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Where Will 2012 Take You?

This Innovation QuickWin is about where next year will take you. For many people, you are well into your budget-planning season or your strategic-planning season. It should be a time of great inspiration for all of us. Unfortunately, it’s BORING. So let’s take strategic planning and turn it on its head. Here are a few tips on how to really challenge yourself in the upcoming year. 

Try this:

First of all, FOCUS. Rather than a laundry list of all the things you’re going to achieve, what is your No. 1 goal and why? Challenge yourself to spend some time thinking about this. 

Second, INSPIRATION. Too often our PowerPoint decks are laden with jargon: what vision or cause is tied to your business or product that makes it truly different? And, how can you articulate it in a way that really inspires people? Better yet, take a page from the playbook of other leading innovators and articulate your vision or inspiration in a picture, in a video, or in a story or narrative that really brings your strategic plan to life.

The ultimate litmus test for your strategic plan will come at this time next year, when you look at your strategic plan, and realize that you have to create a new one because you have achieved all of your goals.

By Lisa Bodell on October 30, 2011 at 9:43am |

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