Five Essentials for Operationalizing Strategic Plans

Leaders who understand these five essentials will choose to operationalize their strategic plans rather than craft catchy messaging for external consumption.

A well-facilitated, well-written strategic plan is only the beginning. The real challenge lies in turning vision into action and sustaining results over time. Too often, plans sit on the shelf or lose momentum when real-world pressures set in. These are five essentials for making sure strategic plans work in practice.

There is something tougher and more rigid about a Strategic Plan than most organizations think.

Improving Strategic Plans (October 29, 2021)

1. Improve Facilitation by Reviewing Dashboards

Dashboards are more than just colorful charts. They reflect and shape how leaders and teams interpret progress. Reviewing the current dashboard design as part of strategic plan facilitation ensures that the team is focused on meaningful indicators. In many cases, poor or outdated dashboards are one of the best indicators of misalignment within an organization.

A good dashboard highlights both progress and problem areas. They provide decision-makers with the clarity they need to act. Dashboards become not just reporting tools and potentially guides for execution, but indicators of how an organization thinks and what it truly values.

How to Improve Strategic Plan Facilitation by Reviewing Dashboard Design (December 30, 2022)

2. Use the Power of Old-School Dashboards

Oftentimes, simpler is better. Old-school dashboards are built around clear, straightforward measures. They allow participants to grasp the story quickly without distraction.

Many of our modern visualizations introduce complexity and multimedia integrations that grab attention at the expense of real discussion. By eliminating unnecessary complexity, old-school dashboards help keep attention on priorities and build alignment around what matters most. For strategic plans, clarity always beats flash.

Why an Old School Dashboard is Effective for a Facilitated Strategic Plan (January 23, 2023)

3. Collaborate Effectively with Stakeholders and Staff

No strategic plan succeeds in isolation. Whether it’s frontline staff, external partners, or community stakeholders, engagement is critical. Effective collaboration requires listening, adjusting, and fostering ownership across groups.

Most people are more committed to a strategic plan’s success when they hear their voices reflected in the plan. That’s especially true of frontline staff. Operationalizing a plan through collaboration with staff helps uncover implementation risks, constraints, and opportunities.

Strategic Plans: Effective Collaboration with External Stakeholders and Staff (September 26, 2023)

4. Prepare for Disruptions and Setbacks

As Mike Tyson famously put it, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Strategic planning is no different. Markets shift, technologies fail, and crises emerge. The key is building resilience into the process.

Organizations that anticipate disruption are better positioned to adapt when challenges arise — and challenges will occur throughout the life of the strategic plan. Operationalizing a strategic plan requires more than a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis. It involves digging in deep with frontline staff to understand the real organizational context and how the work gets done.

Everyone Has a Strategic Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth (October 7, 2024)

5. Facilitate with FINESSE

At the heart of operationalizing strategic plans is effective facilitation. Facilitating with FINESSE emphasizes that strategic planning is less about writing a perfect document and more about guiding people through complex decisions. Facilitation ensures that collaboration is genuine, change is built into the process, and implementation actually occurs. By applying the FINESSE approach, leaders can turn lofty strategies into practical action.

 “Facilitating with FINESSE: A Guide to Successful Business Solutions”

Operationalizing Strategic Plans

Strategic plans succeed when they move from theory to daily practice. Strategic plans are more than external public relations documents. By definition, they are “a detailed formulation of a program of action which is of great importance within an integrated whole.”  Most importantly, skilled facilitation ties everything together. Leaders who understand these five essentials will choose to operationalize their strategic plans rather than craft catchy messaging for external consumption. That’s the difference between a plan that gathers dust and one that drives results.

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 JD Solomon Inc. provides solutions for facilitation, asset management, and program development at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment.

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Founded by JD Solomon, Communicating with FINESSE is a not-for-profit community of technical professionals dedicated to being highly effective communicators and facilitators. Learn more about our publications, webinars, and workshops.

Why Project Managers Should Communicate with FINESSE

The FINESSE Fishbone Diagram provides a proven, practical approach that enables busy project managers to become effective communicators. Visit the Tackle Shop for communication and facilitation resources.

Good communication makes or breaks a project. As a project manager, you’re juggling timelines, tasks, people, and expectations. How you share information matters as much as what you share. The FINESSE Fishbone Diagram is a proven, practical approach that helps you communicate clearly, especially when things get complex. Here’s why project managers use the FINESSE approach and the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram.

1. FINESSE Gives You a Clear Roadmap

FINESSE is a helpful guide. It stands for Frame, Illustrate, Noise-reduction, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics. Think of it as pieces of a fishbone (the bones) diagram that help you lay out your message step by step [Re-Introducing Communicating with FINESSE on Accendo Reliability - Accendo Reliability]. FINESSE keeps your communication sharp and purposeful.

2. Helps You Navigate Complex Projects

Projects are messy. Complexity, risk, and uncertainty are inherent aspects of the process. The FINESSE Fishbone Diagram offers a cause-and-effect approach. It has been proven that applying the seven aspects guarantees effective communication.

3. It’s Practical, Not Just Theory

The FINESSE Fishbone Diagram is based on work by technical and project managers who deliver complex projects. After nearly a decade of case work, the results were analyzed and validated to establish the seven “bones” and their cause-and-effect relationship with effective communication.

Doing each of the seven bones of FINESSE will create effective communication.

4. Supporting Material Built for Busy Professionals

The Facilitating with FINESSE website offers two affordable checklists applicable to every presentation. There are also options for quick third-party presentation reviews and half-day training sessions. Two practical books written for busy professionals are available.

For example, Facilitating with FINESSE spends minimal time on basics (there’s only a short chapter on general facilitation) and instead focuses on the situations project managers face every day [How JD Solomon’s Newest Book, Facilitating with FINESSE, Is Different from Other Facilitation Books | by JD Solomon | Medium]. The book is organized so you can skip to whatever you need to know.

5. Reducing Noise Is A Must for Project Managers

Noise is anything that distracts or distorts your message. The FINESSE Fishbone Diagram helps project managers avoid issues such as unclear updates, overloaded dashboards, and sharing inconsistent data [Reducing Noise in Project Management Communication | by JD Solomon | Medium].

6. FINESSE Builds Trust and Project Success

Projects depend on trust. When communication is structured, clear, and honest, your team and your stakeholders feel confident in what’s happening. FINESSE encourages ethics and empathy at every stage. As a project manager, you’re guiding people toward shared decisions, not just simply managing tasks [Three Things Project Managers Should Know When Communicating with the Boss|Substack].

7. Supports Your Growth as a Leader

The FINESSE approach is designed for technically trained professionals who want to enhance their communication and facilitation skills. Whether you’re presenting to senior leaders or steering a team debate, FINESSE helps you become the trusted advisor people rely on [How FINESSE Improves the Careers of Project Managers|Substack].

8. You Don’t Have to Be The Most Articulate or Attractive

The power of systems thinking and the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram is the cause-and-effect relationships between the inputs (the bones of FINESSE) and the output (effective communication). You can be a great project manager without having to be the most articulate or the most attractive person. Technical professionals can be good at their work and highly valued as communicators of complex information.

Eight Reasons Project Managers Need FINESSE

Using the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram is a proven and practical way to manage complex projects involving multiple stakeholders. The FINESSE approach provides a clear path, the book showcases real-world applications, and the noise-reduction tips keep your message focused. Above all, you build trust, lead with clarity, and make the challenging aspects of projects run more smoothly. That's why every project manager should communicate with FINESSE.

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JD Solomon Inc. provides solutions for program development, asset management, and facilitation at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment. Visit our Program Development page for more information on business cases, third-party assessments, phasing projects, and related services.

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Communicating with FINESSE is the not-for-profit community of technical professionals dedicated to being highly effective communicators and facilitators. Visit the Tackle Shop for communication and facilitation resources.

5 Things to Remember When Facilitating an Uncertain Future

The National Hurricane Center puts its forecast at 5 to 10 percent of Hurricane Erin hitting the US coast. However, the final probability will be 100 percent or zero.

Hurricane season reminds me of the difficulty of facilitating technical forecasts of an uncertain future. In my world, it includes not only natural systems but also economic growth, consumer demand, human behavior, regulatory changes, and technology adoption. Developing useful predictions requires facilitators and participants to understand a handful of key concepts related to predictions, probability, and risks.

1. Predictions and Forecasts

Prediction and forecast are often used interchangeably, but they aren’t exactly the same.

A prediction is a statement about what will happen in the future, often based on intuition, expert judgment, or limited data.

Two examples of predictions are: “The Cincinnati Reds will win tonight’s game, or Hurricane Errin will strike the US East Coast.”

A forecast is a systematic, data-based estimate of what is likely to happen, often expressed with probabilities or ranges. It’s more analytical than a prediction and acknowledges uncertainty.

An example of a forecast is: “There’s a 65% chance the Reds will win tonight’s game, based on pitching matchups and recent performance.”

2. Frequencies and Forecasts

A frequency is simply how often something happens within a set of observations. It’s backward-looking because it comes from recorded past data.

An example of frequency is: “Out of 100 baseball games, the Reds won 55. The frequency of wins is 55/100, or 55%.

Forecasts are forward-looking.  In forecasting, you usually start with base rates (historical frequencies). Then, you adjust them with new information, trends, or context.

An example of how frequencies (or base rates) are used is forecasting is: The Reds historically win 55% of games at home. For tonight, considering they’re facing an ace pitcher, the forecast drops to 45% win probability.

3. Probability and Subjective Probability

Probability is a way to quantify uncertainty about future outcomes. Probability is the measure of how likely an event is to happen. It’s expressed as a number between 0 and 1 (or 0% and 100%).

Like forecasts, probability is forward-looking. It’s a statement about how likely an event is to occur in the future. In practice, probability is an estimate informed by past frequencies, current information, and assumptions.

Probability is subjective because it reflects a person’s degree of belief in an outcome, given their knowledge and evidence. So subjective probability is a rational belief, but not one just based on historical frequencies.

4. All or Nothing with Hurricane Erin

Remember, probability is forward-looking. That means our forecasts reflect the chance we believe an event to occur. However, once an event passes, it either happened, or it did not (it's either 0 or 100%). The result is now part of the historical frequency.

5. Risk is in the Eye of the Beholder

Risk is the endgame of most predictions and forecasts. We want to look into an uncertain future and understand how circumstances will impact us. Risk is the deviation from expectations.

There is no risk if you have nothing to lose.

As a facilitator, remember that collaborators with skin in the game may provide different forecasts of an uncertain future than those that do. The quality of forecasts of an uncertain future often comes down to which data they use to form their opinions and the confidence they have in the underlying data.

Facilitating an Uncertain Future

Remember these five things when guiding a group of technical professionals to forecasts that are created, understood, and accepted by all. JD Solomon Inc. specializes in helping facility and infrastructure owners understand and allocate resources responsibly for big decisions related to an uncertain future.

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JD Solomon Inc. provides solutions for program development, asset management, and facilitation at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment. Visit our Facilitation page for more information related to all types of facilitation.

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JD Solomon is the author of Communicating Reliability, Risk & Resiliency to Decision Makers: How to Get Your Boss’s Boss to Understand and Facilitating with FINESSE: A Guide to Successful Business Solutions.