Several years ago, I was called in to work with an organization that had just completed a conventional strategic planning process.
This was an extraordinarily successful organization, a leader in its field.
But the process had identified a huge “gap” between where the organization was and where it “should” be. The staff were feeling beaten up as the board focused on the organization’s apparent deficiencies, rather than its numerous strengths and potentials.
Any wonder that morale was at an all-time low?
Inventing the future can be exciting, rather than draining. Instead of performing the rote exercises of conventional strategic planning, which many of us have come to dread, we can use methods that build the energy for extraordinary implementation right from the start.
The Point of Planning is the Doing
We know that the point of strategic planning is the doing that comes after the planning. So here are four questions before we begin:
- Can we notch up our aspirations so our organization (and we) can make our greatest contributions?
- Can we see what success would look like before we set out, knowing that if we have a picture of where we want to go, we’re more likely to get there?
- What are the guiding principles that will get us there (suggested by the values that have brought us to our current level of success)?
- How do we locate the energy to realize these potentials?
Is Your Strategic Plan Giving You the Confidence to Dream More Boldly?
Is your strategic planning process focused on the question: “How do we keep advancing, inch by inch, on our path to success?” Then the traditional problem-solving and SWOT approach will probably serve you well.
If your aspirations are higher, the questions to ask are: “How do we inspire, mobilize and sustain human will and energy? How do we realize human and organizational potential?”
Then you’ll want to focus your attention on what you have — the resources you can tap — rather than what you lack.
By looking back to the best of our past and present, we find the “stuff” of which we’re made. At the very least, we want to preserve those capabilities and values.
At the very best, we use them to stimulate our thinking about what can be. They give us the confidence to dream more boldly and to act in the knowledge that we can make a difference — because we know we have made a difference.
Deficit-based change initiatives, in contrast, usually require much pushing, directing, and redirecting.
Where’s the Will for Implementation?
Those experienced with strategic planning know that resolve often falters during implementation. In fact, most strategic plans just lie on the shelf, gathering dust.
The process of envisioning a successful outcome is the route to generating the energy and will it takes to get there. Skipping this stage is what causes many strategic planning processes to miss the mark.
Martin Luther King did not say, “I have a strategic plan.” Instead, he shouted, “I have a dream” — and created a crusade.
A crusade calls for a sense of urgency. When we focus on valuing ourselves, our strengths and our potential, we minimize resistance and defensiveness. That’s one of the reasons we’re finding that this strength-based approach works faster than traditional processes. (It’s also more fun.)
Consulting? Maybe speaking, writing, coaching, facilitating, teaching, advising? Get the special report I’m just now finishing on 3 strategies ... “How to create the consulting practice you really want.” Click here for your complimentary copy.
