Include Everyone in an Annual Planning Session

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In order to achieve your most important objectives and successfully navigate business growth, it’s essential to create a clear plan, learn to work well together in a cross-functional way and have a structure to keep the teams accountable. There are five powerful principles that make teams more productive and companies more profitable:

  1. Include everyone in an annual planning session
  2. Put the past in perspective
  3. Shift limiting mindsets
  4. Align around top priorities at every level of the business
  5. Establish monthly results-driven meetings

Include Everyone in an Annual Planning Session

Planning. Google is a high-tech company, yet remarkably people-oriented. They include team players at all levels in the organization in decision-making process. Everyone is comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. Google realizes that each person has something valuable to say.

You may know best what’s needed, but don’t make the plan on your own. Think about key strategic objectives and include everyone on your top team in the creation of a real plan that’s going to drive the business for the next 12 months.

Dusty shelves. Do you remember those outside consultants who come in and design lengthy, strategic plans? Where do the plans end up? That’s right, on the CEO’s shelf collecting dust. They become expensive trinkets that tell the direction of the company for some time in the future with absolutely no indication of what the next 12 months will be like. In such cases much less action is taken to achieve an overall goal.

People buy in to what they help create. A five-year-old is not going to kick over the sand castle that he/she helped to design and build. Same goes for business. Performance rises when people have a chance to let you know how things look from their perspective and you gain the benefit of their understanding and insight.

The key concept to take away: Be open to new ideas, set tangible goals and do it all together with your team!

Need help with navigating business growth or leadership coaching? Contact Mission Critical Teams.

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