Strategic Planning Simplified · Question 1 of 7

You can’t pick the right mountain until you know what situation you’re really in.

Most strategic plans start with ambition before anyone agrees on reality. This free assessment gives you a clear score, shows where the business is carrying the most drag, and points to the kind of strategic conversation your leadership team should have next.

25 honest questions ~4 minutes Instant situation report

Free. No account. Your personalized report downloads the moment you finish.

Before you choose a mountain

Aspiration is not a starting point. Reality is.

In the book, every strategy starts with one question: what situation are you really in? Skip it, and three things go wrong. The plan chases an ambition the business can’t yet support. The team never aligns, because everyone is reading the situation differently. And focus scatters, because nothing has been ruled out. The assessment answers Question 1 honestly, so the next six questions have something true to build on.

The Real Situation Assessment

Get the read your plan depends on

Answer twenty-five plain yes-or-no questions. Get a score, a clear picture of where the business is carrying the most drag, and the strategic direction your situation points to.

How the method works

Seven questions. Two pages. One clear strategy.

The book turns strategy into seven decisions a leadership team can make in a day and a half. The assessment answers the first one: what situation are we really in? From there, the work moves from direction to action.

Page 1 · StrategyWhat are we trying to become?
1
Start here · the assessment answers this
Situation
What is really true about the business right now?
2
Mountain
What future are we choosing to climb toward?
3
Scope
Where will we focus, and what will we leave out?
4
Competitive Advantage
Why should we win instead of someone else?
Page 2 · PlanWhat are we doing to make the strategy real?
5
Big Five
What five priorities matter most this year?
6
Pressure Test
What would have to be true for this plan to work?
7
First 90 Days
What happens first, who owns it, and by when?

You cannot answer questions two through seven well until you have answered the first one honestly. Start with the situation.

Strategic Planning Simplified by Jeff Shannon
Where it comes from

Built in the room, not in theory.

This assessment is Question 1 of the method in Strategic Planning Simplified by Jeff Shannon. The same simple questions and honest tradeoffs he uses with leadership teams in the room, now in your hands to start with.

Start where strategy starts

Get the honest read before you pick the mountain.

Four minutes. Twenty-five questions. A personalized situation report you keep. It is the first decision of seven, and the one everything else depends on.

Free · no account · instant report