Over the years I can recall a number of business owners who have asked me why their well contemplated and beautifully prepared Strategic Plan has failed to win the support of the given owner’s employee team. In response, I have asked the simple question, “at what stage of the planning process did you invite input from relevant people on your team ?”
Typically, the business owner answered either that they didn’t invite any input from their team throughout the time the Strategic Plan was being written, or that such an invitation was communicated only when the plan had been written and was being presented to the team for their feedback.
And therein lies the reason why the troops may show a lackluster appreciation when being presented with a business owner’s well-crafted Strategic Plan…no matter how professionally put together the plan may be and/ or no matter how valid the content may be.
Unless a business owner/ senior manager (e.g. CEO/ GM) makes the choice to involve relevant members of their team at the early stages of formulating a Strategic Plan (irrespective of whether the business is a start-up venture or has been trading for some time), they cannot expect their team members to feel any great sense of “buy-in” (ownership) in relation to the plan once it is finalized.
Where instigating change is concerned, I have found that most people prefer to be a part of formulating the change versus having the change inflicted upon them. Furthermore, I have found that the greatest sense of ownership of strategic direction that you (as a business owner/ senior manager) can influence in anyone occurs when the people concerned have been an integral part of the planning process from the outset.