As You Plan for the Safe Return to Business, Update Your Strategic Plan

As New York state begins its New York Forward reopening phases, it’s mandatory to complete your organization’s safety plan (for future audit and inspection) and to submit your affirmation thereof to NYS before your employees can return to work.

Preparing the safety plan pales in comparison to the impact the pandemic has had on your organization. When I facilitate clients’ strategic plan development processes, we take into account what outside forces may have an impact on the strategic plan – a downturn in business, a recession, etc. However, since we haven’t experienced the brunt of a pandemic impacting every aspect of our lives in a century – it’s never been on the strategic plan radar. And now it is.

As you finish and implement your safety plan to ensure a safe return to work for you and your employees, it may well be time to review your 3 – 5 strategic plan goals. The unanticipated outside force of the pandemic surely requires a change in plans at all levels, and may well require pivots on all levels. And if you don’t have a current strategic plan, now is the optimum time to put together at least a one-page strategic plan with a minimum of 3 goals and a maximum of 5 – one of those goals is always financial.

As you complete your New York Forward safety plan, have you updated and/or created your new organization strategic plan, in business and at work?