your life...and bring great joy in the process. Also available in Spanish.

Organizations spend over $160 billion a year hiring consultants to develop and execute strategies, and yet 80 percent of corporate strategies fail. Why? Because we forget the most important factor in successfully executing strategy: People. Our old models of change management and strategy execution assume that organizations are monolithic and can move directly from strategy-making to strategy-doing. But the modern organization is made up of increasingly more diverse, empowered, and free-thinking people, and we need to evolve how we launch our strategies to ensure we engage, align, and empower diverse groups of people to move forward together. If you want to be part of the 20 percent of leaders who succeed, then you need a new playbook for bringing your strategy to life. With The Strategy Activation Playbook, author Aric Wood, CEO of XPLANE, teaches you how to do what he’s helped organizations around the world accomplish: align and activate the people in your organization to execute your strategy and realize your vision. Inside, leaders will find in these pages a clear methodology for: Communicating a strategy in such a way that everyone understands it, sees how it benefits them, and becomes willing to take the journey Equipping employees with the tools and training that enable new ways of working Embedding a strategy as “the new way of work” that everyone can embrace The Strategy Activation Playbook is the indispensable desk reference to strategy activation, and is filled with practical tools, exercises, and methods you can implement immediately to align your teams and empower individuals to move forward together toward a common goal.

What are God-given your dreams and desires? What is your vision for the world? How do you want to make a difference? . . . Perhaps you have an inspiration to start a new humanitarian organization, or a new ministry? Or maybe you have an idea to start a new commercial enterprise? It's time to get your ideas off the ground! This book invites you on a twenty-five day journey that takes an idea, refines it, and makes it into a reality. Throughout the journey, you will come to understand the motivational and spiritual aspects of starting a new enterprise and bringing your vision to life.

How can leaders use strategic planning to strengthen their public and nonprofit organizations? In this fourth edition of his perennial bestseller Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Bryson provides the most updated version of his thoughtful strategic planning model and outlines the reasons public and nonprofit organizations must embrace strategic planning to improve their performance. Introduced in the first edition and refined over the past 18 years, the Strategy Change Cycle--a proven planning process used successfully by a large number of nonprofit and public organizations--is the framework used to guide the reader through the strategic planning process. Bryson offers detailed guidance on implementing the process, and specific tools and techniques to make the process work in any organization. In addition, he clarifies the organizational designs through which strategic thought and action will be encouraged and embraced throughout an entire organization. In addition to updated examples, new cases, and additional information on boundaries, distinctive competencies, Actor-Network theory, Bryson will creat an instructor's manual with sample syllabi, PowerPoint teaching slides, and additional cases.

Imagine what your life would be like if you could apply the same strategies that successful people used to get ahead. These are the folks who live in the grand houses that you see when you drive down certain streets. They drive nice cars and dine at the best restaurants. They live their lives like absolute superstars. Join business consultant John M. Hawkins, who learned long ago that the secret to success is building a strategic plan to get what you want. He provides a detailed road map so you can join the ranks of the most successful. You’ll learn how to build a smart, strategic plan; take risks (and when to take them); change the way you think about challenges; maintain your focus and stick to your plan. Follow in the footsteps of strategic thinkers and get exactly where you want to go. All you have to do is start thinking like a millionaire and say “yes” to success. It starts with Building a Strategic Plan for Your Life and Business.