In the first part of this article, I outlined the first four essential steps in strategic plan implementation. Part two begins with the fifth step.

The fifth step in successfully implementing your strategic plan is to keep the plan extremely visible in all levels of the organization. This is part of the communication plan. It is also part of the implementation piece: What does this look like? If the company has a strategic initiative for people development, what does that look like? Is it necessary to put together a team to define what that looks like?

Every corporate communication vehicle ' newsletters, department updates, etc ' should be tracking the progress of the strategic teams to know and report where we are in this process. Progress reports should be regular and comprehensive. Expectations also must be clearly and consistently communicated. Is the strategic goal to achieve the stated results over a five year period, or is the goal to be achieved within one year? It is critically important that everyone within the organization knows exactly what the goals are and what progress is being made toward achievement of the goals.

Teams also need to know what is being done by other teams. Very often an individual or a team will go away to start working on some kind of strategic initiative, but they do not let other teams or individuals know what is happening. In this situation, some of the impact of the strategic plan is being lost because people do not get to see it in action. Just as it is important to have the greatest possible employee involvement in the planning and writing process, it is critical to ensure the greatest possible employee involvement in implementing every part of the plan.

The implementation process is a critical time for people to become involved. If you are familiar with the Change Agents, Inc. change model, you know that setting the strategic goal is the first step in making change. The second step is involvement. So, once again, if it is your company's strategic plan, you need to involve people in its implementation. If you try to do it yourself, you will fail. The same is true of personal strategic plans. If you try to do it all yourself, you will likely fail. It is hard to keep the momentum going.

The sixth step in successful strategic plan implementation is to win buy-in. As you communicate the details and the intention of the plan and get people involved, you are actually trying to get people sufficiently involved that they understand where you are going, what you are trying to accomplish, and how you plan to reach the stated goals. It is important to have buy-in from the people you need to help you achieve your goals. The need for buy-in is equally important in implementing a personal strategic plan and in implementing a corporate strategic plan. Whether you need the support of your family or of every employee of the company, the key to success is buy-in.

Buy-in is the recognition that your plan makes sense, your strategies make sense, and that I have an important role to play in your success. Buy-in is the recognition, "This is the way we probably should be moving, and this is probably what will help us get to where we really want to go as a company or as a family."

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