Strategic planning can be both powerfully good and powerfully bad for an organization. Done well, a strategic plan can increase profitability and help organizations and their leaders say yes to the right things and no to the things that can wait or don’t really support the organization’s goals. This is very important in this day and age when shiny objects abound and many organizations are literally building the bridge as they walk across it. Bill Conerly writer and Forbes contributor said the following in his August 2013 strategic planning article for the magazine, “I walked into my office this morning and my strategic plan dictated how I spent the morning. If your strategic plan fails to define what the management team does every day, then it needs good action steps.” Is that what your strategic plan does for you? If not, does the mere act of going through a strategic plan process help your team and organization? Actually, it may do just the opposite. If you ask your team for time and input in creating a strategic plan but don’t ensure that you leave with measurable and verifiable goals, ones that can be tracked for achievement or adjustment, you are setting your team up for a demoralizing shift in culture and engagement. This lack of follow-through is how organizations end up with mission, vision and value statements that are dusty and unrecognizable to their employees and stakeholders. This is also how a leader’s “brand” regarding integrity and efficacy suffer over time. What will you do to ensure that your next strategic planning session is powerfully good at helping you make the most of organization resources, increase the bottom-line and achieve your organization and department goals? Make sure you provide the critical, tenacious leadership and follow-through during this critical organizational process.