Communication Essentials for Every Team: The Annual Plan

Great leaders provide their teams with the opportunity to think strategically about the year ahead. Dedicated time and space to think and plan help get the best out of the collective wisdom and commitment for all involved.

I came across a fantastic communication framework, which changed the way I led my teams, from growth strategist Verne Harnish, in his book Scaling Up. His book, templates and workshops give leaders the communication structure and focus needed to make sense in a messy, chaotic world. And even if your priority isn’t growth/scaling, but rather stabilisation/consistency, the framework still holds.

The framework starts with an annual planning session, where your team steps back far enough to see the whole picture – the previous 12 months, and the coming 12 months and beyond. This is an opportunity to investigate whether the direction is still right, whether the strategy still holds, and whether you are building toward something worth building. Answering these questions requires reflection, connection and exploration.

Keep in Mind

Ideally, have an external facilitator host the session, so that you, as the leader, can participate as a participant, rather than a leader who may (inadvertently) encourage the authority bias and bandwagon effect.
As the leader, consider offering your input last, after everyone else has had a chance to contribute and be heard.
Resist the pull to fill every moment with answers. Some of the most useful work happens when a team sits with a hard question long enough to find the honest one underneath it.
If you don’t have two days or can’t get off-site, do the best you can with the resources you have. Even one day, hosted in a boardroom with catering, is worth doing. Progress over perfection!
Below is a generic agenda. Experiment/edit/amend/delete to suit your organisation, team, priorities, metrics and language.
You may not yet have some of the elements in place (core purpose, values, big hairy, audacious goal (BHAG), three-to-five-year targets) before the session. Let this session be a catalyst to start getting them in place, but don’t let that stop you starting the annual planning process. Again, progress over perfection.
Rocks = priorities you want to progress. Make them clear, specific and measurable.
Allocate a time-keeper to ensure you keep moving and don’t get stuck.

Before the Session

1. Prepare
2–4 weeks prior

Review the full year’s data. Financials, KPIs, customer satisfaction, employee feedback, and any key incidents or turning points. Circulate ahead of time.
Gather external intelligence. Market shifts, competitor moves, regulatory changes, and emerging trends. Someone should own this and bring a summary.
Survey your people. Ask the broader team what they think worked, what frustrated them, and what they would change. Don’t leave this to the meeting to think through/gather.
Revisit your strategic foundation. Pull up your core purpose, values, BHAG, and three-to-five-year targets before the session. These are the anchor points for the conversation.
Set the agenda and circulate it. Two to three days beforehand is typical, but longer would be appreciated if possible. People need time to think and prepare before they arrive.

During the Session

2. Review the Year
Day one morning (approx. 2.5 hrs)

Annual scorecard. How did the year land against the targets you set twelve months ago? Be honest about the gap between intention and result.
What we are proud of. Name the wins specifically. What did the team do well? What do you want to carry forward?
What we would do differently. What decisions, systems, or behaviours slowed you down or cost you?
Patterns from the year. Look across the data together. What does it tell you about the health of the organisation, the team, and the customer relationship?

3. Test the Direction
Day one afternoon (approx. 2 hrs)

Core purpose and values. Are these still alive in how you work? Are there gaps between what you say and what you do?
BHAG check. Your big, hairy, audacious goal should still feel both ambitious and reachable. Has the landscape shifted in ways that require you to revisit it?
Three-to-five-year targets. Are these still the right milestones on the way to the BHAG? What needs to be added, removed, or adjusted?
Core customer. Are you still clear on who you are building for? Have your best customers changed? Has your understanding of their needs deepened?

4. Read the Landscape
Day two morning (approx. 2 hrs)

SWOT. Keep it honest and brief. Strengths to build on, weaknesses to address, opportunities worth pursuing, threats worth taking seriously.
Market and competitive shifts. What has changed in your environment in the past year? What is changing now? What might change in the next three years?
Key assumptions. What are you assuming to be true about the market, your customers, or your own capability? Which assumptions are most worth testing?
The one critical question. What is the single most important strategic question this team needs to wrestle with before you set next year’s priorities?

5. Set the Year’s Priorities
Day two afternoon (approx. 2.5 hrs)

Annual rocks. Three to five priorities that, if completed, move you meaningfully closer to your three-to-five-year targets. (Note: the focus is on outcomes, not initiatives.)
Assign ownership. Each annual rock has one person accountable for it. They will own the quarterly rocks that cascade from it.
Define success. How will you know each annual priority is complete? What does done look like by the end of the year?
Set the annual theme. One phrase that captures the spirit and ambition of the year. Something the whole organisation can understand, remember, and feel.

6. Cascade and Close
End of session — 1.5 hrs

First quarter rocks. Before you leave, set the quarterly rocks that will begin executing on the annual priorities. The year starts here with Q1.
Agree on communication. How will you share the direction with the broader team? Who communicates, what they say, and when.
Identify risks (Premortem). What could derail the plan? Name the three most likely obstacles now, while you can still design against them.
Close with meaning. End the session by reconnecting people to why the work and their commitment matter.

After the Session

7. Follow Through
Within one week

Circulate the summary. Annual rocks, owners, the annual theme, and Q1 rocks in writing. You might adapt a version from the One-Page Strategic Plan here.
Communicate to the organisation. Share the direction with the broader team within the week. People engage better when they understand where you are heading and why.
Schedule the quarterly off-sites. Put all four quarterly sessions in the diary now. They are the mechanism for keeping the annual plan alive.
Enter everything into your tracking system. Annual and quarterly rocks need to be visible in the weekly rhythm from day one of the new year.

Three Outputs Every Annual Planning Session Should Produce

Annual Rocks: Three to five year-level priorities, each with a single owner and a clear definition of done.
Annual Theme: One unifying idea that gives the year its character. Something that sticks beyond the slide deck.
Q1 Rocks and Cascade Plan: The first quarter’s priorities set before the session ends, and a clear plan for communicating the direction.

Annual Theme Ideas

These work best when they’re specific enough to mean something to your team, and simple enough that someone on the frontline can repeat them without looking at a slide. The themes that tend to land best are either a short, vivid noun phrase (Solid Ground, Open New Doors) or a full sentence that captures something the team already feels but hasn’t said out loud (The Year We Finish What We Started, The Uncomfortable Year).

Foundation and consolidation

Get the House in Order
Finding Strong Ground
Back to Brilliant Basics
The Year We Finish What We Started
Slow Down to Speed Up

Growth and expansion

New Doors
Plant New Seeds
The Year We Go Wide

Culture and people

People First, Always
The Year We Invest in Us
Leaders at Every Level
The Team We Want to Be

Focus and discipline

Do Less, Better
The Year of the Essential
Fewer Things, Done Well
Stay the Course

Customer and market

Closer to the Customer
The Year We Listen
Known for the Right Reasons

Transformation and courage

The Stretch Year – for teams that know they’ve been playing it safe
PIVOT! – full commitment to a new direction
The Year We Let Go – shedding products, habits, or identities that no longer serve
Change the Story – for a team repairing reputation or shifting how it’s perceived
Into the Unknown – new markets, new models, genuine uncertainty embraced
The Next Chapter – identity shift, often useful after a leadership transition
Stick the Landing – leaping into new ways of working

Momentum and execution