Why Strategic Plans Fall Short
If you end up abandoning, or outright trashing planning efforts, here’s a likely reason, and what you can do about it.
“Hang on…I know it’s in here.”
The CEO was rifling through his desk drawer, in search of the Strategic Plan he’d stashed…three or four years ago.
“That’s okay. I don’t need to see it right now,” I’d let him know.
But he was on a mission. As if he needed to prove they’d gone through this exercise before.
And just when he seemed on the verge of abandoning his search…
“Aha…found it.”
He raised a hefty wire-bound document with great looking bold type proclaiming “Five Year Strategic Plan For Profitable Growth.” The firm’s color logo punctuated the cover.
He handed it to me.
After what he’d gone through to find it, I felt obligated to flip through the document. But I was fairly certain I already knew one of the main reasons the plan had been relegated to the bottom of a seldom explored desk drawer.
Day Dreaming
Sometimes it begins with doodles on a napkin…
Or in a free-wheeling brainstorming session that produces a whiteboard full of notes…
“It” is the imagineering that begins with “what if” or “I wonder” and becomes so compelling that it takes up residence in your consciousness.
These are the ideas that get us up early, excite us and fuel late nights…
These are day dreams that evolve into a vision that drives us.
From scribbled thoughts about an assembly line that could accelerate production, to the audacious dream that man could journey to the moon — a vision of what might be possible is what drives progress.
Don’t get me wrong.
The beautiful (99-page) strategic plan the CEO handed me devoted most of three pages to the firm’s “vision.” It was nice copy. Suitable for a website.
But something was missing.
Forgetting the Fuel
A vision that drives performance has two parts.
The first is the day dream piece — the aspiration — the “we’ll-send-a-man-to-the-moon” part. This is the stuff that stirs us…causes goose bumps. This part of a vision is akin to the early days of an infatuation — all consuming for a season, but given enough time, it inevitably changes.
The second piece of the puzzle is what drives performance for the long haul.
It is the connective tissue that fuels action.
I’m not talking about action items per se, but a framework that ties every action or task, however large or small, to the vision. This is what gives purpose to what might seem like activity detached from the big vision.
This is what keeps an entire team engaged.
And this connective tissue is what is missing from almost every “strategic plan” I review.
From Bottom-of-the-Drawer to Top-of-Mind
If you want to breathe life into your planning process — whether you’re scoping five years, five months or five days, spend more time focusing on the connective tissue — ways to underscore how each action taken is tied to the greater Vision.
Every assistant, everyone in the mail room, accounts receivable, the receptionist — every single person in your organization should know their effort is critical to the mission.
Three things happen when every person knows their work connects to something larger than any job description: each task has an understood purpose; this creates immeasurable leverage; and the vision stays top of mind.
The combination of these three things is what drives progress. This is what aligns seemingly disparate actions like accounts payable and business development. Or sales and client service.
And this combination creates a sustainable rallying cry for leaders that resonates.
It even guides audacious dreams along the road to reality.
The best strategic plan translates a compelling vision into a guiding light, broadly charting a course, identifying critical benchmarks along the way.
It is flexible enough to embrace the unforeseen, yet solid enough to prevent distraction and keep you on track.
What about the plan my CEO friend rescued from oblivion?
All it lacked was some updating of the vision and the addition of the connective tissue that underscored the purpose of each task.
The same may be true for a planning process you’ve already invested in. Revisit your vision — the thing that gave rise to your endeavor.
(A side note here: the best articulation of a vision is short, simple and straight forward. Think — “we will put a man on the moon.” It is something every person on the team can tie to. Don’t be concerned with great poetry for your website.)
Once you have a statement of what the future holds, then add the connective tissue…the purpose for each player. Worry less about specific action items beyond the next three to six months and more about the communication framework that will keep purpose and progress front and center.
No surprise here. Internal communication is key, and it deserves time and leadership attention. Plenty of otherwise good plans get lost in the desk drawer due to marginal communication.
So if your planning process has produced an impressive document, but left you short of the progress you allowed yourself to day dream about, focus on the connective tissue. Without it, plans die. With it, a plan will take on a life of its own, and can help you realize your Vision.
P.S. If you’d like a complimentary copy of a video (less than 5 minutes) that explores how to turn your Vision into a plan, email me — eric@ericfletcherconsulting.com — and request the Elephant video. I’ll send you the link, free.