How to Build a One-Page Strategic Plan

What is the best format for presenting and talking about your strategy – be it for the business, a department, a project or solving a problem?  The simplest format possible! Enter the one-page strategic plan. 

Is your Strategic Plan a SPOTS plan?

Most strategic and project plans are complicated.  Some even fill a three-inch (7.5 cm) binder.  They might even have groovy graphics built by the marketing department.  Arnold from the “Terminator” would have a challenge packing the plan around!  After the plan is created, it often then becomes a ‘SPOTS’ – Strategic Plan on Top Shelf.  No one reviews the plan on a regular basis.  No one ever talks about it with anyone and everyone in the organization. 

What a good Strategic Plan should be:

Solution?  A plan on one page.  I love the simplicity of having your entire strategic or project plan on one single page.  Here’s why:

1. It is easy to carry around.  I am a big fan of moleskin style notebooks.  A ‘Plan on a Page’ folds neatly inside the front cover and allows you to review it with anyone, anytime. 
2. Communication opportunities.  It has been said that a human being needs to hear a message between seven to ten times before they take it on-board.  With a one-page strategic plan, you can do what GE’s former CEO Jack Welch famously did…  he talked about the strategic plan with anyone that moved in whatever worldwide office he happened to be in that day and… he did it every day! 
3. Governance.  If you want a plan executed upon, it needs to be reviewed at least once a month with the people responsible.  A plan on a page allows you to lead governance sessions during regular check-in meetings.  It makes it easy, simple and fast. 
4. Everything is right there.  My plan-on-a-page template (see example below) has room for your Values, Purpose, Vision, Strategies and Tactics along with supporting information (like Demand Side or Supply Side requirements). 

If you would like a free copy of my Plan-on-a-Page template, please send an email to info@robert-murray.com. 

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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