The strategic planning process is a systematic way of performing strategic planning in an organization. The process typically involves the following steps :
1. Pre-planning: Before the strategic planning process can begin in earnest, a number of items have to be resolved by the organization’s management – namely who’s going to lead the strategic planning effort, who is going to be involved, and what the strategic planning process will look like.
2. Propose mission: The first step in the strategic planning process is to propose a mission statement that defines the purpose of the organization.
3. Propose goals: The next step is to propose goals that align with the mission statement.
4. Examine internal issues: This step involves examining internal issues such as strengths and weaknesses of the organization.
5. Examine external issues: This step involves examining external issues such as opportunities and threats in the market.
6. Summarize findings in a SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis is a tool used to summarize the findings from examining internal and external issues.
7. Formulate strategy: Based on the findings from the SWOT analysis, a strategy is formulated that aligns with the mission statement and goals.
It’s important to note that every strategic planning process is different for every business, but these steps are generally followed in this order .
Visual Strategic Planning is a simple methodology that improves any strategic planning process by making it easier: To organize work among the members of the strategic planning committee or team by using mind maps, project charts, and org charts; To organize large amounts of data using mind maps; To analyze external and internal issues using PEST analysis, issue maps, analysis maps, and other types of visuals; To synthesize strategy using SWOT analysis and generic strategy matrices; and To tie strategy back to execution using mind maps, project charts, flow charts, and org charts which you present to your implementation team members .