Last month, I got great satisfaction in meeting face-to-face with my team for our annual evaluation team strategic planning. Strategic planning meetings are crucial for team success and provide an opportunity for reflection. They are also very valuable for the development of a cohesive and comprehensive plan that is co-developed by and for the team.
As always, our annual team strategic meeting was well-planned, and we walked away with clear goals for the upcoming year(s). If I can use one word to describe our meeting; it is productive! I attribute the success of the meeting to the following:
- Every member of the team completed a pre-meeting assessment to review our processes and structures as well as the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) related to our work. This analysis helps in understanding the internal and external factors that can impact our team’s performance. Our team lead compiled the data, and we all reviewed the findings during the meeting.
- We took time to review our team outputs and achievements for the past year. This was very invigorating for team members as we celebrated the good work that we jointly put forth. I was impressed by what the team had accomplished. We also reviewed the areas for improvement and made decisions for the year.
- We set one-year and three-year goals based on the SWOT analysis and amended some of our team offerings. As a case in point, we decided to put our monthly Town Halls on hold to make way for new and exciting offerings from the Xcalibur team. So, stay tuned for some exciting news from the Xcalibur team regarding new offerings!
- The team used the Impact-Effort matrix to map out tasks for projects aligned with our goals. The matrix helped us easily identify the tasks with the biggest impact and those that required the most effort. We had open dialogue regarding why each team member rated the tasks.
- We began conversations to determine the strategies to achieve our team goals and created a list of next steps for the team goals.
- The Xcalibur leadership was transparent with information and created an atmosphere that encouraged sharing ideas, concerns, insights, and feedback. The truth is the success of a strategic planning meeting depends on the active participation and engagement of the team members.
So, I ask, does your team have an annual strategic planning meeting? If not, you should start having conversations about planning one. Strategic planning meetings foster a sense of purpose, collaboration, and enhance the overall performance of your team, and company success.
