Seven Steps To Engage Your Employees In Strategic Planning

June 4, 2019

Forbs Coaches Council article published in Forbes on May 31, 2019 8:30 am written by Susan Wehrley

I remember when I first started my leadership development business 30 years ago, strategic planning was considered a top-down effort. I worked with leaders to help them create strategic plans that included the organization's vision, mission, values, goals and key initiatives. Department managers were then asked to engage their employees to get these projects done. This would often be met with resistance and excuses (lack of time was among the most popular).

As I dug deeper into the root of this issue, employees eventually admitted they didn’t want to be assigned another “chore,” especially without a voice in the matter. I shared this feedback with top management, but many of them felt the strategic planning process was management’s responsibility, and execution was up to the employees.

This kind of top-down management created a dynamic on the team of “leadership” versus “worker bees,” which left employees less than inspired. And — though there were countless initiatives to create more engagement, collaboration and innovation — what employees really wanted was to be heard, respected and appreciated for the contribution they could make to the overall strategy of the company. This feedback is just as important to a company’s culture as the strategy itself.

When I saw "culture" defined in Merriam-Webster's dictionary as “the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties," an “aha” moment came to me: What if developing intellectual and moral faculties meant creating and deploying the strategic plan differently?

This led me to think about how to hear, respect and appreciate employees in the strategic planning process by integrating the plan into everyday decision making. I also knew these decisions couldn’t just be understood in their heads. I believe employees need to make sense in their guts and be inspired in their hearts as well. When the gut, heart and head are all on the same page, what happens is "gut intelligence," a term I developed that describes the wisdom to know what to do when these three elements are in sync.

I've written a book on how gut intelligence works, and to create a culture with increased gut intelligence, I often coach my clients on the following seven-step collaborative strategic planning process:

1. Create vision and values.

It's important to have a vision and values for your organization, as this tells everyone why your company exists and who you are. To start your vision and value quest, develop three vision statements, and determine 10-15 values you want your company to portray. Then, send a survey to educate employees on the “why” behind those selections. Have employees rate the vision statements and values, and ask them to give comments.

Once you've heard your employees' feedback, select your vision and values. Review their input, and choose one vision statement and between five and eight values.

2. Create the mission and goals.

Your mission statement acts as a compass for your goals. Have managers share with employees the chosen vision statement and values from step No. 1. Then, send three mission statements and five goals to support it. Have employees rate the mission statements and goals, and ask for additional comments. After everyone responds, select your mission and between three and five goals, based on your team's feedback.

3. Create initiatives.

At this step, it's time to send out which mission and goals were chosen, along with up to five initiatives for accomplishing each goal. Employees can then rate the initiatives and express if they believe anything should change. Make your final initiative selection when your team is finished reviewing their suggestions.

I've found it's best to give your initiatives an inspirational, memorable name, such as "Dare to be aware," rather than something bland like, "Reduce mistakes."

4. Create teams.

Once you've established which initiatives will help your company reach its goals, send your initiatives to employees so they can choose a few to work on. Then, review their requests, and assign teams. Try your best to even out the load among employees, as sometimes overzealous employees will sign up for too many initiatives, and their job descriptions could suffer.

5. Determine action plans.

Ensure each manager in your organization is assigned initiatives to lead, and instruct them to send out milestones for each. Ask employees what they think, and encourage them to sign up for action steps and suggest deadlines.

Then, review and finalize the action plan, assignments and deadlines. Be sure to look at all the initiatives to consider if deadlines are realistic and no one department or person is overloaded (Gantt charts are great for this).

6. Check in on employees' progress.

Check action plan progress weekly. Where progress is not made, coach your team, and encourage them along the way. For example, ask, "How can you get back on track?" instead of, "Why didn't you get this done?" The former gets them thinking about what they can do, while the latter begs for an excuse. Where progress is made, recognize it. When your team meets its deadlines, be sure to point this out.

7. Provide quarterly updates — and celebrate.

Hold quarterly meetings with all employees to update and celebrate the progress of the teams and individuals who met their goals. It is important to do quarterly updates and celebrate to keep your plan front and center. By benchmarking progress and celebrating milestones, you send a message to everyone about how important it is to achieve the deadlines and results.

While most of my clients were already doing steps four through seven, by also engaging and educating employees in steps one through three, they've found that not only did their employees feel more heard, respected and appreciated, but their companies also gained greater alignment and achievement to their goals. This occurred because the collaborative strategic planning process developed a culture with intellectual and moral faculties to support the vision, mission, values and goals. The ultimate benefit was employees increased their gut intelligence, a skill needed for more effective daily decision making and goal achievement.

Forbes Coaches Council CommunityVoice
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization comprised of leading business coaches and career coaches. Find out if you qualify at
©2019 Forbes Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.