An effective strategy underpins every successful organisation. Your strategy is the thread that runs from the narrative - the ‘why’ - through your goals - the ‘what’ - to the daily tasks and actions delivered across your business - the ‘how’. It should be a compass as you navigate your way towards the future you want.

But when should you reassess that plan? What are the signs that you need a new strategy? Here are some key questions to ask:

1. Does your business have a clear and measurable vision or essential intent?
2. Do you know the key trends and forces outside your business that could affect your future?
3. Can you prioritise the critical challenges that stand between you and your vision?
4. Do you have a focused and coherent plan to overcome those key challenges?
5. Have you validated the key assumptions that underpin that plan?
6. Are you able to measure progress clearly and objectively to see if your plan is working?
7. Is your organisation (teams, systems, tools, behaviours) aligned to deliver effectively?

If the answer to any of these is ‘no’, then you should consider refreshing your strategy. Of course, there are many reasons why your answer may be ‘no’, here are some of the most common.

You have a new vision for the business

Whether you are a new leader with a mandate for change, or an experienced one looking to revitalise your business, creating a new vision for your future can act as a catalyst for fresh thinking. A new strategic vision has a ripple effect with implications for both what your organisation does, and how it delivers.

Your context has changed

When it comes to strategy, context is key. Your strategy must be relevant to the situation you face. As the business environment around us changes, we must keep asking whether we need to change to keep making progress. Over the last couple of years, every organisation has had to cope with the huge upheaval caused by the pandemic. Many are now rethinking both their destination and how they get there.

You find it hard to prioritise

Every organisation faces constraints and competing demands. These constraints force leaders to make difficult choices and prioritise. A lack of clarity or focus in your strategy can make prioritisation hard because you can’t clearly see how each competing project or demand will demonstrably push you forward in the right direction.

Your teams are pulling in different directions

As companies grow it is common for teams, departments, divisions or subsidiaries to develop their own strategies. These should be aligned to where the organisation as a whole wants to go, rather than competing with it.

Strategy development is a team sport, but getting consensus for every decision is time-consuming and rarely successful. Wide engagement across your organisation is invaluable in both fostering ownership of the plan and gaining the insights and ideas that help make a great strategy. A “disagree and commit” approach to overcoming differing opinions is critical.

You aren’t making the progress you want

Your strategy exists to get you from where you are today to where you’d like to be. Sometimes, despite all the thinking and the hard work, you just need to accept that what you’re doing isn’t working as well as you’d like, and reassess. To move on you need to diagnose where your issue lies, and rethink your approach.

You are on a burning platform

There are times when you simply have no choice but fundamentally shift your approach. A burning platform - an immediate crisis with a limited number of difficult options available to choose from - can be a great motivator for change.  Whatever the challenge you face, a strategic rethink is unavoidable. 

The capability or capacity of your business has changed

Perhaps you’ve made an acquisition, or been acquired. Maybe you’ve found a partner who can complement your capability to offer something new. Perhaps you’ve boosted your capacity in a key part of your business. In these situations, you can find yourself aiming higher than before, as you realise that your current vision for the business isn’t ambitious enough, and you want to shoot higher.

Whilst there are no hard and fast rules for when your strategy needs refreshing, there are some common signs that you should consider. An effective strategy is built upon a clear vision for your future, a focused plan to achieve it, and alignment in your teams, systems and behaviours. If you keep these foundations in place, you’ll be on the right path.