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Strategy and strategic planning have the potential to align the people, processes and resources in a business or organisation with a clear, compelling and desired future.
Traditional planning processes focus on 'how' to take your business or organisation from where it is today to where you want it to be in the future.
The problem with traditional planning processes is that they fail when imperfect knowledge, unintended consequences, uncertainty, bad luck or internal resistance block the approach outlined in the strategy or plan.
There are still some benefits in traditional techniques for accumulating data like P.E.S.T.L.E. (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) and S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
However, we have to recognise that these methods are nothing more than processes that high level planners use in an attempt to consider all aspects of the business.
This makes the plan process-based, exclusive and top down. Traditional methods therefore lead to a somewhat clinical analysis and as any senior manager knows, the reality is often far from clinical.
Additionally, once the traditional plan is developed, it must then be communicated, put into action and integrated into daily decision-making.
The separation of the decision-makers from the implementers makes it difficult to get people to buy into the vision and align their efforts with the overall goal.
Traditional planning also limits the options to achieve success as it defines how to achieve the objective.
By the time you get an answer to how you take your business/organisation forward, it is filtered through the following:
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It’s important to remember that there is no universally correct strategy about how to do something, but working with Partnered Solutions will help you to find the correct route.
In this evolving world of transparency, it makes much more sense to develop a “WHY” based strategy or strategic plan leaving flexibility in how the implementation is followed through.
WHY based plans include input from all the stakeholders, greatly increasing the flow of strategic information (eliminating the need for P.E.S.T.L.E. and S.W.O.T.) and thereby creating more choices.
The involvement of more people means a more bottom-up approach and the greater the support for the resulting plan.
Acceptance of WHY based plans result in empowerment, with people finding new ways to reach the goal when obstacles appear.
Successfully implemented strategies start with an understanding and acceptance by a majority of the parties involved about why you are undertaking the endeavor.
Because managers have been trained in traditional 'how' based strategic planning, it is rare to find wide spread understanding and acceptance in most organisations.
No matter how good the plan, if the people responsible for its execution are not supportive, the plan will most likely not succeed.
Strategy and strategic planning in today's highly competitive environment can no longer be relegated to senior managers alone and then imposed on the rest of the organisation.
Survival demands that everyone in an organisation contribute not just their labour, but their minds and spirit as well.
Involving and empowering employees to react appropriately and quickly to solve problems on their own requires understanding and ownership of the WHY of the endeavor.
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Strategy and Planning
