Why most Strategic Plans are little more than wish-lists
In fact I’ll go one step further and say that many Strategic Plans are DELIBERATE methods for NOT Progressing. In far too many organisations, the process of Strategic Planning is about compliance to a process of ‘having a plan’ and typically it has nothing to do with achievement of the outcomes listed in the Strategic Plan. They are at best a wishlist of hoped for outcomes. More often however they are used to hide a major lack of accountability and progress
Now I say this having reviewed hundreds of organisational Strategic Plans from multinational entities, Federal and State Government agencies, owner run businesses and not for profit organisations. I make the claim based on working with and training over three hundred different entities in Strategic Planning workshops, Board facilitation of strategy development, and delivering Strategy sessions to senior management groups.
And here is how it works for the ‘wish-list’ approach: The planning is mandated by an external entity (compliance requirement); the format is typically pro-forma fill in the blanks; the content is based mostly on a continuation of last year; and the information around available resources is scant. In this light, the entity will put together something that looks a lot like the last Strategic Plan, and fill it with high end statements about hopes for the future. This is the ‘we do it because we have to do it’ approach.
And lacking in a clear understanding of resources and capabilities, it will fail.
Other organisations are far more structured. In these organisations the purpose of a Strategic Plan is to distract or misdirect the workforce, management team or stakeholders from the real task at hand – to do whatever appeals to certain parts of the organisation regardless of potential. These Strategic Plans normally rely on a Strategic Planning team or Unit that asks division to respond to key planning criteria. But no single unit will understand what other units are doing, want to do or would like to do. No other unit will understand or be part of a shared outcome. And no single division will be held accountable to the Strategic Plan outcomes. This is the ‘more of the same, ask no questions’ approach.
And lacking in shared vision and stuck in silos, it will fail
The implications should not be downplayed – if you make a statement of intention in any form, a failure to act or initiate action towards that intention will nag away at you both consciously and unconscously. It will become a distraction; it will eat away at your focus; it will remind you at all sorts of unusual times. It’ll be the rust eating away at your foundations.
And yet the solution is surprisingly simple – DO! But to Do! well you need accountability to intentions and you need to monitor progress weekly, not quarterly. You need to be able to articulate your Off-Track and ON-Track signals of progress IN ADVANCE. And that requires you to think about where you are headed, why and what might emerge along the way.
Improved Monitoring and Accountability leads to one stunning outcome – you can Often Do Less, yet Achieve more
The immediate needs of farming families are obvious. Feed to keep stock alive, someway of holding onto their farms under the stand-over tactics of some banks, and Rain. Donations can fix the immediate short term to an extent but they cannot fix the long term trajectory. That requires difficult conversations and an acceptance of the…
Read More >There are four phases of thinking that every organisation MUST have available to them if they plan to be resilient to challenges, adaptable to changing circumstances and able to sustain themselves over time. The Phases are Strategic; Operational; Execution; and Evolution. If you miss any one of them or underplay an area, sooner or later…
Read More >Life is full of interesting and not so interesting choices. Some seemingly mundane or innocuous choices turn out to be life makers (and breakers). Occasionally the noisy intensive choices turn out to be little more than a passing zephyr carrying dust. The National Party in Australia have just been presented with a ‘Fork in The…
Read More >It probably does not get much simpler than this – no MBA required, no advanced training needed. And rather than give you the ‘mistake’ I’ll just give you the solution which is this: NEVER mistake the positiveness of Your Intent… with the ACTIONS you have taken! You cannot improve if you convince yourself that ‘good…
Read More >In parts of the world it’s Christmas day, a time for excusing your retail spending on a ‘worthy cause’. Which is fun in some ways and delusional in others 🙂 Don’t allow my grinchness deter you from enjoying today. As for me, I’m delighted that a) my present was wrapped in old newspaper and b)…
Read More >Part of being effective as a futurist is being able to assess potential issues and their impact over time. The Victorian State Election is on this Saturday and though many say that State elections have little bearing on issues we face, our system means that the fluctuations at a Federal level are often countered by…
Read More >‘m wrapped to be acting as EmCee for the third year in a row at Blackwood 8’s Celebration of Hope event, raising money to find a Cure for Brain Cancer. And delighted that the event has sold out. But fret not – you can still bid for some great auction items online or make a…
Read More >The major party in Australia’s dual party Government, the Liberal Party, has removed their leader Tony Abbott, replacing him with the previous leader, Malcolm Turnbull. PM designate Turnbull may be inclined to spend the first few days appeasing and reassuring his party members that everything will be okay. And that would be a mistake. Public…
Read More >When I look at my overall client types, it seems to me that I have two main types of client. The first is a client that has a good business and is generally successful and wants a futurist to help keep them ahead of emerging issues and opportunities. The second main client type is one…
Read More >As a consultant, one of the great puzzles I consistently discover is the mindset many clients hold with regard to their own abilities to conceive of and pursue, their own approach to futures thinking. I know this is not an issues restricted to futurists as where some clients have a ‘not invented here’ approach to…
Read More >