The following is a response I posted to a blog article titled "Four Reasons Why Productive People Hate Strategic Planning." The article riled me a bit and I couldn't help but post.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Without a strategy, that is, a goal, how do you know you're not just wasting your time with make-work? The purpose of a strategy is to define the end goals and even some of the intermediate goals. It is not intended to lay out the minute detail of how to get there. Without strategy, you're just blundering about in the dark.
With a strategy, you should be able to answer questions like: "How do I know if I'm on track?", and "How will I know when I get there?" Like reading a street directory, you should be able to say things like "If I come across this intersection, I know I've gone too far but I can fix it by making the next two left turns."
Secondly, a strategy meeting must make decisions. That's the implication of the use of the word "plan." I'm betting that you've suffered too many strategic plans that make no decisions or make tactical, implementation decisions, or those decisions just haven't been visible to you.
Let's take a military example. A general defines a strategic battle plan, outlying broad but specific objectives. This gets broken down and along the line, a regimental commander is instructed to advance on a specific port and hold it to facilitate further landings. This gets further broken up and passed down the line, ending up with platoon commanders who meet the enemy and need to decide how to attack them. Ultimately, a section commander (a Corporal) is tasked with sneaking around onto an enemy's flank and attacking individual soldiers. To the corporals, the strategy is something that may be known but their concern is the soldiers immediately to their front. When you're pounding the ground, it's hard to see the far objective. I guess that's why generals sit up high in their ivory towers - so they can see the objective. The platoon leaders and section commanders have different objectives - take this enemy position and don't get hurt trying.
That's what strategy is about. By the way, I'm a pleb. Without strategy to guide me (or at least it guides my boss, who guides me), I'm just wasting my time and that stinks.
Posts
