b'incredibly powerful tool in driving the culture of your Thekeyhereismakingsurethatstaunderstandcompany in the coming year, but in order to do so it thattheiropinionswillbecondential,andtoaskmust be communicated to every single person in the probingquestionstomaximizethelikelihoodoforganization. Otherwise, its a ghost.insight.Forexample,Whatmakesyourjobmore dicultthanitneedstobe,whatannoysyouIn our company we communicate our strategic plan about working at our company, what would makethrough an all-sta annual meeting. At the meeting yourworkexperiencebetter,howcanwemakewespendtimereviewingthepreviousyear;where ourcustomersexperiencewithusbetter.Howwesucceededandwherewecameupshort.We could we improve quality. What do you wish youthenallowdierentteammemberstopresentour knew more about. priorities for the year and where we hope to go. This ensures that every single person, from the presser, Asking these questions and giving folks a safe spacetothestoreassociate,tothePresidentofthe tocommunicatetheirthoughtswillgiveyouacompany are all on the same page as to what were laundry list of opportunities for improvement, whichtrying to achieve.you can then synthesize into a plan.This year, do yourself the favor of setting a course CREATING THE PLAN for your team by creating a comprehensive strategic plan. Its a lot of work, but I promise it will pay o in Nowthatyouhaveaclearunderstandingofwhatspades.your company needs to do, its time to make a plan onhowtoexecuteonthatinthecomingyear.InAs they say, a year is a terrible thing to waste!ordertoensureexecutionitsimportanttorst synthesizeyourlistofopportunitiesfor improvement into larger tasks. Theres countless ways to do it, but in my experience Ive found a few categorizations are critical. First, Its extremely helpfultodierentiatebetweentrulycomplex problemsandquickwins.Thequickwinslike getting a new coee maker or new paint in the front lobby should be assigned out and allocated towhoeverisresponsiblerightaway.Forthe complexproblems,IrecommendsettingasideYour trusted Partner for some signicant time at your strategic planning toCleaning up environmental spills make sure you are all able to dig in and come up with preliminary ideas on how to go about solving them.After youve taken that rst cut at categorization theothercriticalpieceinstrategicplanningis accountability.Everytaskshouldbeclearly assignedtosomeoneinyourcompanywitha specictimelineandmetrictomakesureitis achieved.Inaddition,youshouldbesureto conrmthatthatpersonhastheresources necessarytoachievetheirobjective.Without accountability, clear deadlines, and the resources to achieve your goals, a strategic plan isnt worth having.COMMUNICATING THE PLANIfIhadadollarforeverytimeIveseena company craft a strategic plan and then fail to roll itout,Icouldretire.Astrategicplancanbean Midwest Drycleaning & Laundry Institutewww.MWDLI.org / 765-969-5745 13\x00'