Strategic Planning For Dummies®

Chapter 12. Establishing Your Strategic Priorities

In This Chapter

• Looking at your opportunities from all angles

• Striking a balance among your strategic priorities

• Transforming your priorities into strategic objectives, goals, and strategies

• Writing strategies, goals, and measurements

Congratulations! If you've been working through this book from beginning to end, you've made it halfway through the strategic planning process. Right about now, it's common to feel like the process is a little out of control. This occurs primarily because you have collected so much information, input, and feedback that sorting through it all seems impossible. It can feel disorienting. So step back and review what you're doing. Strategic planning answers where you are now, where you're going, and how you're getting there.

Visualize a famous bridge such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, or Tower Bridge. All bridges have two primary support pillars and span in between the two, allowing one part of land to be connected with another. One of these pillars explains where you are now — your mission, your values, your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The pillar on the far side represents where you are going — your vision. And how you get there is the span or the road in between — your strategic objectives, goals, and action plans.

Now because the span between the two pillars is quite long, in order to bridge the gap, you need long‐term strategic objectives and short‐term goals. How you ...