This assessment usually involves only the senior stratum of the organisation, although objectives raised by other people, which have been identified during the analysis phase, are worth considering.

Procedure

Usually an external consultant interviews each of the senior members of staff and identifies both their personal objectives and the objectives, which they would like the business to adopt. This has to be confidential as the individuals, whose personal objectives might encompass the removal of one of their colleagues, may not wish their desires to be known.

The consultant then consolidates the material from these interviews into a set of agreed objectives, plus those which appear to indicate potential conflict. Sometimes these can be presented in such a way that the personal objectives can be subsumed into the corporate objectives. On other occasions, the existence of different schools of thought needs to be identified and a rational discussion held. Where possible, the consultant will seek to identify a compromise solution.

A discussion document is then circulated, with areas for decision clearly identified. The document, like the previous one, must be turned around quickly.

Next Steps

When the decisions have been made, we have completed the phases of identifying the current situation and what the chief protagonists would like to happen. The next stage is identifying what can be achieved.

An example of a typical objectives discussion document is included as Appendix II of our downloadable guide. If you wish to download a copy of the guide, please click here Download Strategic Planning Guide.