Strategic Planning Education and Training Basics

Gain a better understanding of what is taught in strategic planning courses

Strategic planning training is key in ensuring the short-term and long-term success of your company through an organized effort. A strategic plan typically involves a comprehensive five-year plan and may extend beyond a decade. Because strategic planning involves integrating goals, resources and organizational structure, training helps business leaders to plan systematically.

Strategic planning courses for both business leaders and lower level employees will help the entire company better work together towards strategy, planning and implementation of shared vision and goals. Most strategic planning education and training programs cover the same basic elements of assessing external and internal factors to direct the company forward.

Get to know the strategic planning education and training basics, including the following:

1. Investigate the topics covered by short workshops and seminars.
2. Learn about strategic planning certification and coursework possibilities.
3. Cut to the essential elements of strategic planning training with mission statements and SWOT analysis.

 

Look into the strategic planning training offered at corporate workshops

A great deal of strategic planning education, especially for company leadership who may not have time to enroll in a full course, comes in the form of weekend workshops and seminars. Seminar topics are usually outcome-focused, and are intended to help mobilize your business to increase productivity and efficiency by using a strategic business plan.
Try: Find out more about what you will learn at strategic planning two-day seminars at Center for Simplified Strategic Planning. The McCarl Group offers half-day strategic planning training seminars for family businesses, nonprofits and contractors, and lists the specific topics covered during the courses.

Get more intense training with strategic planning certification or coursework

Strategic planning coursework is a larger time commitment, and usually focuses on a specific aspect of strategic planning such as creating business goals or managing conflict within an organization. Strategic planning certification is also offered by many business schools and training facilities, and typically requires the completion of five or more courses in strategic planning and related topics.
Try: Learn details about course content and objectives at Flexstudy.com and the Haines Centre for Strategic Management, which both offer specific online courses in strategic planning topics. You can also enroll in the American Management Association's strategic planning certification program, which mails complete courses in book format.

Learn strategic planning education and training basics on your own

Most strategic planning education includes two main elements: developing a company mission statement and conducting a SWOT analysis of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats for achieving business goals. You can learn how to do these basic elements of strategic planning on your own, and educate all of your employees through basic training and sensitization.
Try: The One Page Business Plan offers concise tips on how to write a mission statement, suggesting the statement answer questions about why the company exists and what it provides its customers. Learn more about how to conduct a SWOT analysis with detailed explanations and diagrams at Management for the Rest of Us.

 

• Offer all employees a simplified version of strategic planning training so that your entire company has a unified idea of the goals and future direction of your business. Basic training in strategic planning can also help employees at all levels understand their work as contributing to a larger purpose.

Copyright © 2011 Business.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

---