Peter
Bishop of the University of Houston Clearlake Future Studies faculty has written an
article called, "Thinking Like a Futurist" in the June/July 1998 issue of The
Futurist Magazine. In it he calls strategic planning "the most often used and the
most poorly practiced technique in the futurists toolkit." The poorly practiced
phrase actually seems to mean "poorly implemented" because the process itself is
made of up "endless forms, pointless meetings, large three-ring binders stuffed with
details."
According to Bishop, "the best strategic plans are short. They set the direction,
not every detail of carrying it out."
WALLY'S COMMENT ... Amen!
Think about the differences in strategy between the Second World War and the Vietnam
War. In the Second World War, a huge global conflict, the twin-pronged strategy of defeat
Germany and then defeat Japan could be laid out easily and cleanly on far less than a
single side of a sheet of paper. The people responsible for the strategy made the key
decisions about objectives and overall direction and then moved things to people closer to
the front lines.
In Vietnam the issue was quite different. The objective was never entirely clear and
the folks who made the basic strategic decisions, primarily sitting in Washington, DC, saw
fit to put restrictions, qualifications, and limits on just about everything. Decisions
were made at a strategic level of organization that probably should have been made at an
operational level instead.
Is that why one strategy worked and the other didn't? I believe, that in part, that's
true.
Some years back I worked with a client who had spent several years developing a major
strategic plan. The plan was put into several binders. Since the plan was supposed to be
implemented over a five year period and since we were not quite halfway through that, I
spent some of my time going around to key executives and asking them if they knew about
the earlier plan. They all did. I asked them if they were using it. None of them were.
That is, none of them were until I found one fellow who said, "oh sure, I use it
every day."
I was really excited at this point, I'd found somebody who was using the plan. I wanted
to know how he was using it. He cocked his thumb over his shoulder. There sitting on the
floor were three fat-ringed binders in front of an open door. "That door blows shut
when people open the one at the other end of the hall," he said, "I use the plan
to keep the door open."
I believe the best strategic plans have the following characteristics. First, they have
a clear, understandable strategic objective. The objective needs to be so clear that
anyone at any level in the organization can understand it. Sometimes that's done with
slogans, sometimes with stories, always it's done through culture and repetition more than
it's done through fat binders.
Successful strategic plans make key strategic decisions. In business, often the most
important strategic decision is what kind of business will not be taken.
Successful strategic plans allow those closer to the action to make the most important
decisions. Their success comes more from a clear direction and lots of small course
corrections than it does for intricate, micro-level, detailed planning.
My guidelines?
Keep it clear
Keep it simple
Keep it flexible
This material originally appeared in Wally Bock’s Briefing Memo Newsletter of 15 July 1998.
Reviewed: 2/15/03
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