Processes in Implementing Strategic Plan in an Organization (Essay Sample)

Processes in Implementing Strategic Plan in an Organization
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Processes in Implementing Strategic Plan in an Organization
Introduction
The process of defining an organization’s future is a crucial component of its success process. The process is recognized and managed by top-performing entities. However, the failure to have an exact planning process that engages staff along with other stakeholder is often the undoing of many organizations in the planning process. A well thought out strategic planning process entails two critical aspects. The first aspect is the process used must establish and maintain an environment that engages stakeholders in meaningful ways, besides, promoting consensus building in the organization. The second aspect entails the sequential steps leading to a strategic plan. The equal significance of these two aspects cannot be overstated. Both these aspects are an orchestration of planning and implementation in parallel. However, many entities often focus on the sequential steps in the process without adequately establishing settings that would ultimately result in the implementation success. Although presented as discrete aspects, these aspects are interdependent and demand integration, coordination and customization to meet the unique individual, organizational needs. Strategic planning is the process of making plans and decisions focused on long-run organizational performance. The resulting comprehensive plan that provides overall direction for the organization is a strategic plan. Although the level of formality and sophistication of the strategic planning may differ based on organizations, the process of implementation itself is similar across all organizations. For this reason, the paper purposes to analyze the processes used by organizations to implement a strategic plan.
Processes in Implementing Strategic Plan
A number of models, and action steps for implementing a strategic plan, are well documented by different scholars. According to Poister, Hall, and Aristigueta (2015), one approach that assumes a cooperative effort between the management and staff, in addition to, a strategic planning committee taking responsibility for the implementation of the strategic plan is widely used and most efficient for many entities. The process of implementing the plan will entail part of work by the implementation committee, while the management and staff may engage in retreats to facilitate the process. The following approach will involve ten processes in the implementation of the strategic plan.
Initiating and Agreement on a Strategic Planning Process
The purpose of this process is to negotiate an agreement among crucial internal and external decision makers on the overall strategic planning effort and the crucial planning steps. The support of the primary decision makers is essential if the strategic plan has to be successful. Moreover, the involvement of the external decision makers particularly for the public and nonprofit entities is decisive especially if the implementation process entails multiple parties and entities. The process also details the costs of the plan, the potential value of the plan, the readiness of the organization to the plan and responsibilities for the other process. The shortfall of this process to implementation is its time-consuming nature because of the sufficient time required by parties involved to set the implementation process running (Poister, Hall, & Aristigueta, 2015).
Identification of Organizational Mandate
An entity's mission, in tandem with its mandates, confers the organization’s most apparent social justification and raison d’être for its existence. An organization’s mandates and mission also point the way towards the ultimate organizational end of creating public value at reasonable cost. It is essential for the organization to agree on community vision, mission, and organizational operating principles or core values. The purpose of the process is to confer an explanation for the strategic plan by pointing to the reasons of which changes must occur (Alston & Bryson, 2013).
Clarification of Organizational Mission and Values
The process entails the clarifying of the mission and values of the organization to permit the participants of the strategic planning process to concentrate on fashioning a plan that intent to achieve the purpose of the organization in a manner that observes its values. It is worth noting that some organizations start with their preferred vision while others begin with their statement of purpose or mission. The purpose of the process is to clarify mission and values with the objective to ensure the strategic plan is in line with the organization mission and values (Grung & Kuhn, 2015). 
Assessing the External and Internal Environments for SWOT analysis
The process is beneficial because it confers comprehension on the manner an organization relates to its external environment. The scan entails an external component in identifying along with evaluating opportunities and threats from external organizational setting as well as the internal components in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. The process can entail consideration of trends and forces in the broader operating environment, the immediate target community of the strategic plan, opportunities and challenges, and collaborators and competitors. It also covers the perceived performance of the organization, identifying of vital success factors as well as values and operating principles (Poister, Hall, & Aristigueta, 2015).
Identification of Strategic Issues Facing the Organization
The process is crucial because of the concerns it raises in the implementation of the strategic plan for the organization. It identifies the issues affecting the organizations mandate, values and mission, product or service level mix, clients, users, costs, management, organization and financing. Consequently, the identified issues are categorized as strategic issues if there is failure to solve the issues and their implications (Schwenker & Wulf, 2013).
Strategy Formulation and Plans to Manage Issues
A strategy is a pattern of purposes, programs, policies, decisions, actions, projects or resource allocations that define what an entity is, what the organization does and why it does it. Strategies often vary by function, level, and time-frame and in the manner, the strategies perform against expectations. Effective strategy formulation and implementation will be crucial in linking of choices, rhetoric, actions and implications into plausible coherent and consistent patterns across functions, levels and time. Two approaches can be critical in strategy formulations, which are first, a five-part strategy development process, which identifies practical alternatives and visions for resolving the identified issues. The second approach is action-oriented strategy mapping, which entails listing multiple options to solve each strategic issue raised (Schwenker & Wulf, 2013).
Strategy and Plan Review and Adoption
The rationale of this process is to gain formal commitment to adopting and proceed with the implementation of the plan. The step represents the culmination of the work of the previous points and processes towards the implementation step, in which there is the realization of adopted strategies in practice. Formal adaptation may not be essential in all cases to gain the benefits of strategic planning. A correlation should be perceptible between these strategies and goals. The objective of the process is to identify the current position of the organization and where the goals and vision indicate the organization should be as well as identifying of essential strategies to reach the vision and goals (Turban, Strauss, & Lai, 2016).
Description of the Organization’s Vision for the Future
An organization’s vision of success outlines what the entity ought to look like as it implements its strategies and achieves its potential. This description allows organizational members to understand what is expected of them without persistent direct managerial oversight. Moreover, this description permits other stakeholders to understand what the organization envisions for itself. The vision of success may be developed at a number of places. However, this stage is where it occurs. For this reason, the vision of achievement is likely to serve as a guide for strategy implementation and less as a guide for strategy formulation (Ebener, & Smith, 2015). 
Developing an Effective Implementation Process
The process involves the implementation of the adopted strategies throughout the relevant systems. An efficient implementation process and action plan must be fashioned if the strategic plan has to be more than the organizational New Year’s resolution. For this reason, the more that the strategies are formulated with implementation as the sole objective, as well as the involvement of persons required in plan implementation, the more successful the strategy implementation, will be in the organization (Ebener, & Smith, 2015). 
Strategy and Planning Process Reassessment
The fundamental purpose of this final process is to review implemented strategies along with the strategic planning process. The objective is to identify what worked in the implementation process as well as what did not work, in addition to, reasons that resulted in its failure to work. Moreover, the process sets the stage for the next round of strategic planning process. The shortcoming of the process is its capacity to be an evaluation tool rather than a corrective tool (Schwenker & Wulf, 2013).
Management Processes in the Implementation of Strategic Plan
The successful implementation of a strategic p...