On the Chamber of Commerce Professionals Group on Facebook, the Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce shared a document that is extremely effective. They took their strategic initiatives for the next three years and created a visual representation of them that is good-looking enough to hang in an office.
Benefits of Creating a Strategic Initiatives or Priorities Poster
Like our mission statement, strategic initiatives or priorities often get lost in the shuffle of day-to-day business. If you stop and ask staff what they are, they often have that game-show contestant look of “I knew this yesterday.” That’s because frequently they are written in a language we don’t speak (aka formal corporate talk) and while we’re doing the work every day, the words behind what we’re doing get lost. We know the spirit but not the letter of the mission, so to speak.
This chamber remedied that situation.
They broke their priorities into three focuses (or foci, if you’d prefer) — business, members, and community, in addition to excellence in chamber management. Under each they included a definition of success or how they would go about improving in that area.
They also listed the expected trends and influences of what they saw for the next three years. Things they included were hot topics like:
- millennials in the workforce
- the roles of changing communication and technologies (like customization and mobile)
- evolving into problem solvers
- creating “place making” opportunities
While the conversations held around this document were probably very complex and time-consuming, the document is incredibly easy to understand and digest. Their priorities of what it is they want to focus on over the next three years are very clear to anyone who reads it. It’s also laid out in an attractive presentation. Best of all, the transparency behind their priorities not only tells the staff, members, and greater community what they will accomplish, it also holds them responsible for it because of the clear way in which it was shared.
Image credit: Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce
