Can You Include Your Team in Strategic Planning – without Derailing the Process?

Here’s a question I got from a reader:

Matt, my firm is going to do strategic planning, and we want to include more than just the partners, but we’re not sure how. We tried it before, and it didn’t go well – it just turned into a complaint session about in-the-weeds topics. Should we do this? If so, who should we include? How can we keep the conversation on track?

The short answer is yes, you can definitely enhance your strategic planning process by including more than just partners – if you do it well. Here are three things to consider:

1. Who to include

Deciding who to include depends on both your firm size and your goals.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing – just expanding the group by one or two layers can be a move towards a more inclusive process. People you may want to include, based on your firm’s size:

• Larger firms: All equity or non-equity partners (if the group has traditionally been just executive committee or equity partners)
• Mid-sized firms: Seasoned staff on the partner track or all managers
• Smaller firms: All managers, all professional staff or the whole firm

The goal of your process can also help determine who needs to be involved and in what ways. Are you seeking alignment among equity partners on some critical issues? Maybe that’s the only group to include this year. Do you need to groom and build buy-in for the firm’s future among the next generation of leaders? Including rising stars and managers might make sense. Do you have a smooth process and want to create a cohesive firm culture? Including the whole firm could be just the ticket.

2. How to keep the conversations productive

In our 5i strategic planning process, we do a fair amount of pre-work before we ever get into a room for the actual event. An easy way to include a large group (such as all staff, or all managers) is to conduct an online survey ahead of the strategic planning event. This gives them a voice in the conversation, but also minimizes detailed griping. You can consolidate that feedback and use it to shape your final agenda – and also communicate themes back to the full group as you see fit.

During our pre-work, we’ll also refine the agenda for the in-the-room meeting. It should reflect the highest value topics for the success of the firm, not the petty stuff and not a laundry list of 52 topics that we’ll never do justice to. By focusing on high-value topics only and defining a clear agenda, you keep the conversation in the room on track. Here are two examples to illustrate these concepts.

• High-value topic example: How can we hire and retain enough mid-level staff to enable growth and work/life balance for partners?
• Bait for an off-track conversation: What’s wrong with our firm? Brainstorm, then each person has an unlimited time to share their thoughts with the team.

Lastly, no matter how many people are in the room at your event, someone needs to be the facilitator who makes and enforces ground rules of engagement. It is this person’s job to set the expectation that any comments need to be constructive and not derailing. If people get off track, the facilitator is empowered to stop the conversation and redirect it. If this feels like a stretch for your group, consider bringing in an outside facilitator who is trained and experienced in doing just that.

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3. What the end game is

Any time you expand the number of people involved in your process, it pays to be clear about your desired outcome. While you can navigate a group of five people through a meandering conversation fairly easily, doing that with 45 people is much more difficult.

Here are possible outcomes to consider:

• Getting input – are you interested in simply learning about people’s perspectives – on, for instance, how staff feel about your remote work policy? If so, gathering upfront information from them may be the right call.
• Building more alignment and buy-in to the firm’s future – if you want people to share a vision for your firm’s future, ask for deeper input from them – and then show them where that shows up in the final vision.
• Making final decisions – when it’s time to make final decisions about key topics or the firm’s goals and vision, I would recommend this be done by a smaller group of key leaders with the benefit of input from the wider group.
• Taking action – one benefit of including a wider group of people is that there are more hands to do the work of the strategic priorities after the planning is done. This is a great way to enroll people in the firm’s direction and ensure execution of the plans.

Defining what you want to accomplish helps determine who to include in your process, and at what stages. It’s always good form to circle back with the whole firm and communicate at least the high-level talking points from your planning process. People are naturally excited about being part of a winning team! Show them the bigger picture and where you’re all heading.

Your turn

Including a wider group in your strategic planning can feel daunting, but if you consider your group and goals then design a process based on that, the benefits are worth it. Teams appreciate the visibility, and you are developing future leaders, plus gaining buy-in and implementation help along the way.