“If a strategic plan is to be effectively managed, it needs to be monitored at regular intervals. From a choice of monthly, quarterly or annual reviews, how do you choose which is the right frequency to ensure the success of your actions?”
Frédéric Monomakhoff
Managing Director of Virage group
Read Frédéric Monomakhoff’s advice on how to align the management and monitoring of actions with your organisation’s strategic objectives.
What are the differences between managing the plan and monitoring actions?
A strategic, transformation or action plan brings together a large number of issues and a multitude of actions, often organised into areas and sub-areas. Depending on the scale of the project, a plan may include from 30 to several thousand actions, particularly when it covers several sites. Its success depends on effective overall management and operational monitoring of actions.
Managing the plan involves assessing whether the organisation is progressing at the right pace to achieve the overall objectives corresponding to the issues. This overall monitoring is carried out by the plan manager and the main stakeholders. It assesses overall progress and progress by area, and can focus on areas or actions that are experiencing difficulties or, on the contrary, that are outperforming. The idea is to start from the top and zoom in on the points of interest. This review cannot consist of reviewing all the actions. If the plan includes 50 actions and we spend three minutes per action, the action review will take two and a half hours… but everyone will have switched off after 45 minutes!
Monitoring actions is essential to ensure that each action delivers results, but this is carried out during a different meeting. Detailed monitoring of actions should not impede overall management. Each action must be monitored at the appropriate level (BU, department, site) to ensure that it is implemented effectively.
To sum up: Strategic management adopts an approach based on the big picture, whereas actions are monitored at lower levels of the organisation.
What is the right pace for managing a strategic plan?
Monitor the plan to adjust the trajectory
Managing the plan should make it possible to make adjustments if any difficulty is experienced in achieving objectives on time. This concept will give a good indication of the right monitoring frequency.
Let’s assume that a plan lasts a year. It can be estimated that after one quarter, progress should be around 25%. If no progress has been made on a project after one quarter, is it realistic to make adjustments and get things back on track during the following quarter, i.e. to achieve 50% of the plan in three months? It’s not easy… The plan has been allowed to slide.
I therefore propose that the reviews should be defined in such a way as to allow adjustments to be made between two reviews. A plan should therefore be reviewed approximately every 10% of progress, i.e. at least ten times.
- One-year plan: monthly monitoring (12 reviews, i.e. approximately every 10% of progress).
- Three-year plan: quarterly monitoring (12 reviews in total).
- Five-year plan: six-monthly monitoring (10 reviews).
A similar pace for monitoring actions
Actions are monitored at a lower level in the organisation. However, I recommend that the same principle be adopted: Ten follow-ups for one action.
If the actions do not all have the same duration, a higher average frequency is adopted, i.e. slightly more frequent than the average duration of the actions would indicate. Short actions must not be allowed to slide!
If the plan includes many long actions and a few short actions, specific monitoring can be set up for these short actions.
Please note: monitoring at a rate of more than once a month is rarely justifiable as it is too time-consuming.
Obviously, the less frequently the overall plan is monitored, the more necessary it is to strengthen the system for monitoring and reviewing actions.
If the plan includes many long actions and a few short actions, specific monitoring can be set up for these short actions.
Please note: monitoring at a rate of more than once a month is rarely justifiable as it is too time-consuming.
Obviously, the less frequently the overall plan is monitored, the more necessary it is to strengthen the system for monitoring and reviewing actions.
In a nutshell: best practice for strategic management
- Review of plans: Adopt a frequency corresponding to approximately 10% of the total duration. Maintain a macro view, focusing on areas that are behind schedule or ahead of schedule.
- Review of actions: Organise regular monitoring at lower levels in the organisation, taking into account the specific nature of the actions (short or long).
- Flexibility and anticipation: The less frequent the monitoring, the more crucial it is to strengthen the analysis and correction system.
By applying these best practices, you can guarantee effective management of your strategic plans and control of your actions.
