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Strategic planning is
a waste of time, unless you ask the right questions
Step into the Future | by Brenda Miller
It is a rare professional, or organization, who creates a strategic plan for three,
five, 10 or 15 years ahead, unless of course you're successful and staying ahead
of your competition, and a leader in your industry -- or you want to be.
If you are not evaluating trends, forecasting future scenarios, identifying key forces
and incorporating your vision, mission and goals into a strategic plan for your business
or life, making a long-term strategic plan is plainly a waste of time and effort.
As any New Yorker would say, "Forget about it." Put your feet up, pour
yourself another cappuccino, cancel your next strategic planning meeting and go about
business as usual.
"Why not just do a traditional strategic plan?" you ask. Not all strategic
plans are created equal. It's like looking at the map of the United States. Unless
you know why you're looking at it -- you're moving across country, you want to take
a trip to the Grand Cannon, or you just want to visit your friend in the next county
-- it's a nice distraction, but it's not getting you anywhere.
The key is found in the questions. What's your time frame? How do you want to travel:
in luxury or in a borrowed camper trailer? Are highways rerouted or closed along
the way? Will you be passing through major cities during peak rush hour? What is
your budget? What is your goal and mission of the trip? How would you like to feel
on the trip and on your return? Do you even want to return? Have you planned for
unexpected emergencies?
Strategic vs. Anticipatory Planning
A strategic plan needs to do more than help you map out actions to reach a goal.
That is why anticipatory planning is several notches above strategic planning and
is used by a good futurist and consultant. It's the equivalent of Emeril Lagasse
putting a whole lot of "BAM" in his food. All you have to do is watch the
reaction of his audience to know the impact and success of that.
Anticipatory planning adds processes that help define a future that is wide-angle,
big-picture and long-view. Few strategists know about anticipatory planning, and
of those who do, it takes special skills to incorporate all the essential ingredients.
Missing just one element can turn it into something useless.
One such technique is to walk an organization or a person through a SWOTs exercise,
which is designed to draw out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
to the organization and its industry. In addition to a SWOT, a SEPT analysis also
is done to see the societal, economic, political and technological issues that may
affect a person, organization, product, service and the future.
Certainly, not all these areas will have a direct impact on a person or organization,
but they may have a distant or indirect effect. The sustainability and stability
of organizations depend on how well these indicators are looked at and the capability
of the person to ask the right questions.
Putting it together
This analysis is done in a unique format while also evaluating trends, identifying
key forces and critiquing strategies. Then we look at the strengths and weaknesses
of the plan, strategies, or goals. A list of opportunities is created to help us
see the best path or paths. Finally, we evaulate threats that throw the plan off
course. From the comparisons of this information, we find the optimum path or paths
that one may take in the future to achieve the desired outcome.
Most people can do a credible job of identifying strengths and weaknesses as they
exist in the present. Yet, the typical models or knowledge base don't prefigure challenging
opportunities and threats into the future. The challenge and skill is knowing how
to look beyond the present, which is beyond the reach of ordinary strategic planning.
Futurology, the studying of possible futures, provides extraordinary value in preparing
proactive personal, organizational and community vision and action.
Anticipatory thinking and training psychologically prepares a person and group to
more vigorously envision what may lie ahead. Such thought-provoking dialogue and
scenario planning provides a more dynamic identification of opportunities and threats
in the future, their possible impacts and the challenges of meeting them.
These are a few of the questions that need to be asked: Are the strategies "robust"?
Do they work in most or all scenarios outlined? Do your strategies align with your
vision, mission and goals?
The discussions and decisions that follow are based on the understanding that we
are all interconnected, and we will effect others beyond this division and throughout
the whole organization.
Just the beginning
However, that is just the beginning. After the envisioning and goal-setting process,
the next step is to prepare strategic guideposts and ideas that allow us to direct
a person or organization toward their future vision, and then plan and manage it
into being.
A timeline is created for the action plans, clearly defining targets and measurements
to revisit as you proceed, and to assess later if you have been successful.
Creating strategic priorities and plans of action for your organization, yourself
or your partners need broad stakeholder support. The same is true when anticipatory
planning is used for personal life strategies. Then the questions revolve around
family and friend support.
In a future column, the impacts of driving forces, trend and scenario analysis and
forecasting will be discussed, along with contingency and emergency planning that
are part of the strategic and anticipatory planning process.
Every decision made will have lasting consequences and needs to be fully thought
out and not made in a vacuum. The art and science of anticipatory and human behavioral
practices can mean the difference between success and failure, financial gain and
loss.
So, "why would anyone waste such valuable time to do an ordinary strategic plan?"
you now ask. Exactly the point.
Brenda Miller is a forecaster and whole-systems design strategist. As a Certified
Master Professional Futurist, and Certified Trainer in Emotional Intelligence, she
specializes and helps people, businesses, and organizations see, understand, and
respond to change so they can creatively design a brighter future. Ms. Miller is
President and Chief Global Strategist of New Crotona, a Futures-based consultancy
providing services in futures planning, advertising, marketing, business strategies,
team building, leadership coaching, and Internet business solutions and website development. Ms. Miller is President of
the Minnesota Futurists Association and a Professional Member of the World Futurists.
For more information, contact her at (651) 731-4037 or e-mail brenda@newcrotona.com,
and visit www.NewCrotona.com.
Copyright © 2005 Brenda Miller. All rights reserved. |
| July 2005 |
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