During my career I have used many different approaches to strategic management.  The most effective and fast is one I will call the analytic approach.  I learned the basic from Jim Radford and modified it to adapt for an action oriented approach.  The process can be done with one individual or a team.  The planning team should be selected to include people who have a vested interest in the outcome.  The facilitator will document the process and guide the discussion.

The initial step is to identify the issue.  We need a brief description of the issue  and then what is the preferred outcome.

The next step is to identify  the key Participants in the issue.  The Participants are any person or organization that has the power to influence the outcome.  For example, Participants might be your department, other departments, competitors, customers, suppliers, other parts of the organization, time factors and  environmental issues.

Environmental issues are interesting because these factor are those
things that are outside the control of the organization;  for example,
inflation, government regulations, foreign exchange, and terrorism.

Time factors must be considered carefully because often it is a key
strategic factor.  Is the issue urgent now, in six months or two years.

So now for each participant we discuss possible courses of action
they can take.  We consider for example all the courses of action we
could take, then what actions customers might take, and so on.  These
are all listed. 

Each one of the actions are then evaluated by the strength or force
of the influence  it has over the issue and its credibility.  The
strength is rated as weak, medium, strong or prohibitive.  The
credibility is low, medium or high. 

These are documented in format the allows all the planning team to
view the results.  Often negotiation occurs to change rating and
factors as the preferred course of action starts to evolve.

The team then chooses the preferred course of action and then
decides what actions needed to be taken in the next six weeks to
improve the situation.  Then the preferred outcome is reviewed to
ensure the actions will lead to the preferred outcome.  Again
modification can occur. 

Then action are assigned to individuals and reporting processes identified. 

The process is very visual and analytic with lots of room for
discussion and negotiation.  I have found this a very powerful tool for
dealing with a single issue or multiple issues conflicting for limited
resources.