The starting point. Where are we right now?

You cannot get to where you want to go without knowing where you are today. A frank assessment of your current status allows you to make smart decisions as you move to the next level. We'll explore questions like:

1. What's working and why?


2. What isn't working and why?


3. What do we sell, who can/do we sell it to and what do they need and want?


4. How would we grade ourselves in the following:

- Improving over last year's goals?
- Delivering what our customers need and want?
- Knowing our competitions' threat and dealing with it proactively?
- Taking care of our people?


5. What has derailed us in the past?


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The goal. Where do we want to be?

Once we know your starting point, we'll know which direction to face to get to your desired results. We have a variety of exercises and discussion tools to help you establish a long-term vision. From there, we translate that vision into a snapshot of your success. By examining the snapshot, we can determine very specific elements of that success.

It's easy to imagine where you might want to take your company in broad terms. It's quite a different challenge to help a team visualize the measurable elements of that success. Many of our clients believe this is the most difficult but also the most valuable step in the process.

The plan. What do we have to do to get there?

Now that we know exactly where you want to go, we need to plan what will get you there.

We will identify those factors that absolutely must fall in your favor if you are going to be successful. We'll also spend considerable time isolating the road blocks to that success. We'll not only identify them, but we'll put together strategies for moving them out of your way.

The resulting strategies are prioritized and action plans are created for the priority "A" strategies.

How do we track our efforts?

At Poertner Consulting Group LLC, we believe creating a plan is just the first step. Many companies stop there and wonder why they aren't successful.

Implementing the plan is where the success lies. One way to ensure that your team stays focused and committed to executing the plan is to build in informal mile markers and measurable goals that can be checked periodically. That way, you can assess which tactics are working and which need adjustments as you continue to move forward.

We'll also want to schedule more formal reviews throuhgout the year to hold everyone on task and to come back together to make decisions on next steps.

What does a strategic planning facilitator add?

Planning sessions run by team members run the risk of becoming nothing more than expanded staff meetings. Team members get stuck in their day to day role and decisions tend to be dominated by those team members who either have the position or the personality to control the conversation.

An trained facilitator has training and skills that allow them to create an atmosphere of openness and participation. We can reduce the influence of powerful personalities so that all ideas and contributions can be heard. We can also help team members recognize personality and departmental differences which frees them from being stuck in their familiar ruts.

The facilitator's role is to keep everyone focused and open. When everyone feels as though they actively participated and contributed, they are much more likely to be committed to implementation when it's time to integrate the planning with the real work world.

With over 20 years in business, Shirley Poertner's experience as a strategic planning facilitator, as well as her expertise in business operations and strategy, offers new perspectives and knowledge to your entire team.

Benefits of Poertner Consulting Group’s strategic planning process

• Create a Vision

- Identify the shared vision for the future and ignite the passion to make it happen


• Know the Business

- What do we sell and what makes it desirable in the marketplace?
- What market segments are interested in our products/services?
- What do we know about our customers?


• Identify the Key Factors that Shape Your Business

- Key internal and external factors
- Study the impact of these factors


• Create a Sense of Urgency and Shared Purpose

- Identify and prioritize opportunities and strategies
- Create measurable mile markers to assess progress
- Achieve a shared committment

You can only do so much at once. It's critical to agree not to try to do everything at once. Prioritizing your opportunities and planning their implementation wisely will increase your success rate.

Strategic planning is not a one time event. It is ever-evolving. Throughout the year, we keep talking to make sure the implementation is going as planned. We identify new challenges and alter the plan to take them into account.

Our process allows for continuously tracking and evaluating new opportunities, barriers and factors as we unfold the plan. That way, we're never caught off guard and we remain on course to achieve your organization's goals.

Strategic Planning Case Studies

Strategic planning in the face of pending de-regulation

Client was a large membership-based organization with complex board and management dynamics. The client was in an industry undergoing turbulence and pending de-regulation. Because of the numbers of interacting and interdependent governing bodies, Shirley worked extensively with the board of directors first. She helped them gain a clear and compelling vision of the organization’s future, based on values shared by all board members. She then worked with the respective member-organizations over the course of a year to develop written plans outlining systems, measures, milestones and assigned responsibilities for successful implementation. The organization is now better prepared to ride the waves of de-regulation as they unfold and to set their own course.

Bottom-up strategy building

Client was a large agency within the public sector, led by a participative leader, interested in involving at all levels of the organization in a vision-setting planning process. Shirley worked with a core team of union and non-union employees to design and develop a multi-purpose approach to strategic planning. She facilitated a series of 90-minute sessions for hourly employees throughout the agency, offering them the opportunity to express their long-term vision for the agency and develop goals and strategies for achieving that vision. Using a variety of creative methods for idea-generation, Poertner provided the leadership team with a wealth of insight on which to build their plan. In the final phase of the initiative, Shirley facilitated the strategic planning process for the ten-member leadership team, resulting in a plan which transformed a budget-strapped state agency into a model of progressive, "we-can-do-this" thinking.

Breaking down walls through the planning process

Client was a division within a Fortune 500 company, comprised of two teams who together produced a product which they created and sold. But the two teams seldom worked collaboratively, by design. This had been "the way we always operated" for decades. Changing demographics and a declining demand for their product suddenly made it critical that they begin to work together as one team and to develop a plan to reinvent their product and their sales approach. Poertner worked one-on-one with the two team leaders, and with them together, to help them accept and embrace a new way of seeing their roles and a new style of collaboration within the division as a whole. Gradually, additional team members were included in the process of transformation. Their influence was leveraged to eventually bring together a dozen members from among the two functional teams to develop a five-year strategic plan. Through the collaborative effort and a renewed spirit of pride in their product, the division ended the fiscal year with the highest revenues ever and a wealth of new sales customers.


Enhancing team skills

Client was an IT team within a large department of state government. The team was respected by its clients for its knowledge and experience, but clients complained profusely about the lack of interpersonal skills and customer-orientation among the team members. The department head hired Shirley to work with the team to enhance their communication and customer relationship skills. Shirley conducted an organizational assessment through one-on-one interviews to uncover the key issues needing to be addressed. She provided the feedback to the team and helped them understand the depth of their customers’ dissatisfaction. The team came to accept the feedback, and most importantly, to determine to change their customers’ perceptions. Shirley worked with them to develop a team mission, vision and values. She helped them develop goals and prioritize strategies. Within six months, the feedback from customers was significantly improved and the team continued to identify methods for ongoing improvement.