2025 Strategic Planning Roadblocks to Avoid

During the coming months, it is typical for most construction companies to begin the planning process for the next year or several years.  

Strategic planning meetings are an exercise in defining (or refining) the direction of the organization and establishing (or refining) the strategic action plans on how to get there. Given inflation, the uncertainty of the economy, the workforce, and the labor pool... leaders are wise to get a head start on addressing these and other challenges.

What are the three biggest roadblocks for most leaders during the planning process? 

1. Clarity of their vision / mission
2. Identifying the correct planning assumptions
3. Establishing the plan as a meaningful document

Test Your Vision / Mission

A company’s vision and / or mission without clarity can pose problems. When leaders head in a fuzzy direction, getting the entire organization on board, engaged and excited about the future is among the biggest challenge to address.

A good way (albeit risky) to see how well an existing vision / mission resonates with your organization is randomly asking employees these key questions:

• What is the company’s vision and / or mission? 
• Why is having a vision and / or mission important?
• What one thing can you do to contribute to that vision / mission?

If employees don't enthusiastically and correctly answer these questions, you’re missing opportunities to deliver on your vision / mission and profitably grow your business every day.

Consider these words from the late Steve Jobs: ‍

If you are working on something that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.

That requires having a clear and inspiring vision / mission for your organization.

Identify Correct Business Assumptions

Making assumptions when planning can make or break a strategic plan. They can also make or break a leader. That’s why it’s critical for leaders to avoid these three strategic planning traps:

1. Being satisfied with a basic set of assumptions to use during the planning process.
2. Setting assumptions with only top-down targets for your team to hit.
3. Ignoring the assumptions they've made once the results of the plan are reviewed.

Properly and completely addressing assumptions now can save confusion, disappointment and turmoil down the road. These suggestions will help you elevate your performance relative to the assumptions you make when preparing your next strategic plan:

• Don’t lose the base set of assumptions you typically use; they’re probably fine.
• Expand on your base set of assumptions.
• Go deeper into the organization to get feedback on what people see and hear. 
• Consider conferring with an outside source to challenge your assumptions. 
• Always review your plan’s progress with your set of assumptions nearby. 

Don’t Let Your Plan Linger on the Bookshelf

‍Avoid creating a plan that simply lands on a bookshelf to collect dust. Instead, make it a living, breathing roadmap that guides your organization and provides everyone with a solid basis for decision making. That way, as market conditions change, you can actively modify your plan to adapt to new situations.

Stable companies, big and small, are stable for a reason; they put their business plans in writing and keep them active.

One Last Thought: One thing to never do is believe your organization has “made” it. Instead, you must strategically tackle the challenges before you, write and execute your plan, coach your team, evaluate the progress, make adjustments and repeat.