Not sure about you, but the pandemic has changed the way I plan. For the past few years, I feel like I can either think on 10-year timelines or 10-minute timelines and have struggled with the in-between. (To be fair, that might also be parenthood talking.)

The last few months I find a haze lifting. And I feel like I’m not alone. It seems everyone is entering the first non-panic strategic planning cycle in years.

And now many of us are working remotely more than we were before. Or perhaps entirely. So the old ways of planning, with meeting rooms and sticky notes everywhere, often aren’t an option.

And maybe that’s a good thing.

How can we leverage remote teamwork to do strategic planning better than before?

That’s the question I posed to this week’s podcast guest: social change strategist and facilitator Dave Algoso.

Dave has led strategic planning processes for a wide array of organisations and has racked up a lot of experience navigating the dynamics of remote-ness in strategic planning.

Here are some of my takeaways from our conversation. These should be relevant whether you’re kicking off a formal organisational strategic planning process or diving into smaller team-level strategy discussions.

For the full conversation, give the podcast a listen below.

What we cover: Demystifying strategic planning

1️. Consider the time horizon

If the last three years have taught us anything, it’s that long-term plans can be totally upended. In fact, Dave insists that the days of 5 or 10-year strategic plans that take 6 months to create are not worth the effort. Instead, consider more lightweight planning processes every few years, or, better yet, build strategic planning and assessment into your org as an ongoing function, rather than a one-off process. With shorter time horizons for strategic planning, you’re more likely to stay on track and more able to be responsive to the changing world in which you operate.

2️. Tap your team’s expertise in thoughtful ways

When strategy conversations happen remotely, they can feel less like big events and more like just another Zoom call. This makes it harder to be engaging for staff and get the engagement necessary to build meaningful connection and buy-in. There are big benefits to remote processes versus old-school retreats. More time for reflection in between sessions, and more diverse modes of engagement too. But you need to be intentional about making sure there are ways to hear from your team. You need their expertise and, after all, they’ll be executing it so need to be really clear on how it is constructed.

3️. Build a container

A strategy workshop shouldn’t be one-and-done. To build a thoughtful plan you need to build a container, whether your planning process is fully remote or hybrid. Consider how you connect the dots between remote workshops or from an in-person retreat to continuing online planning. What 1:1 conversations need to happen between big workshops? What small groups can be activated to continue the momentum?

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Listen to the episode in full.