Ten Challenges and Ten Solutions (abbreviated)

Here are the short lists of the top ten reasons for strategic planning failure and the top ten steps to bridge the execution gap.

Ten Challenges to Traditional Strategic Planning

1. Failure to "plan for planning"
2. Informal vs. formal strategic planning
3. Failure to research trends
4. Assume one vision for the future
5. Failure to communicate the plan
6. Failure to align individual's action plans to the organization's objectives
7. Failure to assess competency gaps and address with hiring and training
8. Organizational structure and processes do not support the plan
9. Failure to reinforce the plan with all stakeholders on a regular basis
10. Failure to develop and track detailed performance metrics

Ten Steps to bridge the execution gap

1. Plan the process
2. Trends and Future Scenarios
3. Mission, Vision, Values
4. Objectives, Strategies
5. Metrics/Dashboards
6. Communication Plan
7. Organization/Process Analysis
8. Competency gap analysis
9. Alignment, Prioritization,individual Action Plan
10. Execute, measure, reinforce

For more detail, see http://strategicscenarios.com