Imagine if everyone on your team was on the same page—literally. With a strategy distilled onto a single page, aligning your team around your goals becomes simpler, faster and more effective. A one-page strategy doesn’t just streamline communication; it keeps everyone focused on what matters most, removing any confusion, so everyone knows where you’re headed.
Strategic planning is at the heart of any successful business. Yet, surprisingly, many companies still operate without a cohesive, up-to-date plan. They might have targets and objectives, sure—but what about a strategy that actually pulls the whole team in the same direction? That’s often missing.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to create a one-page strategy that’s straightforward, impactful, and easy for everyone in your organisation to understand. Plus, we’ve included a template to help you put this tool into action right away.
By the end, you’ll have what you need to generate your own one-page strategy—a practical way to keep your team aligned and moving toward shared goals.
Index quick links
- What is a Strategy on a Page?
Discover how a one-page strategy can align your team and clarify your goals—all in one place. - Real-Life Examples of Actual One-page Strategic Plans
See how other organisations have distilled their strategies to a single page. - How to Build your Own One-Page Strategy
Step-by-step guidance to create a plan that unites your team around key goals. - Using Your One-Page Strategy to Deliver on Goals
Practical tips for keeping your strategy active and relevant. - Why Regular Reviews are Essential for Success
Learn how routine check-ins keep your plan adaptable and on course. - Additional Resources for Strategic Planning
Dive deeper with our podcast series to simplify strategic planning. - Bringing Your Strategy to Life
A final word on the power of a one-page strategy to align and inspire your team.
What is a Strategy on a Page?
A strategy on a page is a one-page blueprint that captures your company’s purpose, goals, and the steps to achieve them—all in one clear, concise view. With its straightforward structure, a one-page strategy becomes a powerful tool for sharing your vision across the entire organisation, aligning your team, and keeping everyone focused in the same direction.
The core elements of a one-page strategy include:
- Vision, Mission, and Values: Defining your company’s purpose and guiding principles.
- Goals and Objectives: Setting measurable targets to aim for.
- Strategic Priorities: Highlighting the areas of focus that will drive results.
- Key Initiatives: Identifying the actions that will help achieve your objectives.
- Success Measures: Tracking your progress with clear metrics.
- Future Aspirations: Outlining long-term ambitions beyond the current strategy.
Each of these elements contributes to a cohesive, accessible plan that’s easy for the entire team to understand and act on.
Real-Life Examples of One-Page Strategic Plans
My introduction to the power of a one-page strategy came from Donald McGuirk, the former CEO of Codan Limited. During a meeting, he showed me a single sheet of paper—several short statements and bullet points sketched in pencil, all laid out in neat columns and boxes. “This is our company strategy,” he said, "it's taken three years to make that fit on one page."
Donald used that one-page plan to align his whole organisation and drive remarkable growth. During his final five years as CEO, Codan’s share price skyrocketed from $1.17 to a high of $19.33 with annualised returns to shareholders averaging 35.9% over the previous decade.
Inspired by this approach, I introduced a one-page strategy while serving as Vice Chair of Music SA. As we began our strategic planning process, I advocated for condensing our vision and plan onto a single page. The result? A clear, accessible roadmap that communicated our objectives to staff and stakeholders alike. This document was instrumental in securing triennial funding from the South Australian Government and remains a core tool for aligning Music SA with the board’s strategic direction.
Here is the MusicSA One Page Strategic Plan that we developed:
Seeing the impact of Codan’s results and Music SA’s success, I became a strong advocate for the one-page strategy model.
The thought and precision required to create a strategy on a page are similar to those of more extensive, multi-page plans—but the result is a sharper, more focused guide. By simplifying complex strategies, a one-page plan aligns the entire organisation and turns high-level goals into actionable outcomes.
How to Build your One One-Page Strategy
Creating a one-page strategy is a focused, decision-making process that guides your thinking through a clear framework. Here’s a streamlined approach to develop your own one-page strategy::
Step 1: Choose a Time Frame for Your Plan
The time frame you set shapes your strategic decisions. In today’s fast-changing world, shorter strategic time frames have become the norm—typically one to three years.
- One year: Ideal for focused, incremental improvements.
- Two to three years: Better suited for deeper organisational changes.
Step 2: Use a Template to Guide Your Planning
A template gives structure to your planning, prompting you to cover key areas. We suggest the following order to guide your thinking:
- Vision, Mission, Values.
- Target Market
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SWOT Analysis (consider including PESTEL & competition analysis)
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Goals and Objectives
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Strategic Priorities
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Success Measures
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Future Aspirations (Where you’d like to be in 10 years)
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Culture Goals (What you want to be known for)
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Key Initiatives (Your action plan)
For added simplicity, we’ve provided our own template that includes all these essentials, making it easy for staff to understand and apply. [Click here to download a FREE copy of our Template.]
Step 3 - Fill in the Template as You Progress
Using a one-page template helps keep your planning focused and visible. Think of it as a draft that evolves with your decisions. This visibility keeps your goals front of mind, so you’re clear on how each step builds toward your final strategy.
Step 4 - Complete Your First draft
Focus on getting a solid first draft rather than perfecting every detail. The one-page strategy model encourages continual improvement, so you’ll refine it over time. For now, aim to create a workable draft, then share it with trusted advisors and stakeholders for feedback.
Step 5 - Create an action plan for each initiative
Each decision you make becomes part of a series of initiatives aimed at achieving your goals. To bring these initiatives to life, create an action plan using columns like:
- Initiatives: The specific initiatives from your plan.
- Action: Steps required to implement it
- Who: The responsible team member(s)
- When: Completion date or timeframe
- Success Measures: Metrics to track progress
- Status: Completion status (e.g., in progress or complete)
This exercise gives you a clear view of each initiative and how long each will take, helping you better understand your timeline.
Step 6 - Timeline Your Initiatives
Next, organise your initiatives on a timeline that aligns with your strategy’s time frame. If you’re using a three-year plan, try a visual layout like this:.
- Title: The financial year
- Subheading: Revenue Target for that year
- Subheading: Revenue Target for that year
- Bullet Points: Initiatives planned for each year
This view allows you to see each year side by side as show in the following image, offering a clear path for how your strategy will unfold:
Step 7 - Review Your First Draft With The Timeline
A review ensures your plan is achievable and inspires staff to commit to the vision. In this step, streamline your initiatives based on priority and resources, removing or modifying anything that’s not feasible within the plan’s timeframe. Discussions with key stakeholders can help refine these decisions.
Step 8 - Communicate your plan
Bring your plan together by compiling three core documents:
- Your strategy on a page
- Your action plan
- Your Timeline
Update these documents with any final adjustments from your review. Together, they form a complete, easy-to-follow roadmap that your entire team can rally around.
Using Your One-Page Strategy to Deliver on Goals
When every team member can easily articulate your strategic plan—and understand their specific role in delivering it—you’ve achieved alignment. This alignment is essential for managing your team effectively and ensuring your plan is executed successfully.
To reach this alignment, each team member needs a clear understanding of:
- What your objectives are
- Why these objectives matter
- How the goals will be achieved
- Their specific responsibilities within the plan
- Deadlines for completing their tasks
These points are all captured within the three documents that make up your strategy. Once you’ve communicated each element and assigned responsibilities, your one-page strategy document becomes a powerful tool for managing and tracking progress from the top down.
Best Practices for Embedding Your One-Page Strategy:
- Include in Leadership Meetings: Make your one-page strategy a permanent agenda item in board notes, director updates, and leadership meetings, using it to report and make updates.
- Guide Staff Meeting Agendas: Use your one-page plan to shape agendas for all staff meetings, and ensure it’s referenced frequently in meeting notes.
- Make It Visible: Turn your one-pager into a poster and place it in common areas, like the staff room or around the office, to keep it top of mind.
- Share for Public Reporting: If you report your strategy publicly, offer the one-page plan as a downloadable resource on your website.
- Include in Stakeholder Communications: Use your one-pager as a foundational part of your business plan when communicating with financial institutions and stakeholders.
By embedding your one-page strategy in these ways, you’ll reinforce alignment and keep your team focused on delivering your strategic goals across the organisation.
Why Regular Reviews are Essential for Success
Think of your strategic plan like a roadmap on a long journey. Just as you’d check a map to ensure you’re still on course—and adjust for roadblocks along the way—regular reviews of your strategy help keep your organisation moving in the right direction. Sometimes, minor course adjustments are all you need to stay aligned with your goals.
To deliver your strategy effectively, plan regular review sessions. The frequency will depend on your plan’s pace and requirements:
- Quarterly Reviews: Ideal if you need to deliver a significant number of actions quickly.
- 6-month or yearly reviews: Better suited for plans that require a steadier approach.
Additional strategic planning resources
With countless resources and books on strategic planning available, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. To simplify things, we developed the Demystifying Strategic Planning podcast series, designed to make the process straightforward and approachable.
Start with Episode 1 here.
You can find the rest of the series on the Business Builders Podcast, available on your favourite platforms:
- Strategic Planning - Where to begin?
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - Strategic Planning - Where do we want to be?
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - Strategic Planning - How do we get there?
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - Strategic Planning - How do we know when we've arrived?
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - Strategic Planning - Why are we doing this anyway?
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - Avoiding Strategic Planning Pitfalls
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - Putting strategy into action with special guest Peter Nolan
Click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Bringing Your Strategy to Life
A strategic plan is more than just a set of goals—it’s a carefully crafted series of initiatives designed to drive specific business outcomes, whether those are growth targets, business transformation, or securing funding.
The beauty of the one-page strategy model lies in its simplicity. By presenting goals, objectives, and initiatives on a single page, it streamlines planning and makes it easy to communicate. This clarity aligns your team, keeping everyone focused and committed to bringing the plan to life.
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