I recently was asked to review a draft of a “Strategic Plan” document for a non-profit organization. A committee of about 15 people have been working on this for several months. In a nutshell, the “plan” included the following elements: situation analysis, key findings and recommendations.
In other words, not a complete strategic plan.
There are so many flavors, so many definitions of strategic plans in use today that if you asked ten people what the term meant, you’d get eleven answers. It’s gotten that bad. And strategic planning can get incredibly complicated. In large companies, it’s not uncommon for entire departments to be vested with the responsibility to do planning. Or, it can take several years to roll out a complete strategic planning approach.
Here is a simple analogy for understanding what strategic plans really are: They are just like the old Triptiks created by the Automobile Association of America (AAA).
You might remember these old friends from the pre-digital age (Actually, the AAA still offers them) They are a series of map sections, personalized to the needs of the customer, bound together with plastic GBC binding. In the days before GPS, Triptiks were the easiest way to get detailed directions from Point A to Point B.
Aha! What a perfect definition of a strategic plan: Directions for getting from Point A to Point B.
Triptiks include both a starting point and a destination. So should strategic plans. This may sound incredibly obvious, except that the example of the above mentioned “plan” for that non-profit, where the goals were omitted, occurs far too frequently. The group doing the planning were all experienced business professionals. While they did a great job of determining point A, they totally forgot about the destination, Point B. No one takes a trip without some destination in mind. And the really cool trips usually involve highly desirable destinations, right?
Triptiks provide a route that guides the journey. When you order one the AAA asks you if you want the fastest way, the scenic route, etc. That’s because there are all kinds of ways to get from Point A to Point B. The Triptik spells out the best route based on your needs and preferences. Because of their size, each Triptik page contains only a section of the overall route. I remember the feeling of accomplishment on a long drive as I ticked over each successive page: “I’m getting closer to my destination!”
Good strategic plans do the same thing: They spell out a specific route to be taken, out of all the possible routes that could be taken. They break long complicated activities into smaller component pieces. As each piece gets completed, people get a feeling of success: “We’re getting closer to achieving our goals!”
Here is final, often overlooked, similarity between Triptiks and good strategic plans: They are relatively small, printed on paper (meaning, not digital), and everyone can get their own copy personalized for them. In terms of adopting digital technology, I am an eager overachiever. Generally I hate paper, and try to keep everything in digital form on my laptop. And yet, after years of running businesses and consulting with my clients, I have come to the conclusion that strategic plans need to be on paper, as short as possible (no more than 3-5 pages) and in the hands of every employee in the organization.
Strategic plans should not be any more complicated than the tried and true Triptik.
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