Strategy is Similar to a Gym Club Membership-

...subscribed to and subsequently not used

Do a web search on “gym club membership unused” and the first hit that comes up typically reads "4 of 5 gym memberships go unused”. While hardly a surprising statistic (although some more optimistic reports are closer to 67% unusued), it has a certain correlation and similarity to Strategy in many companies. Subscribed to, yet not used well characterizes the use of Strategic plans in many organizations to guide decision making. The people we know who do use their gym club memberships tend to be very happy with the results and frequently become regular visitors to their clubs. The same holds true with companies using their strategies correctly- once executives and boards see their strategies working correctly they tend to be far more likely to utilize them the next time a big decision arises.
And how do we know what "working correctly" is?

At a gym club, we can arrange with a personal trainer as well as with many other excellent resources to ensure we get our bodies working out correctly. And with our business- how can we know if our Strategy is working?

Here are three quick questions to check up on Strategic Planning in your organization:

Ask your key colleagues and executives to summarize your Strategy in 5 sentences or less- do the answers look and feel similar?
Ask your teams the last time the Strategy guided them in decision making for their role in the organization- and how the Strategy helped them.
Ask your direct reports what the 3 goals of the organization are for 2015- and how success will be measured. How close are the results?

As we near the end of 2014 and get ready to set our “resolutions” for 2015,one great target to set is for Strategy to become like the successful gym club membership- used consistently to deliver consistent success.

To test your company's strategic plan, use our checklist.