A strategic plan is only as strong as its execution—but how can you tell if it’s actually working? Regularly reviewing and refining your strategy is crucial to keeping your organization on course while staying flexible in a constantly evolving business environment.

Why Reviewing Your Strategic Plan Matters

Too often, organizations dedicate significant time and effort to developing a strategic plan, only to let it sit untouched for months or even years. Without regular evaluation, strategies can quickly become outdated, misaligned with current realities, or ineffective in achieving their intended goals.

A well-structured review process keeps your strategy relevant and effective by ensuring it adapts to changing circumstances and remains aligned with your organization’s goals. It allows you to identify successes and areas for improvement, pinpointing what’s working well and where adjustments are needed to stay on track. Regular reviews also help maintain alignment with current realities, as market conditions, industry trends, and internal capabilities continue to evolve. Without ongoing evaluation, a strategy can quickly become outdated or ineffective.

Additionally, a structured review process reinforces accountability by keeping teams focused and committed to executing key initiatives. It also enhances decision-making by providing data-driven insights that refine priorities and optimize resource allocation. By continuously assessing and adjusting your strategic plan, your organization can remain agile, proactive, and well-positioned for long-term success.

By making strategy reviews a regular practice, organizations can stay proactive, adapt to change, and ensure long-term success.

Best Practices for Assessing Your Strategic Plan

An annual review of the strategic plan is essential for ensuring its continued relevance and effectiveness. The board and senior leadership team should conduct a formal assessment each year to evaluate progress and make necessary adjustments.

This process is especially valuable as part of the induction for new directors, ideally taking place soon after the AGM or as early as possible following new appointments. It provides a structured opportunity to align leadership with the organization’s strategic direction and refine priorities based on real-world results.

A simple yet powerful approach involves asking five key questions for each strategic initiative:

1. What has worked?
2. What hasn’t worked?
3. What have we missed?
4. What should we add to the strategic plan?
5. What should we remove?

By systematically addressing these questions, organizations can ensure their strategic plan remains a dynamic and effective tool for driving long-term success.

Building on that foundation, let’s take a closer look at how challenging assumptions can help keep your strategic plan relevant.

For a strategic plan to remain effective, the board must regularly challenge its underlying assumptions, ensuring they still hold true. As external factors shift, the plan should evolve accordingly, with a willingness to adjust components as needed. An annual review process provides a structured way to assess progress and refine strategy to keep the organization aligned with its long-term goals.

A comprehensive review could include the following key steps:

Revisiting the Vision and/or Purpose Statement – The board and senior leadership should evaluate whether the organization’s vision and purpose continue to guide decision-making effectively. If they no longer serve as a useful strategic filter, adjustments may be necessary.

CEO and Executive Team Report – The CEO and executive team should provide a concise assessment of achievements against the current strategic plan and relevant business plans. This report should also highlight new opportunities and emerging risks, using five key questions as a framework: What has worked? What hasn’t worked? What have we missed? What do we need to add? What do we need to remove?

Ensuring Strategic Execution at All Levels – The board should discuss how to embed the strategic plan across the organization, from Board to leadership to staff and committees. This includes establishing regular strategy reviews, fostering strategic thinking, and integrating the plan into performance measures and job descriptions to ensure accountability and alignment.

By continuously reviewing and refining the strategic plan, organizations can stay agile, responsive, and positioned for long-term success.

To keep your strategic plan forward-looking, Boards and their Executive Teams should set aside dedicated time every six months to deeply examine emerging strategic issues. These half- or full-day sessions provide a valuable opportunity to step back from day-to-day operations and take a broader view of the organization’s strategic direction.

Unlike regular board meetings, these strategy-focused discussions are typically not minuted and are kept separate from other board business. This creates a more open environment for candid conversations and deep reflection. The primary goal is to assess how new and emerging issues might impact the organization’s long-term strategy and whether adjustments to the existing strategic plan are needed.

By proactively engaging in these sessions, Boards can ensure their strategic plan remains agile, relevant, and responsive to an ever-changing landscape.

In closing 

A strategic plan is only effective if it remains relevant and actionable. Without regular evaluation, even the best-laid strategies can become outdated, misaligned, or ineffective.

By committing to a structured review process, organizations can identify what’s working, address gaps, and adapt to changing circumstances. Regular assessments reinforce accountability, enhance decision-making, and ensure that strategic efforts remain focused and impactful. Ultimately, making strategy reviews a consistent practice keeps organizations agile, proactive, and positioned for sustained success.