Why Nearly Every Business Screws Up Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is usually an arcane and misunderstood process. We all know it’s necessary for business success, but no one seems to agree on how to conduct it. During last week’s Mind Map Gurus session, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jerry Mings, a process consultant and master group facilitator with 30+ years of experience working with boards and senior executives. He ended up sharing the clearest breakdown of Strategic Planning I’ve ever seen in a simple four-part framework. Below’s the TLDR for our Strategy Nerds.👇
4 Dimensions Framework
Jerry’s 4 Dimensions Framework for strategic planning involves the following:
🔍 Strategic intelligence is the collecting external and internal data/information to inform strategic thinking. When done right, intelligence gathers input from strategic partners, clients, employees, historical performance, financials, tech trends, etc. The goal is to arm leadership with confidence in their decision making. Jerry’s pro tip is to “involve the people usually last in the decision-making process, first”, for example the legal department. I shared an example where the Niantic Labs (the makers of Pokemon Go) Product team involved User Operations (the team I worked on) too late in a feature development process with disastrous results.
💡 Strategic thinking is developing plans, priorities, and strategic imperatives based on intelligence. Involving stakeholders responsible for execution or who provide important insights improves outcomes. Their input prevents issues during implementation.
🚀 Strategic execution is implementing plans through milestone maps and annual plans. Execution is important but often overlooked. Implementing milestone maps and annual plans allows organizations to see results throughout the plan, not just at the end. This helps efforts stay on track.
📊 Strategic evaluation assesses progress, outcomes, alignment, impact, and lessons learned. Evaluation provides feedback beyond just retrospectives by informing intelligence to update thinking about the present and future.
The dimensions are interrelated and feedback into each other through a continuous process. Evaluation data feeds back into intelligence, and improves strategic thinking and execution.
My main learnings (i.e. Epiphanies) are:
1) Strategic Execution is a key part of strategic planning. Too often the people who plan don’t execute or are removed from the execution process, hence never see the results of their plans and therefore never learn if the strategy worked or not.
Basically, the feedback loop is never closed, and the organization moves onto the “next big problem” without reviewing their approach, much less their thinking process (more on this next…).
2) Strategic Thinking is a mindset, both at the individual and organizational level. It’s being able to ask “why” you are doing something, not just “how” to do it or memorizing cool sounding frameworks. In every company, management is responsible for teaching AND encouraging this type of thinking, as well as providing opportunities for employees to execute and see how their thinking informs decisions, and how those decisions play out in the market.
That’s how Strategic Thinking is cultivated, rather than simply taught textbook style, which also means trying to teach Strategic Thinking is wishful thinking.
3) Furthermore, Facilitation plays a critical role in strategic processes by shepherding discussions, and clarifying objectives. Jerry showed how mind maps in particular are valuable for organizing vast amounts of information and aligning stakeholders and meeting participants through an interactive centralized workspace.
As I like to say, “Mind Maps don’t lie”. If you put everything on a map, you’re able to share exactly what you mean and build collaborative consensus while lowering the risk of misinterpretation.
By the way, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what Jerry shared in his exclusive 2 hour session. You’ll find the full recording inside Mind Map Nation along with more time-saving notes, but our monthly livestreams are 100% free, so be sure to check every week’s Epiphany so you don’t miss our future workshops.
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