5 Tips to Strategic Planning That Fosters Team Unity

When it comes to strategic planning, leadership teams often take the “war room” approach.

They spend days, even weeks, behind closed doors, planning and planning and planning … only to exit the room in a state of exhaustion and announce THE BIG PLAN!

That can be a great method of staying focused and getting a plan done more quickly — but it comes at a price.

More often than not, that price is team unity.

People want to be asked for their input and feedback. They want to contribute. Taking the time to involve your people in the final product can be so valuable to individuals and the team as a whole.

When your team gets the chance to give input on the growth strategy especially, they’ll gain a better understanding of where your company is going, they’ll be more invested in the outcome, and it will free them up to be truly innovative on your behalf.

You’ll be amazed at the ideas you can uncover by bringing your team members into the planning process!

To that end, I’d like to share five tips with you that have helped Syte clients make their employees feel like they are a part of a bigger picture, all working towards the same goal as one team.

1. Involve Your People Early

At Syte, we believe connecting people grows all things.

Building and developing support for your strategic plan can take time — so don’t wait to loop employees into the process. If your team is on the large side, focus first on involving employees who will feel the biggest impact of the changes. Then add the other team members to the conversation as you can. The key is to make sure every employee has a voice, and they have enough time to think about, share and adjust to new ideas.

Interestingly, there is some indication that enabling internal communication with technology has a flattening effect on corporate hierarchy, and can bring employees more actively into the company conversation. We’re finding with our clients that contextual communication tools like certain popular messaging apps are incredibly useful during strategic planning, ERP selection, implementation and beyond. They keep people connected to the things that matter most.

2. Involve Your People Consistently

Don’t make this a one-time ask of your employees. Encourage two-way feedback in a cadence that makes sense for your organizational culture. Things change more quickly today than they ever have — and a one-week lag in connecting with your employees can have a detrimental effect on your understanding of what’s happening in your organization.

As we say at Syte, Know yourself, know your team, and you’ll know what’s right.

Don’t rest on your laurels here. There’s often a gap between how leadership views connection and how employees do. A recent survey from TINYpulse illustrates this well: 40% of managers strongly believe that they are transparent, but only 22% of employees feel the same way.

3. Ask for Their Input and Feedback

Don’t assume your people just know that you want their input. Ask for input and feedback — frequently. This has proven to be so important to growing companies, there is a slew of new employee feedback tools on the market now, from pulse survey software to performance management tools.

Asking for input has the added effect of making your people feel more valued. A LinkedIn Talent Solutions survey found that 50% of respondents feel a greater sense of belonging at work when their contributions in meetings are valued. Asking for feedback is a boost for team unity and a boost for employee experience!

4. Communicate the End Results

The worst thing you can do is ask for people’s input, disappear back into your war room, and never communicate where it all landed.

While there are many ways to facilitate employees’ involvement in the planning process, at the end of the day, this is a two-way street. Whatever the outcome is, you must communicate it back to your people intentionally, broadly and clearly.

This is the only way your people will connect their work to the end result.

If you can’t do this, then — to put it bluntly — don’t bother asking them for input again. They won’t trust that you actually care or are listening to them. The impacts of this are serious, and will have far-reaching consequences.

5. Celebrate Achieving Those Results

It’s easy to remember to celebrate when you hit your targets — but for the sake of team unity and morale, you should find something to celebrate regardless of where the plan landed.

Was it the first time you’ve gone through this process with everyone’s input? Did a particular product line sell better than expected (even if overall results weren’t as good as you’d hoped)? Find a win somewhere and bring your people together in celebration.

Give Your People a Strategy They Can Be Proud Of

Employees will feel part of the bigger picture when they have a hand in the planning of it. Come out of the war room and connect with your people as you do your strategic planning. That strategy will be a lot more effective when your people are invested in it.

Your employees will feel more included when they’re leading the way instead of being dictated to. Want to talk about this in regard to your organization and strategic planning? I’m all ears.