Does your organization have a comprehensive strategic plan?
Is your plan a living document used to guide the toward accomplishing your long term goals?
Is you plan tied to an organizational performance management system used to ensure goals are accomplished?
Are your organizational culture, leadership, and processes aligned with strategic purpose?
Organizations are often unclear about their identity (who they really are) and where they are headed (their direction). In his book, “The Northbound Train”, Karl Albrecht states that “The existence (or lack) of a clear focus for success – the northbound train – sets the context for just about everything else that happens in and to the organization.”
Most organizations, including 
many utilities, have taken one of two basic approaches to address these issues:
many utilities, have taken one of two basic approaches to address these issues:- either they view strategic planning basically as futile because they believe that the organization is mostly a victim of its circumstances, or
- they embrace the concept but take a very narrow approach to strategic planning where the results often set on the self till next year.
In today’s environment, however, organizations must adapt rapidly to complex changes in workforce, infrastructure, technology, and regulations as well as external factors such as the economy, security issues, and societal trends. Traditional cause and effect approaches to strategic planning don’t provide the framework needed to succeed. These approaches address symptoms but seldom address core issues that create barriers to effective change.
Effective strategic planning needs to take a more comprehensive approach, a Strategic Business Planning approach that:
- considers the organization as a total “living” system,
- recognizes the interrelationship between each aspect of the organization, and
- enables your organization to analyze, think through and plan for your desired future.
TAP Resource assists organizations in creating purpose, vision, and strategy as well as the leadership that is essential in building a culture that can transform ideas into reality. Integrated Strategic Planning is a process that can bring employees together around goal accomplishment and is a powerful tool for developing organizational and employee ownership of important issues.