Long-term strategy? Inspiring. Quarterly planning? Often... overwhelming.
No matter how exciting your vision is for the next 5 or 10 years, if you can’t break it down into focused, 13-week chunks, you’re not going to get there.
Quarterly planning is where strategy turns into execution. When done right, it’s not just a meeting - it’s the most powerful tool you have to align your team, eliminate chaos, and hit your goals with precision.
Let’s walk through how to take the stress out of the process and build a quarterly plan that works.
Even if you have set goals for the year, understanding what to do each quarter—and each week of each quarter—is difficult to determine without an actual quarter plan. Annual goals are typically big ideas that don’t allude to execution specifics. Plus, who owns which pieces of each project?
The bigger your team is, the more complex and confusing this becomes.
Holding a quarterly planning meeting at the turn of every quarter will prepare you for execution like never before. During this meeting, you will revisit your annual goals and long-term strategy, reflect on your learnings, set specific 13-week priorities, and determine the HOW of execution.
By first looking at your long-term goals and setting quarter goals that support your strategic vision, you ensure that your team’s time and energy will be spent in the right areas. You will continue to align with your company’s mission as you create a detailed game plan for the upcoming quarter. Watch confusion and overwhelm melt away!
Setting specific objectives and goals for your quarterly planning session will prevent you from wasting time on nonessential topics and ensure that you come out of the meeting with an actual plan.
Make sure to communicate these objectives to your team before and during the meeting. Including them in your slide deck (if you’re planning virtually) or on your whiteboard (if you’re in-person) is strongly recommended! Keep your eyes on the prize.
Here are some example outcomes to consider as you craft your meeting’s “Successful If”:
Once you’ve set the stage with your meeting’s objectives, you need to determine the steps you will take to execute the meeting successfully.
Without a structured agenda and timeline, you risk burning the team’s precious time and energy without producing a tangible plan. Trust us - it happens all the time!
We recommend downloading the Rhythm Quarter Planning Agenda and making it your own. Again, display it on your screen or project it in your conference room so that the team knows which discussions are happening when. It’s also recommended to share the agenda with attendees beforehand so that they can prepare for the meeting.
As you customize your agenda, consider the following:
You may be tempted to devote all of your planning time to writing priorities and setting action plans—but don’t neglect your metrics.
KPIs serve as temperature checks for success. Imagine that you are mid-quarter, and you think that the team is executing a project well—but you have no way of measuring actual results.
As you review your KPIs, think about which projects and actions will influence these numbers as the quarter progresses. What is the relationship between the activities you plan to do and the metrics you are measuring? What numerical milestones do you need to hit in order to confirm that the project work is impactful? Ensure that your list of KPIs allows you to measure progress with real data.
Once your plan is in motion, you will need to review your KPIs on a regular basis to inform your next steps. Falling well below target indicates that you probably need to make an adjustment to how you are executing.
Carefully tracking KPIs also ensures accountability and accurate status updates—it makes no sense to give a positive status report when your numbers tell a different story.
Finally, consider what you can learn from your KPIs’ performance last quarter. What were the most impactful factors that led to hitting or coming short of target? What could you do differently in the quarter ahead to be more successful?
Don’t plan in a vacuum. Consider the market’s current state; reference current research and utilize AI tools to conduct further exploration. What is happening in your industry? Where is your competition, and what can you do this quarter to move ahead in the race?
Dig into your own data on customer behavior. Which of your product or service offerings stirred the most success last quarter, and why?
As you contemplate market conditions, acknowledge potential risks and talk these through with your team. Outline contingency plans in case of the worst scenario. If you move ahead unprepared for market changes, you will regret not having made an action plan when you were calmer. Remember that it is not easy to make tough decisions or come up with new ideas when the pressure is on and stress is mounting.
Don’t get bogged down by doom and gloom—new opportunities are waiting for you, too. Make sure to pull potentially winning ideas from your market research. Analyze their feasibility, cost, and possible impact; turn those that seem most promising into actionable priorities for the quarter ahead.
Strategy shouldn’t happen behind closed doors.
Involve department leaders in the process so they can build execution-ready plans with their teams. Let them celebrate recent wins, share insights, and identify priorities that ladder up to company goals.
When people participate in planning, they buy into the execution. They understand the “why” behind the work, and they’re more likely to deliver results.
Quarterly planning is a muscle your team builds with practice - and it gets stronger every time.
By following a proven process, using the right tools, and involving the right people, you can turn planning from a frustrating time-suck into a powerful strategy accelerator.
Remember: every quarter is a new opportunity to move closer to your vision. Let’s make this one count.
Download our free Quarterly Planning Agenda today, or talk to one of our experts about running a facilitated planning session.