How do you present a strategic plan?

Time needed: 1 hour

Presenting a strategic plan in 11 steps:

1. Start with a clean landscape-oriented page, and put your strategy title at the top.

   The landscape format helps you show the timeline that we will get to later.
   

2. Put in swim lanes for Business Change, KPI, and Initiatives.

   These three areas work well:
   – Business Change: What is changing?
   – KPI: How we are going to ensure the change is on track?
   – Initiatives: What are the important projects that will drive the strategic change?
   

3. Add lines for KPIs, and Strategic Initiatives.

   These lines will allow us to show important messages over time in each strategic area. In the KPIs, use one to three areas. In the initiatives, not more than five areas.
   

4. Add your timeline to clearly show the duration and phasing.

   The timeline needs to be clear, with some gridlines, so that your audience can easily see *when* things need to happen.
   

5. Set the strategic starting state: Where are you now?

   This is crucial – you must articulate, in simple terms, the starting state so that your audience can understand the journey.
   

6. Define the target state: What is the inspirational goal?

   The target state is arguably the most important part of your strategic plan – the inspirational target that everyone sets their sights on.
   

7. Define the “phases” of the strategic change.

   Strategic change plans usually include more than one “phase”. Arrange the phases in your “business change” swim lane, to set the scene for the rest of the plan diagram. Two or three phases is ideal.
   

8. Add the important projects within each strategic initiative.

   Be careful!! Do not add too much detail here; try and line these up with the “phases” in step 7. Aim for one or a maximum of two items per phase in each strategic initiative swim lane.
   

9. Add baselines and checkpoints to the KPI streams.

   Putting in baselines and KPI checkpoints allows you to show a simple way to measure the success of the strategic plan rollout.
   

10. Add important context notes for each initiative.

    Your audience will have interests in one or more of the initiatives. This is a way to add more contextual information to bring your initiatives alive.
    

11. Add RAG status for each project to show risk levels.

    And finally – give your audience a sense of where the risk lies in the strategic plan. This helps everyone prepare for the upcoming strategic rollout.