In previous articles we listed 10 critical questions you can ask about your organization’s leadership and its key strengths and opportunities for improvement. As we noted, the best way to evaluate your management system is through a Baldrige assessment using the Baldrige Criteria. You can find out how to do that here.

The Criteria consist of powerful questions, rarely asked, about how an organization functions. If you cannot do a full assessment but want insight into how to improve strategic planning, here are 10 questions to ask and answer about your strategic planning process:

1. How do you conduct strategic planning including the key strategic planning process steps and participants in the process?
2. How do you identify potential blind spots during this process?
3. How do you ensure that strategic planning addresses: (a) your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT); (b) potential major shifts in technology, markets, products, customer preferences, competition, or the regulatory environment; (c) long-term organizational sustainability; and (d) your ability to execute the strategic plan?
4. What are your current strategic objectives, the goals for each, and the timetable for achieving them?
5. How do these objectives address your strategic challenges and advantages, opportunities for innovation, core competencies, and the needs of all stakeholders?
6. How do you develop and deploy action plans to achieve your strategic objectives?
7. How do you ensure that financial, human, and other resources are available to support the accomplishment of your action plans?
8. How do you establish and deploy modified action plans as circumstances change?
9. What are your key human resource plans to accomplish your strategic objectives?
10. What measures do you use to track the achievement and effectiveness of your action plans?

To read the world-class responses of Baldrige Award recipients to these questions, click here and then click on the award application summary you wish to review.

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