Harvard ManageMentor STRATEGIC THINKING TOOLS

Group Learning Project Plan: Define Strategic Objectives for Our Team
Use this learning project plan to define your project, schedule project activities, identify necessary resources,
track your progress, and reflect on your project outcomes. Consider adding more or different reflection
questions in Part III to fit your project.
Part I. Define your group learning project
Project description:
Team members will meet with their leader to clarify the teams strategic objectives. To achieve this clarification, they will
refine or add to short-term objectives presented by the manager, define longer-term objectives for the team, and identify
project-related objectives that would support important strategic priorities. The final outcome of the project will be a
completed copy of the Worksheet for Clarifying Strategic Objectives, which will show all objectives defined by the team
during the project, expressed in ways that meet the SMART criteria.
Project goal(s):
Help team members learn to define short- and long-term strategic objectives and to express them in specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic, and time-bound terms.

Project participants:

Part II. Plan and track your progress

Project step

Resources needed

1. Meet with your team leader to define the

shorter-tem strategic objectives you and your
colleagues need to meet to support important
company goals. Ask questions as needed
about the objectives your manager has
defined. Offer additional ideas about the
objectives. Designate a team member to
document the objectives resulting from this
discussion in questions #1 and #2 in the
Worksheet for Clarifying Strategic
Objectives.

2. Meet as a team to define longer-term

objectives you and your colleagues would
like to achieve as a group. Define these
objectives based on responses to questions
such as What should our group be doing in
five years to make the best possible
contribution to the company? and What
changes might be looming on the business
horizon, and how can we best plan for and
benefit from those changes? Have a team
member document everyones thoughts in
question #3 of the worksheet.

Target
completion date

Worksheet for
Clarifying Strategic
Objectives (in the
Tools section of the
Strategic Thinking
topic).
Tips for Clarifying
Strategic Objectives
(in the Tips section of
the Strategic Thinking
topic).

Day 7

Worksheet for
Clarifying Strategic
Objectives (in the
Tools section of the
Strategic Thinking
topic).
Tips for Clarifying
Strategic Objectives
(in the Tips section of
the Strategic Thinking
topic).

Day 14

2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

Check when
completed

3. Meet with your fellow team members to

explore strategic initiatives that you all
believe will generate important business
value for the organization, given the
objectives your manager defined and you
defined for yourselves. Link each initiative to
a strategic goal that the organization is trying
to achieve. Designate someone to document
the groups thoughts in questions #4 - #7 in
the worksheet. Express the objectives of
these initiatives according to the SMART
criteria in question #8 of the worksheet.

4. Meet as a team with your leader to discuss

your results, and debrief the learning project
using the questions in Part III below. In
particular, talk about how each member of
your team might use the same process with
their own direct reports to generate a list of
objectives for the teams theyre leading.

Worksheet for
Clarifying Strategic
Objectives (in the
Tools section of the
Strategic Thinking
topic).
Tips for Clarifying
Strategic Objectives
(in the Tips section of
the Strategic Thinking
topic).

Day 21

Reflection questions
found in Part III of this
tool.

Day 30

Part III. Reflect on your project outcomes

At the conclusion of your group learning project, use the following questions to reflect on your project
experience and outcomes. Consider answering the questions individually or with your project team members.
What did you learn as a result of the project?

What did you find most challenging about this project? How did you surmount those challenges?

How might you use the same process to help your own direct reports define strategic objectives for the team that you lead?

In what ways might the strategic objectives you defined during this learning project inform or cascade to the objectives for
the team you lead?

Based on your insights gained from the project experience, what will you or your group do differently going forward?
2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

What suggestions or tips would you give to future participants doing the same or a similar project?

Part IV. Share your results

Share your findings with others outside of your group: At the conclusion of the project, consider sharing your
lessons learned and project results with others in your organization. For example, you could hold an
information-sharing session over lunch or post suggestions on a discussion forum.

2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.