Is ?Strategic Planning? An Oxymoron? | Governance and Strategic ...

The term, ?Strategic planning? is so ingrained in our business language, it is easier to work around it than attempt to redefine it.

A dictionary defines strategy as a ?behaviors, processes, or structures aimed at evolutionary success.? ?Evolutionary? is long-rage and to me, beyond any useful ?planning? horizon.

Top leaders engage in strategic thinking, an ongoing focus to position the company to be where it is beneficial to meet now-developing-trends where they will be in decades or generations ahead. Wayne Gretzky explains his greatness saying he skates to where the puck will be [rather than chasing after it].

?Planning? usually means something short term. For example, as business people (and consultants, leaders, managers, parents), we plan our days and weeks. We also use ?planning? to describe the process for designing what our organizations will do next year. We still call it planning when we attempt to design what we want to accomplish in a several years, in what we call a long-range plan.

In this way, the term, ?strategic planning,? becomes an oxymoron.

In spite of that, I use ?Strategic Planning? to describe the strategic thinking process and the process of top leadership defining mission, vision and core or enterprise strategies. To implement that so-called Strategic Plan, I rely on the next levels of management to develop tactical plans?long and short-range goals?to achieve with deadlines and action steps, staff assignments, and budget line-items.

These later tactical plans are often referred to as ?strategic plans.? One might argue: these tactical plans can be called the plans that implement strategy; therefore they are strategic plans. My concern is that calling the lower planning, ?strategic? may distract us from strategic thinking and core strategy development. Thus, I help my clients label them differently, and to involve different groups of people in four distinct tiers.

For those interested in more, read my model at danclark.com >>services >>planning. I welcome your feedback: comment here or email me ? dan@danclark.com.

Source: http://boardgovernance.storeblogs.com/2012/02/07/strategic-planning-an-oxymoron

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