9 Critical Questions to Ask BEFORE Deciding to Embark on a Strategic Plan

I will be honest. I am a bit of a Strategic Planning skeptic – so best to get that bias out first. My overall experience is that the cliché of the report that sits on the shelf (or a cloud server, to be more 21^st century) or a planning process that falls short of expectations is far too common. 

I won’t start the diatribe here about why that may be happening – that’s for another post – but let’s just leave it at strategic plans are often a square approach (peg) to a round set of desired outcomes (hole).

Instead, I want to offer up the questions that successfully guide any planning or design process in a way that ensures that the process actually gets you where you want to be. Not surprisingly, it starts from what you hope to accomplish as opposed to presumption of what we ‘should’ do. Those familiar with Catalytic Decision Making™ will recognize this pattern of questioning.

So…before jumping to the decision to move forward with a strategic planning process and sending out the dreaded request for proposals (RFP), take some time to gather and consider the following questions.

First, about the planning process:

1. Who will be affected by your decision to participate in a strategic planning process?
   (if your list is only 3 or 4 deep, keep going, who did you forget or not consider)
    
2. What is the highest potential benefit for each of the people or groups identified above as a result of the planning process?
   (how will they benefit and what beneficial behaviors are expected from them as a result of the process)
   
   *STOP: Were the people impacted asked what benefit they hope for or need
    
3. Look at the desired benefits of doing the planning. Ask what it truly takes for someone to genuinely achieve that benefit. What conditions need to be in place to support them in achieving those desired benefits?
   (what do they need to have, believe, value, experience, be able to do, etc)
   
   *STOP: Were the people impacted asked what conditions they believe they need to be able to achieve the desired benefit or are you working off assumptions
   
   Inflection Point 1
   
   
4. Do the conditions you just identified exist for the people whom you hope to benefit?
   If yes, planning may be unnecessary?
   If no (more likely), what actions/activities actually create the conditions that will lead to the benefits you identified for the audiences above?
   
   (AGAIN: Were those whom you hope to benefit asked their perspective)
   
   Inflection Point 2
   
   
5. What would it take to do the things identified in question 4?
   Does that align with the original planning process we had envisioned?
   If not highly aligned, adjust the approach to match the logic you just laid out above.

 

Second, about the output/plan

1. Who will be affected by the existence of the product you envision (a strategic plan document)?
   (again, consider ALL parties affected by the existence of the product)
    
2. What is the highest potential benefit/outcome of having the document for each person/entity affected?
   (specifically, what behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, benefits, are expected of them)
   
   *STOP: Were they asked ...
   
   
3. What does it truly take for each affected group to actually achieve the benefit/outcome identified?
   (What conditions need to be in place - what do they need to have, believe, value, experience, be able to do, etc)
   
   *STOP AGAIN: Were they asked
   
   Inflection Point
    
4.  What does it take to create the conditions identified from question 3 for the people affected?    

a.  Which conditions can actually be met by the plan document and what would it need to contain to create those conditions?
(this informs the content and design of the plan document)

b.  Which conditions require supplemental and/or ongoing action/behavior in order to be met?

                        i.   What are those behaviors and whom do they apply to?

                        ii.  What will it take to successfully support and sustain those behaviors?

c.  Are these conditions in place or likely to be sustained within the organization?

Reflection Point

Now that you have responded to the questions and hopefully engaged more people in the process, HONESTLY, what is it pointing towards?

• Can an episodic strategic plan or strategic planning process realistically meet the conditions that have been identified as necessary to advance the desired outcomes/behaviors?

• Or, are the conditions more about culture and general organizational practices?

If the later, what will it take to make and sustain that adjustment within the organizational environment, AND, what is the where-with-all to commit to putting all the necessary conditions in place to ensure success?

PS: These questions DO require engaging more people in the preparation-to-plan process (or pre-work) and, if those people are expected to benefit or be impacted by the choice to move forward with a planning process, best to give them voice at the beginning if you want ‘buy-in,’ ‘ownership,’ and ‘accountability’ – or simply if you want the process to achieve benefits that are worthy of the investment.