Strategic Planning

It doesn't make sense. Organizational leaders feel they should have good plans - and they are right. Private firms, government agencies and non-profits are all facing an uncertain future. Indeed, planning is still popular, and poor planning is shown to be among the top reasons for business failure.

The trouble is, people put too much faith in the document, often a bland re-hash of familiar issues. The real magic of strategic planning is when you use it as a transformational process.

After a lot of study and field work in program implementation, I was ready. Working with a like-minded team, I helped lead a manufacturing firm to win the Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award.

I am convinced: planners must follow a structured method that involves a round table review of the soul of the company: What are our special assets and values? What is our unique competitive advantage? As participants are invited, perhaps for the first time, to articulate their conception of the organization, they start to feel a compelling motive to work together and make the enterprise succeed!

What about the infamous "implementation gap"? No, I wasn't going to fall into that trap. I had already seen it, and even interviewed CEOs about reasons for business failure. I collected the proven principles of successful program implementation, and now I check all plans against them. To help you do this, I have formulated the success factors in a table (p.57).

Strategic planning, properly done and executed, can transform the culture and propel the organization to success.

Using this book, you will:

• gain clarity about the strategic planning process;
• confidently focus the planning discussion;
• engage managers and staff, build your team, and transform a negative culture.

This book is a fast read, 70 pages, complete with diagrams; templates; references; quotes from industry practitioners; and index. If you can organize and chair meetings, and if you are motivated to move the organization ahead, you can do this. Order it and start planning for success.