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# What are the components of a successful strategic planning process?
- URL: https://www.antoinebuteau.com/what-are-the-components-of-a-successful-strategic-planning-process/
- Published: 2021-01-18T01:16:53.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-19T00:19:01.000Z
- Description: Strategic planning earns its value by clarifying the problem, aligning people on success, and forcing priorities and cuts. A useful process combines broad participation, measurable objectives, accountability, contingency planning, and continuous review rather than ceremonial forecasting.
- Author: Antoine Buteau
- Tags: Strategy

Strategic planning can seem like an abstract process and a waste of time. In my experience, a lot of companies end up reviewing tons of PowerPoint decks and sandbagging financial projections without having the right conversations.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

**The objectives of any strategic planning process should be to:**

1. Understanding which problem you’re looking to solve, for which group of people;
2. Create alignment around what success would look like for your organization and a sense of how you will get there;
3. Prioritize and cut.

**Throughout more than 20 client engagements I’ve found that the most successful strategic planning process have the following components:**

- A systematic process for developing the plan
- Involving many different levels of staff in planning
- A broad vision of the future (three to five years ahead)
- Clear objectives as steps to achieve the vision for the future
- Inbuilt measurement tools to demonstrate success
- Analysis of threats and resources in the current context
- Accountability and realistic timelines for achievement
- Contingency planning
- Communication and buy in among wide ranging stakeholders
- Training and workforce development

**Here are some common challenges I’ve seen:**

- Failure to focus on a major overarching vision
- Failure to focus on a small number of goals
- Unrealistic goals or predictions
- Goals set arbitrarily
- No shared vision of the organization
- Lack of review of planned activities
- A punitive review system
- Lack of training or tools to help teams plan
- Planning methods which are not systematically followed
- Planning regarded as an event rather than an ongoing process
- Using ad hoc methods rather than a systematic approach
- Inadequate use of factual data
- Over-analysis of past data
- Over-reliance on a small number of individuals to develop plans
- Failure to agree by consensus on critical measures of success
- Lack of [situational awareness](https://medium.com/wardleymaps?ref=antoinebuteau.com)
- Focusing on planning and management for financial outcomes rather than recognizing that outcomes can only be as effective as the processes that deliver them.