Strategic Planning Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Why Do We Need to Think Differently About Strategic Planning and Strategic Plans?

It's important to distinguish between how we create a strategic plan, and the actual strategic plan itself. Why?

Here's an analogy. You want to take a vacation and drive across country to a resort. You decide to plan out your route (that's like strategic planning), by sitting down with some maps, and other information, and mark out your driving route to get you to your destination. In the process of doing that, you've learned a great deal about highway routes, attractions on the way and so on, but you simply end up with a plan. You aren't "there yet."

Now you have to use the plan, itself. You need to use that plan to guide your driving and your decision-making throughout your trip. The ability to follow, use and understand the plan requires quite different skills than actually formulating the plan. For example, your plan (e.g. the map with your route and stops indicated on it) requires that you can actually read maps properly. And implementing the plan will require you to read signs along the way, make decisions. You don't need to read signs to do strategic planning, but you DO need to read signs to make use of the strategic plan.

This may seem like a silly distinction, until we realize that strategic planning will only add value if the planning process is done properly, AND, the use of the plan (implementing the plan) is done properly. If you planned poorly, you'd probably get lost on your vacation. If you didn't know how to read your plan, or couldn't read signs along the way, even though your planning process could have been excellent, you'd probably get lost.