Read First ❓

<aside> 🔮 Annual planning sounds like a corporate exercise, but it’s not. It’s the difference between bootstrapped and GIANT. Disciple, rigor, and planning will take your company to the next level.

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A successful company wide planning exercise will help you answer five core questions, regardless of your stage or business maturity:

  1. Where do you want to be (desired future state)? [Growth Plan]
  2. Where are you now (current reality)? [Growth Plan]
  3. What needs to happen to get from current reality to DFS? (waypoints) [Growth Plan]
  4. Who will do what, by when, to make it happen? [Project Plan]
  5. How will you know it worked? [Project Plan]

Components of a good plan 🧑🏽‍🍳

#1. DFS (Desired Future State) and CR (Current Reality) 🔮

#2. Goals 🎯

#3. Financial Plan & Projection💲

#4. Resourcing 🛠️

Sample Milestones & Meetings Calendar 📆

<aside> 💡 This is meant to visualize target deadlines for completing the key components of your planning process. In this case, we’ve worked backwards from an early January kickoff date.

Note: you can plan to accomplish 80% of the alignment and calibration in a well planned 1-2 day offsite depending on your team size. With these milestones in mind, get ahead of scheduling!

TEMPLATE Sample Annual Planning Offsite Agenda

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Planning Milestones 📆

<aside> 💡 Vision/DFS Alignment Exercise 🏋🏽‍♀️ This is an alignment exercise designed to more strongly align the team to your DFS, Plan, Goals, and Resourcing. Anyone can use it, but it’s highly recommended for CEOs and rock owners. **1. Present the DFS/Financial Plan/Rock/Resourcing to your team

  1. Alignment Scoring You:** Team here is the [DFS/Financial Plan/Hiring/Goals] I came up with, on a scale of 0-10, how aligned are you to this? On a count of three, 1, 2, 3…show of hands. Team: Holds up 0-10 fingers, answers range from 4-9 typically.

3. Alignment Feedback You: Ok great, I’m going to ask the lowest number first.
— What are 2-3 things that make you a [lowest number] instead of a 0? ➡️ Identify what they like about the plan — Ok what are 2-3 things that would make you a 10/10? ➡️ Identify what would get them more behind the plan — Optional Follow Ups — Do you agree with the what? —- Do you agree with the how? Team: Each team answers the question. Go around the room, from lowest score to highest. 4. Calibrate & Update Use a white board or google doc to update in real time to tighten the output (DFS/Rock/Plan/Etc).

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FAQs

What is the point of planning?