annual planning
Agree on your priorities, targets and budget for the year ahead, and leave with a plan every leader has signed up to.
For most organisations, annual planning is a season rather than a conversation. Spreadsheets go back and forth between finance and each function, targets get negotiated one meeting at a time, and the plan that comes out the other end is a set of department wish lists stapled together. Three months into the year, half the leadership team is working to a different set of priorities.
A Turning Leaf annual planning workshop brings your leadership team into one room to plan the year as a team. Your facilitator guides the group through an honest review of the year just gone, a clear choice about the few priorities that matter most, and the targets, initiatives and owners that turn those priorities into action. When your leaders build the plan together, the plan gets done.
what is annual planning and how can it help you?
Your annual planning facilitator designs and leads the conversation that turns your strategy into a practical plan for the next twelve months, with priorities, targets and owners your whole leadership team stands behind.
An annual planning workshop is a facilitated session in which your leadership team reviews the year just gone, tests what has changed in your market, and agrees what the organisation will focus on for the year ahead. Your Turning Leaf facilitator makes sure the plan connects to your longer-term strategy, that trade-offs are made in the open, and that your priorities, budget and targets all tell the same story.
This is very different from a budget round. When annual planning runs through spreadsheets and one-on-one negotiations, each leader argues for their own function and nobody owns the whole. When a skilled external facilitator brings the leadership team together, the competing demands are on the table at the same time, the hard choices get made in the room, and every leader leaves knowing what the organisation is prioritising and why.
There is no single right way to plan a year. Some organisations work from an annual operating plan, others use OKRs, a balanced scorecard or hoshin kanri. Your facilitator works with the method that suits your organisation, or helps you choose one, so the process fits the way you run your business.
benefits: what you get with an annual planning facilitator
1
One Plan, Not a Stack of Department Plans
Your leadership team leaves with a single set of organisational priorities that every function contributes to, instead of separate plans competing for the same people and money.
2
Leadership Alignment
This may be the single biggest reason to run the workshop. When every leader has agreed the priorities together, arguments about resources stop being personal and the year starts with everyone pulling the same way.
3
Priorities That Match the Budget
Too many plans list ten priorities and fund three. A facilitated process lines up your priorities, initiatives and budget so the money goes where your strategy says it should.
4
An Honest Look at the Year Gone
Before planning the next twelve months, your team takes a candid look at what worked, what didn’t and what was left unfinished. Lessons get carried forward instead of repeated.
5
Clear Owners and Targets
Every priority leaves the room with a named owner, measurable targets and a timeline. Nothing is left ambiguous.
6
A Rythm for the Whole Year
The workshop sets up quarterly check-ins so the plan is reviewed and adjusted as the year unfolds, rather than filed away until the next planning season.
when to use annual planning?
The workshop sets up quarterly check-ins so the plan is reviewed and adjusted as the year unfolds, rather than filed away until the next planning season.
Most organisations plan once a year, so the timing usually takes care of itself. The real question is whether your process produces alignment or just a budget. A facilitated annual planning workshop is especially effective when:
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Your financial year is approaching and you want priorities and targets agreed before the budget is finalised.
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Last year’s plan was a collection of department plans, and your leaders spent the year competing for the same resources.
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You have a longer-term strategy but struggle to turn it into a practical plan for the next twelve months.
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Your previous annual plan was signed off and then rarely looked at again.
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You have a new CEO, a new leadership team or a changed market, and last year’s assumptions no longer hold.
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Your board wants a clearer line of sight between strategy, priorities and the budget it is being asked to approve.
types of annual planning
1
Annual Operating Plan
The most common approach. Your leadership team sets the year’s revenue and cost targets, key initiatives and resourcing, usually alongside the budget. It works best when it starts from strategy, and least well when it starts from last year’s numbers plus a few percent.
2
Rolling Three-Year Plan with Annual Priorities
Your strategy looks three years out and is refreshed each year, with the next twelve months broken down into a short list of priorities. This keeps each annual plan tied to your long-term direction, so you are not starting from scratch every year.
3
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
Annual objectives set the direction, and key results are set and reviewed each quarter. A good fit for growing businesses that need focus and the room to adjust as they learn. Read more on our OKR workshops page.
4
Balanced Scorecard
Developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, the balanced scorecard sets goals and measures across four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. Useful when your board or funders need to see that performance is about more than the financial result.
5
Hoshin Kanri
A planning method from Japanese manufacturing, used by companies such as Toyota, that links a small number of breakthrough objectives to annual goals and then to each team’s work. Its strength is “catchball”, the back-and-forth between levels that tests whether goals are achievable before they are locked in.
6
The GAME Plan
Turning Leaf’s own implementation planning framework: Goals, Activities, Measurement, Evaluation. Built for teams that already have a strategy and need a simple, practical way to turn it into the year’s work. Read more on our strategy into action page.
why choose turning leaf for your annual planning workshop?
We have spent two decades facilitating boards and executive teams across some of Australia's most complex and high-stakes organisations. Our executive facilitators have all held senior leadership roles, so they understand the dynamics of the executive suite not from the outside, but from direct personal experience.
We know that executive facilitation requires a different level of skill and a different kind of presence than general workshop facilitation. The ability to hold the space for genuinely honest conversation in a room full of strong personalities, high stakes, and complex political dynamics is what distinguishes a great executive facilitator from a good one.
At Turning Leaf, we take executive facilitation engagements seriously. We invest significant time in pre-engagement preparation so we understand the specific dynamics of your board or executive team, the strategic questions that most need to be addressed, and the facilitation approach most likely to produce the outcomes you need.
turning leaf proven 6-step process
1. Discovery and pre-work
Before your workshop, we conduct pre-workshop interviews with key participants and, where appropriate, a survey of your leadership team. This surfaces the real issues, uncovers hidden tensions, and ensures your facilitator walks into the room already familiar with your team, your strategic context, and the dynamics that most need to be addressed. There are no surprises on the day.
2. Agenda design
Your workshop agenda is built around your specific strategic objectives, not a generic template. We decide together what conversations need to happen, in what order, and how much time each deserves. The agenda is purposeful and flexible, designed to produce genuine strategic output while keeping energy and momentum high throughout.
3. Framing the challenge
We brief all participants on the process and context before the day begins. When people understand what they are walking into, they arrive ready to contribute. Clear expectations reduce defensiveness, raise engagement, and mean your team can focus immediately on the work that matters.
4. Your workshop
On the day, whether a half-day, full day, or multi-day residential, your Turning Leaf facilitator leads the group through the agreed agenda. They manage the dynamics of the room, draw out quieter voices, challenge comfortable assumptions respectfully, and keep the group on track without suppressing the conversations that really matter. The facilitator drives, but never influences. The thinking and the ownership stay with your team.
5. Strategy into action
Great facilitation produces great conversations. Before your workshop closes, your facilitator guides your leaders through translating strategic direction into practical priorities, named owners, and committed timelines. Nothing is left ambiguous. Your team leaves with clear decisions and the energy to act on them.
6. Post-workshop output
We provide a structured summary of key decisions, strategic priorities, and action items from the day, delivered the next day while the momentum is fresh. Many clients return to this document throughout their planning cycle as a record of what was agreed and a prompt to keep the team moving.