BEST PRACTICES FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING & TEAM DEVELOPMENT: Competing in Tough Capital Markets
Podcast:
Financial services firms today face a paradox: capital is constrained, yet the demand for innovation and growth is unrelenting. In such an environment, traditional strategic planning approaches often fall short. Plans created in isolation, or based solely on historic assumptions, quickly lose relevance. Research has shown that 90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully, not because the ideas are flawed, but because execution is disconnected from people (Source: HBR: Execution Is a People Problem, Not a Strategy Problem – 2017).
A resilient strategy process must therefore do three things:
1. Clarify the playing field — understanding not only where the firm competes today but also the adjacent and emerging spaces worth exploring.
2. Prioritize with discipline — making a few, bold commitments rather than many diluted initiatives.
3. Activate execution through people — ensuring strategy is not handed down but co-created with those responsible for delivery.
Our experience shows that organizations that embed these practices not only withstand capital headwinds but also emerge stronger, more agile, and better aligned.
From Planning to Activation
The most effective strategic planning processes unfold in stages:
• External and internal analysis: Using tools such as a Market Matrix to map offerings and customer segments, firms can see where they truly create value and where the risks lie.
• Capabilities assessment: Teams should benchmark themselves against competitors to identify core strengths to build on and core weaknesses to mitigate.
• Clear vision and ambition: Strategy should translate into a “strategy on a page,” articulating where the organization is headed, how success will be measured, and the enabling priorities that make execution possible.
• Implementation ownership: Every priority is assigned to a team, with milestones, metrics, and accountability baked into the operating plan.
This approach ensures that strategy is not a one-off document but a continuous, iterative process refreshed quarter to quarter and year to year.
Why Teams Make or Break Strategy
Even the most rigorous strategic plan falters if teams are not equipped to deliver it. That is where the concept of PGP’s Category One Teams®— the highest level of team performance — becomes essential.
Category One Teams® share five defining practices:
1. Clear purpose and mutual accountability – they know why they exist and succeed or fail together. We build a baseline using our Powerful Teams Assessment® to identify team strengths and areas for development effectively.
2. Psychological safety and radical candor – they courageously surface difficult issues, using tools like the Fist of Five (a hand signal paradigm to quickly and safely signal levels of agreement) to ensure every voice is heard.
3. Bias-resistant decision-making – they cut through noise by applying frameworks such as Harvard professor, Chris Argyris’s Ladder of Inference to challenge assumptions.
4. Decision agility and re-looping – they pause, recalibrate, and refine decisions before it’s too late.
5. Continuous measurement – they track both outcomes and team dynamics, adjusting along the way.
High-performing teams aren’t built by chance; they’re built by discipline. By embedding these practices, firms ensure that their strategy is not just formulated but activated through engaged, capable people and documented. We do this via a Team Charter®.
In a tough capital environment, this discipline translates directly into financial impact. When teams work at a Category One level, they surface problems faster, make cleaner decisions, and avoid costly missteps. In other words, good teamwork doesn’t just save time — it saves capital. When operating under financial constraints, having a high-performing team is the surest way to get the best and fastest outcomes with the least waste.
Call-Out Insight / Quote –
“Good teamwork saves both time and capital when implementing strategy— the ultimate competitive advantage in constrained markets. When resources are tight, the speed, trust, and alignment of Category One Teams® make the difference between merely surviving and truly thriving.”
Implications for Financial Services Leaders
In a tough capital environment, leaders must strike a balance between boldness and prudence:
• Focus resources on a handful of priorities with the greatest return potential.
• Empower Tiger Teams or cross-functional groups to drive initiatives, ensuring speed and accountability.
• Communicate relentlessly, so every level of the organization understands not just the “what” but the “why” behind strategic choices.
• Invest in team development — because strategy execution is, ultimately, a people problem, and effective teams are the greatest safeguard against wasted capital.
The payoff is more than financial resilience. Firms that combine disciplined strategic planning with Category One Team® practices build cultures of trust, agility, and shared ownership. These qualities are what enable organizations not only to survive uncertainty but to thrive in it.
For more info on PGP’s strategic planning and team development tools and services visit our website at www.pgp-solutions.com or contact us at [email protected].
