Simple Thought on Good Strategic Planning

Lots of data suggest that good strategic planning is different than good strategic planning implementation, and that 90 to 95% of initiatives fail to meet management expectations even though the initial thinking was solid. It is NOT about the idea, it is about getting the idea put into action.

Implementation needs careful consideration. And developing an implementation plan and process is a more intensive effort involving more people than your initial planning.

If you don’t know how you are planning to get where you are going and how you will get there, it is highly likely that you have already arrived at your planned destination, which is generally where you were rather than where you thought you were going!

The Busy Case for strategy implementation is not the Business Case, when it comes to successful planning of strategy or change.

Feeling Lucky? Good, but that is probably not the way that Dirty Harry Callahan would implement his plans. He would put a lot of thought into carefully putting things into action.

Communicating the Strategy is a big part of implementing the strategy. But doing things TO people will generate more resistance than doing things with them. You want their ideas and their perspectives, since they often can see things that you cannot and their ownership and engagement is an important part of their involvement and guided actions.