Strategic Planning Advice from Santa: Make a List and Check it Twice

Dear Doctor,

I’m the marketing director for a mid-sized architecture firm. In the last couple of months, some of our projects have been put on hold. We need work, but I feel like we’re going in too many different directions with no clear strategy. Do you have any advice for how we can be effective in the new year?

– Shooting from the Hip

Hello, Shooting, I completely understand why you want to get out of the line of fire! Hopefully, you are not a turkey, ha, ha…ok, the Doctor can’t help a little holiday humor. But let’s be real: it’s not just you, Shooting. It seems like everyone is just a teensy-weensy bit on edge these days. Nothing that a little tinsel and some egg nog can’t fix, right? Well! That and some good old-fashioned planning, which I’m going to get to in a couple of secs.

Shooting, you’re not alone. The Doctor has been through a lot of recessions, tropical depressions, ups and downs, and wild swings of the pendulum. Obviously, going up is a lot more fun than coming down, but you know what they say about what goes up. Yup. It’s a yin yang kind of thing. Anywho, believe me, the Doctor knows that a recession, or even a hint of a recession, can cause people to go a little wonky. Sometimes they’ll start to do crazy things, like pursuing projects that they’re not really qualified for or reducing their fees. But don’t do that, I’m begging you. Those kinds of knee-jerk reactions are only going to make things more painful than they might already be.

But let me lean back in my chair and take out my prescription pad. It’s time for me to give you a little advice, ‘cause you asked nicely. We’re almost at the end of the year, and you know what that means? (And I’m not just referring to taking a picture with Santa, although that is always fun! The Doctor is not judgy). It means that it’s the season for getting your act together and planning ahead.

Now I know that strategic planning may seem futile when your first priority is bringing in new work. But trust me here, you’re not going to get great results if the leaders of your firm aren’t aligned on their purpose and goals. As the Doctor likes to say, that would be like hitting the gas with the emergency brake on (not sure how hitting the gas translates to electric cars, but pretend it works…anyway, you get my drift). 

Rather than shooting from the hip at whatever moves, I recommend a process that I call “point and shoot”. That means that you take the following three steps in this order: you identify your targets, aim at those suckers, and then pull the trigger. Some of you may know that “point and shoot” refers to a kind of camera, and there I go using another poor analogy from outdated technology, but I hope you’re still following along. 

Here’s the thing: like the economy, your firm is always changing. The new year is a perfect opportunity to review your existing strategy or create a new one. Think of it as a New Year’s Resolution for your business. Just as you write a list of personal improvements for 2025, do the same thing for your firm: list the kind of projects you want to have, the types of clients you want to work with, and the places where you want to work. In other words, who do you want to be when you grow up? The doctor still wishes she was growing … but alas, every day she wakes up and she is still only five-foot-four. 

Anyway, back to YOU. Strategic planning is a journey, so make it fun! Consider finding new sources of revenue, expanding your services, adding new technologies, or building on your existing talent. There may be projects that your firm is passionate about, but you haven’t pursued. You might be going through the motions in terms of your outreach activities, so maybe you need to switch gears or tweak your organizational structure to meet current demands. You can’t just eat the same old soggy cereal day after day.

Last, as Santa says, you not only have to make the list, but you also have to check it twice. So don’t forget to put a plan in place for checking off your list in 2025 and measuring how effective you were at meeting your goals. If it matters, then measure it. If you don’t measure it, then it doesn’t matter.

These are just some initial ideas for getting off to a great start. Please check in with me in 2025 and let me know how it goes!