Why Strategic Planning Goes Wrong

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Why Strategic Planning Goes Wrong
Mark Holmgren

Note: This article is scheduled to be published in the RCVO newsletter in the Fall 2010.

As a consultant, executive staff member, board director, and teacher, I have had the
opportunity to engage in a lot of strategic planning. I think about it, research it, and look for
ideas to make it work better than how it tends to work.

It has always bothered me to know that more often than
not strategic planning efforts go awry. In another article I
wrote on this topic, I stated the biggest reason why One of the reasons
strategic plans fail is that people don’t do them. While
there is truth in that, the story doesn’t end there of
way strategic
course. It’s why people and organizations fail to do planning fails is
successful strategic planning that deserves some that organizations
attention.
fail to
The difference between Strategy and Plan differentiate
Let’s start with what I suggest are some fundamental between “strategy”
misconceptions about strategic planning. The biggest and “plan.”
misconception is that strategy and planning are one in
the same. How often, for example, do you hear people
equate strategic planning with a “blueprint” or a
“roadmap?” While those words are good metaphors for the word, “plan,” they fail substantially
in capturing the meaning of “strategic” or “strategy.”

Strategy is not a blueprint or a roadmap
Build a house according to a set of blueprints and you will succeed in bringing to life someone’s
vision of a house. It is the vision of the house that is the strategy; the blueprint is the plan
created to achieve the vision, but it cannot exist without the vision whereas one’s vision of a
house can survive without a blueprint.

“Roadmap” is also an inadequate metaphor. It simply shows the connections between locations
and the various ways to get around from one point to another. A roadmap says nothing about
strategy or vision. In fact a roadmap is ultimately rather useless without one’s desire or

Mark Holmgren Consulting | www.markholmgren.com | 780.244.8686

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intention to go from one point to another. Once the destination or destinations (i.e. the vision)
are determined, then the road map becomes an excellent tool.

So, one of the reasons way strategic planning fails is that organizations fail to differentiate
between “strategy” and “plan.” More often than not in my experience, this results in people
giving short shrift to visioning the future,
thinking strategically, and exploring ideas that
challenge the status quo. Instead, they move
quickly to figuring out how to do something Organizations might be
even before they really understand what it is better served if they
or why they should do it. thought less about what
strategic planning model
That would be like identifying a simplistic or exercise to deploy
vision of a house as having a kitchen, living and focused more on
room, bathrooms, and bedrooms and then having meaningful dialog
setting out to build it without having thought
throughout the
about what results and outcomes you want
from your home. Do you want to entertain organization about the
your friends, have a place that your kids will future, how to innovate,
want to share with their friends, or do you what results to aspire
need a home that can accommodate you to achieve, and how to
later in life? What’s the strategy? create and sustain a
Strategic retreats are not enough
nimble, risk tolerant,
Another misconception is that strategic and outcome-focused team
planning can be accomplished in a day long of people.
retreat or a series of shorter meetings. Even
when we have experienced numerous
retreats that have failed to produce stellar
strategies, we stubbornly stick to the practice. In our hearts we know it is not enough time, but
we are too immersed in day to day operations, current board and management practice, and
often we are not prepared to invest the time, money, and effort required to do what needs to
be done.

Effective strategic planning is a living thing. While it articulates what Henry Mintzburg calls
“prescribed strategies” a truly strategic organization also has eyes open for “emergent
strategies” and incorporates them into its thinking and then its planning documents.

Organizations serious about achieving strategy or vision ensure that they are monitoring and
evaluating the progress of their plans, making adjustments along the way, stopping what isn’t
working, and introducing new actions when it makes sense to do so.

Instead of being one of those many reports asleep on the bookshelf, a strategic plan should be
on your desk, with marked up pages, folded corners, and a weathered spine from being opened


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and closed so often. It should be the touchstone document that preoccupies the minds and
actions of leadership teams as well as line staff.

Professionalizing planning can stifle strategy
Even organizations that create staff positions called “planners” or “strategic planners” often
miss the mark when it comes to being strategic. What can happen is that by creating positions
and formalizing strategy-making and planning within a department or division, organizations
look to a select few for new ideas and directions. That’s counterproductive because good
strategy-making is accomplished through collaborative dialog across an organization, not by
staff positions deemed to be “strategic.”

Strategic planning as “ritual rain dance”
In fact, what often happens is that planners and Find the
strategists inside an organization end up spending strategy. That’s
more time on the process of planning than on the most
facilitating creative exchanges about the future. This important thing.
can lead to a continuous cycle of improving planning Then pick a model
processes and tools to the point where planning as a that fits your
function overpowers strategy-making.
organization,
J. Brian Quinn of Dartmouth, a collaborator with your culture, and
Henry Mintzberg, offers his view of what happens: the strategy you
"[Strategic Planning] is like a ritual rain dance; it has want to bring to
no effect on the weather that follows, but those who life.
engage in it think it does. Moreover...much of the
advice and instruction related to...planning is directed at improving the dancing, not the
weather."

Concentrate on being strategic
Organizations might be better served if they thought less about what strategic planning model
or exercise to deploy and focused more on having meaningful dialog throughout the
organization about the future, how to innovate, what results to aspire to achieve, and how to
create and sustain a nimble, risk tolerant, and outcome-focused team of people.

In the nonprofit sector, the blessing of volunteerism can sometimes cause confusion or slow
the pace. Over the years I have seen board members impose their view of how to do strategic
planning on the organization. Sometimes the rationale is that what worked for “my business”
should work for the nonprofit organization. Other times board leaders are simply sharing what
they know and have experienced. The problem is that planning models and processes
undertaken by large retail chains, telecommunications companies, oil companies and the like
often do not translate well into the nonprofit arena.

Board members’ desire to help would be better served on working with the CEO to facilitate
and animate strategic thinking. That’s what boards should focus on: strategy – not on whether


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or not the model should include a SWOT analysis, issues management, stakeholder analysis, or
follow the tenets of experts like Mintzberg, Porter, Bryson, Drucker, or Collins.

Find the strategy. That’s the most important thing. Then pick a model that fits your
organization, your culture, and the strategy you want to bring to life.

Vision and strategy are about embracing change
Just because an organization understands the need to envision the future does not necessarily
mean they will create one. To truly envision the future, to craft strategies that will lead to
desired changes down the road, and to paint an inspiring picture of tomorrow, organizations
need to embrace change as part and parcel to ongoing, sustainable success.

Avoid protectionist visioning
Strategic planning will go wrong if organizations engage in what I call “protectionist visioning”
which is more about brushing a fresh coat of paint on the status quo than creating something
new and inspiring. Such status quo visions tend to repackage what is going on now with new
language, imagery, and spin. This kind of strategic planning avoids authentic engagement,
ignores disruptive solutions, and typically identifies goals that at best are incremental, much
less capable of attaining break through results.

Success requires tough decisions
Sometimes organizations do a great job of engagement and are serious about figuring out the
big picture for their organization, but when the rubber hits the road, they fail to make the
tough decisions.

Strategy is about making choices and decisions in order to succeed. It calls for authentic dialog
about the problems and issues facing the organization. Good practice calls for diverse
perspectives at the table, which means people do not always see things the same way or come
to the same conclusions about what direction to go in.

For every yes¸ there is a no
Such diversity should create strategic options that the organization can look at and then make
decisions about. The very nature of dialog and of identifying options is such that not everyone’s
individual perspective will prevail. The hope is the diverse perspectives will amalgamate into
strategies and common aspirations that are more effective than anyone could produce on their
own.

Being able to make tough decisions is important because for every YES an organization finds,
there is at least an implied NO. While dialog involves compromise, it should not result in
watering things down to the point where there are at best weak strategies striving for a vague
vision of the future.


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So, now what?
First, I recommend organizations understand their terminology. I offer two definitions that may
help.

Strategy: the convergence of what people know, think, intuit, feel, respect, value and wonder
about that inspires a group’s explicit aspiration for a better future.

Plan: the formalized organization of people, processes, and technologies required to achieve
strategy or a set of strategies.

You might not agree with my definitions entirely, but I hope I have adequately differentiated
between the two words.

My advice to nonprofits is to break free of habitual planning practices, especially if they
constantly frustrate you. Focus instead on creating and sustaining an environment of dialog and
innovation so that people across your organization are future minded rather than subjects of a
well honed planning system.

--

Based in Edmonton, Mark Holmgren is a strategy and planning consultant to the nonprofit and public sectors. He
has delivered services to human service, health, educational, housing, arts and culture, and municipal community
service departments. Mark also served in senior leadership positions for two United Ways, and served as the
Executive Director of an inner city social service and housing organization.


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