Develop an integrated plan

Integrated Strategic Planning (ISP) identifies current issues and addresses future organizational or team needs. It is a detailed plan to establish key strategic priorities based on integrated inputs from stakeholders (ie: branches) within your organization. Some of the key aspects of preparing your plan require the assembly of an integrated planning team with clearly defined roles, a schedule to stay on track, and a medium to obtain the necessary inputs, such as a weekly meeting.

It begins by assessing your team’s/or organization’s position by identifying issues, risks, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

The next step is to identify all stakeholders who will be included in this joint planning exercise and to organize a collaborative planning session(s). This session(s) will facilitate the communication of necessary and available resources commitments that will influence your strategic goals.

Based on the above inputs, you will then need to formulate your integrated strategic objectives. This is the crux of this play and a result of your hard work carried out above.

Be sure to present the final version of this plan with all those involved to ensure that feedback is considered, and any necessary amendments are made to your objectives.

Getting started can be a bit overwhelming - use the first page of the integrated planning tool to quickly brainstorm a rough plan. This plan will help you strategize your approach in developing your integrated strategic plan. Oh, and don’t forget the basics. Jot down your team’s mission; it’s your purpose and raison d’être and will influence your overall strategic objectives.

Now that you have a rough plan, complete an assessment of your team’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) prior to establishing who will comprise your integrated planning team.

Complete page 2 – SWOT analysis – of the integrated planning tool to assess your team’s position. 

Consider the following when completing your SWOT table:

• What are some your team’s challenges, and what factors contribute to these challenges?
• What has the team accomplished? Who is a subject matter expert, and in what?
• Be honest - what needs improvement? Identify gaps and consider your current human resources situation.
• What services do you provide, and to who? Are there any new partnerships your team can pursue?
• What external factors does your team have no control over? These could be things such as budget cuts or policy changes.

Use this information to enhance your integrated planning session(s).

Who’s on your ISP team? Determine who the key contributors to you planning team should be by completing they key players section of the integrated planning tool. 

Now that you have established your key players, it is time to reach out to those members, inform them of your game plan, and invite them to participate in the joint planning session(s) to help establish your integrated strategic objectives. 

Be sure to document in the key player section who is in and who is not to avoid any unnecessary future confusion. 

Before you meet with the ISP planning team be sure to complete the first 3 columns of the ISP grid on page 4 of the integrated planning tool. Copy the issues identified on the SWOT table. Then, identify the area(s) that each issue represents. Finally, complete the 3rd column by listing possible solutions to address this issue.

This preparation will give you a solid overview and starting point to the joint planning session(s) and will help facilitate the development of your integrated strategic objectives.

You have laid the groundwork and you are now ready for the actual integrated planning session! Whether this is one meeting of longer duration or several shorter meetings, this is your time to work with a truly integrated team in developing your strategic objectives.

Present your SWOT information, as necessary, to the team. Be sure to highlight your issues so that other branch representatives can consider how they may best be positioned to support you.

This is also the time where other branch representatives may identify relevant issues to your SWOT table which may impact the development of your strategic objectives.

Be sure to work with the planning team to complete the strategic objectives column.

And that’s it! Remember to thank those participants and advise them of when they will receive your completed ISP document for review and comments.

Ensure that the minutes of the meeting are documented for filing and referencing purposes.

• Strategic success is closer than you think—especially once you follow these meticulously-crafted steps: Strategic Planning: Prepare, Create, & Deploy Your Strategy (ClearPoint Strategy, 2019) (English only)

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