It's time to break apart a 50-year-old business tradition - strategic
planning - and think about it in terms of two distinct activities:
strategic thinking and execution planning.
I'm not sure why the two words, strategy and planning, were ever
lumped together. And I've been as guilty as anyone for spreading
this term among growth firms around the globe with our Execution Maximizer document.
In reality, effective strategic planning requires two very different
ongoing processes and teams if you're going to generate the kinds
of results worthy of the effort that goes into a serious planning
process. It's even more critical if you want to ignite growth.
DIFFERENT PROCESSES
Let's revert back to Jim Collins' simple framework in his classic
book Good to Great. What his research concluded is that the
companies that are able to go from average performance for their
market to doing 3x better go through three distinct phases. They
first amass the right team of disciplined people. These folks then
engage in disciplined thinking. Finally, the team executes through
disciplined action.
The strategic planning process must follow a similar sequence.
First, it's about the team. Though both strategic thinking and execution planning share some overlap in team members, the number
of people and skill levels are radical different.
Second, the strategy piece of strategic planning is a more intuitive
and messy process than execution planning. And without a strategy
that differentiates the company from the competition sufficiently,
you'll quickly find you're just executing a mess.
Third, once the core strategy is nailed, then the execution planning
process can kick in. It's a much more systematic and sequential process.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
