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“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

Seneca

Strategic Planning is a management tool, period. As with any management tool, strategic planning is used with purpose and that is to help an organization do a better job. It allows an organization and its leaders to focus their energy, to ensure that members of the organization are working toward the same goals and to assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a dynamic and complex environment.

Management needs to be prepared to respond rapidly to the ever-changing landscape. Efficiencies, flexibility and benchmarking are part of the new set of rules. With effective planning you can create a framework for strategic management and thinking as you continually ask the question, “Are we doing the right thing?” This entails attention to the big picture and the willingness to adapt to changing circumstances. It consists of the following elements.

•Setting goals and developing an approach to achieving those goals

•Maintaining the clarity and discipline to be productive

•Paying attention to shifting and emerging patterns of behavior and corporate culture

•Making fundamental decisions and choices about what to do, why and how to do it, and then acting

•Shaping and guiding an organization, using resources successfully and focusing on the future

Strategic planning should be a balance between theory and practice, offering you the ability to translate gains in operations and function into sustainable, long-term competitive advantage and value. Recognize that this is a dynamic process and not a one-shot deal. Maintain a solid pace of activity and ensure that staff at every level are informed and involved in providing input. As trust develops, the planning process will help shift the culture in the organization. It goes without saying that management and board commitment must be secured upfront to follow up and follow through on the plans that are created.

Finally, create a balanced scorecard for identifying critical success factors. Specify action steps, outcome measures and accountabilities to track your success.

So, what is planning?

Planning is a comprehensive process that includes setting goals, developing plans and related activities. Planning allows you to reduce uncertainty and facilitate the anticipation and acceptance of change. We create a framework for managerial objectives, opening up multi-directional and multi-tiered communication and setting the stage for smart decision making.

There are other points to consider. Planning also allows you to engage in planned change versus reactive change. Planned change is designed and implemented in an orderly and timely fashion in anticipation of future events. Think about succession planning, business-continuity planning and risk-management planning and start with possible or probable scenarios, such as the CEO will be retiring in two years. These types of planning allow organizations to prepare to meet the challenges and opportunities that the coming and anticipated change may present.

Reactive change, on the other hand, is a piecemeal response to circumstances as they develop. For example, a hurricane has shut down the southeastern office for an indeterminate period of time. Reactive response: Now what do we do?

Planning is also futuristic. It begins in the future and works its way backward toward the present. Whether you are writing a project proposal, planning an office move or celebrating a significant milestone in the life of your organization, you start with the completion or due date and work your way back through the time between then and now. Identify the tasks that need to be accomplished and how you are going to accomplish them.

Finally, your strategic planning process begins with some very basic questions.

•Based upon your assessments of what you know and what you need to do, how do you move forward as an organization, maintaining value for your customers?

•What is the structure and culture that will support what you need to do?

•How are you going to ensure that you are effectively executing your plan?

How do you answer these questions for yourself and your organization?