The etvia consulting model has four phases and works across two streams - the planning stream and the leadership development and team engagement stream.
At each phase of the process, the planning facilitation and the leadership and team development are paced and tailored to meet the specific requirements that each of the four stages demand for a successful planning process.

Stage one - Research and analysis, baselining the facts

It is imperative the Leadership team have the critical conversations about where the organisation needs to go, what the real starting point is, what the key opportunities and risks are, and importantly an objective view of the team's capability to deliver. The first step therefore is to baseline the facts and consolidate and understand existing strategic documents, research, organisational KPI's, performance gaps and targets. All of these dimensions need be clearly and factually understood as they inform the strategic goals.

Stage two - Strategy, getting the big picture clear

Once a clear strategic direction is determined, the next challenge is to set the strategic goals. The strategic goals need to reflect a balanced view of what success would look like for key stakeholders. Once the strategic goals are set the focus can now sharpen on how these connect to the business plan by setting the medium term objectives. The medium term objectives should reflect the targets assumed in the budget for the financial year and other specific outcomes the organisation needs to achieve.

Stage three - Implementation Planning, "deploying and operationalising" the Plan

With clear goal posts in sight, it is then appropriate to engage the broader team to build the detailed plans to close the gap between the current state and the medium term objectives. Who has to do what by when, with what resources is clearly identified, and before moving to execution there is a sensibility and do-ability review to check priorities, resourcing, capacity and financial constraints.

Stage four - Execution, follow through, follow up and refresh

To embed the business plan in the organisation requires formalised processes and forums to review and monitor execution and periodically refresh or recast the strategy. This means integrating the monitoring of the business plan into meetings and forums (existing or new), performance management and development processes and utilising the reports from etviaTRACE that are relevant for each purpose.