In business, there is a saying that if you’re standing still, you’re going backwards.
It is a reminder to keep evolving as we progress forward with our endeavours.
In today’s blog, I want to explore the concept of updating your playbook. Your playbook is your strategy – your game plan.
It is imperative to review your playbook periodically throughout the year. I like to do it quarterly during a short external retreat. Where you do it is secondary to the discipline of setting aside time periodically to review it.
Internal Holistic Review of Your Playbook
Start with yourself by using a simple framework of personal internal questions.
What’s working for me?
What’s not working for me?
What are my most important 3-5 business priorities and am I spending 70% or more of my time working on these?
What are my most important 3-5 personal priorities and am allocating and scheduling consistent time to these?
What are the wins from this current period? (quarter/half-year/annual)
What are the losses from this current period? (quarter/half-year/annual)
What are the opportunities from this current period? (quarter/half-year/annual)
What are the lessons from this current period? (quarter/half-year/annual)
Where am I currently stuck or challenged?
How can I break free and become unstuck?
What are my performance gaps? Define them.
What are the three things I would do now if time and money was no barrier?
What are the Internal/External resources that I need to support me in tackling these?
What changes do I need to make to elevate these key priorities in my working week/month?
What budget and timeline are reasonable to support this?
How will I monitor, metric and implement this moving forward?
External Holistic Review of Your Playbook
Now pivot to a simple framework of external questions.
What’s happening within my industry at a macro level?
What actions and innovations have my competitors delivered since my last review?
As a result of industry and competitor analysis, is my business neutral, negative or positive competitively since my last review?
What, if anything, do I need to update or action now because of this assessment?
What changes within the domestic economy have occurred since my last review and what impact has this had on my business? For example - inflation growth, property market, interest rate rises and government policy changes.
What changes within the global economy have occurred since my last review and what impact has this had on my business? For example - war, stock market, fuel prices and geopolitical uncertainty.
Updating Your Playbook
I ensure that all my clients have a Strategic Plan that we workshop and document annually. I insist that we do not change or amend this throughout the year, unless the business is a start-up business with short-term cash burn challenges.
However, I do suggest that more progressive entrepreneurs run a companion-piece 90 Day Action Plan to accompany their annual strategic plan.
The 90 Day Action Plan is a rolling quarterly document that captures your observations and actions from the analysis above - putting it into a concise ‘action-oriented’ document that you can regularly review, update and action.
The format (manual or digital) and how you want to draft it is up to you. The main driver is to capture your action points and note what needs to happen, by whom and by when? It is holistically an accountability document.
Regularly update your playbook.
Don’t be static.
Keep moving.
Get unstuck.
Be daring and bold.
What’s most important?
Elevate those priorities.
Actions must follow.
Constantly evolve.
Update your playbook.
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