Making a Lasting Difference
Strategic Planning is often done by a small group of senior leaders and/or board members because "they should" or because it's routine. The result can be dreams that never get realized, a focus on operational excellence without strategy, or employee complaints of "where did this come from?"
Our Analysis:
Henry Mintzberg, a godfather of organizational strategy, states that 90% of strategic plans fail to bring about the desired results.
Strategy is only effective if it is implemented, and a recent study (Digineer, '09) found that 69% of leaders lacked confidence in their organization's ability to implement their strategies. The primary reasons cited were the impact of organization culture and past habits of behavior, specifically resistance to change, lack of buy-in and lack of ownership resulting from non-involvement in the planning process. This indicates that the process used in planning is at least as important as the plan itself.
Our Approach:
We use an approach more accurately labeled "strategic learning" by Willie Pietersen, former CEO and professor at Columbia.
This approach focuses on ongoing analysis of organization and environment, vision, alignment and execution.
We also involve all relevant stakeholders—those needed for the success of the plan or with the ability to derail it—in the development of the strategy. Lastly, as part of implementation, we help you assess the ability of the organization to support, implement, and adapt your strategy – capacity building.
The keys to successful strategic planning are:
- Organization Learning
- Adaptation
- Involvement
- Capacity Building