Blog

The Strategic Planning event, if done constructively is always confronting, argumentative and need we say, political.  Various processes take different approaches, but no matter which process you have used to tackle your direction setting you now have a list of Initiatives that need to be rolled out.  

It is not unusual that the Initiatives list is extensive.  As a general rule it would be quite easy to generate a list of at least a hundred issues for consideration in your business or division.  Quite often strategic and tactical issues get thrown into the same pot, different understandings and different interpretations of what strategy is can lead to a large bucket of "ToDo's".

The problem with having a bucket of ToDo's is that in most cases nothing gets done.  The more issues, the less focus and the less impressive your roll out and results will be.   If you haven't already done so your list needs to be culled to a manageable size to allow successful implementation.  What is a manageable size is up to the size and scope of your operations, however, at a strategic level the six to ten issues range should be manageable to successful implementation and completion.  

Culling your Initiatives to a manageable level can be done in a number of ways.  Having a decision filter as espoused by Decision Processes International is a good first step.  Further, some prioritising step must take place if you haven't already addressed this during your Strategic Planning Process.  Depending on your Strategic paradigm, the filtering process will vary.  The steps we undertake in ezzyScorecard is to rank your initiatives in terms of:

1.  Their relevance to your strategy.  Some initiatives will have a high level of alignment to your future direction and others will be less important.  Rank them on a scale of one to ten.
2.  Their Priority.  Are they urgent  or not, can they wait? Rank them High, Medium or Low.
3.  Timescale.  The timescale relevant as short, medium or long term.

In ezzyScorecard you can, apart from other options, Enter your Scorecards through your initiatives.  Simply enter your initiatives assign priority to help you rank importance, assign areas of responsibility, then your Perspectives, Objectives and Metrics.  You scorecard will come alive as you progress through this seamless process.