I have found that business managers are focused on day to day operational problems - no big surprise there. When I stop in I try to push them towards a vision for the future and to move their focus on to their passion.  Their problems have a big pull and they quickly snap right back.  It makes no difference how fancy the presentation is or how many proofs I have saying that strategic planning and leadership is the way to go. 

If I want to sell the business manager on leadership principles I have to help address his or her concerns.  Numbers and graphs do nothing if they do not address the day to day concerns of running the business.  So step one is always - find out what the management team is worried about and then address those concerns.  If the building is on fire they do not want to listen to a presentation on developing a vision statement.

Here is the bigger problem - what if there are so many concerns that you can never resolve them to a degree that would allow for that leadership presnetation.  Your only hope now is to convince the management team that fighting forest fires is a job for the fire fighters and their job is running a business.  Now, before they soak you with the fire hose show them how some strategic planning could have avoided the whole mess to begin with. 

I often wondered why theories like the law of attraction work. The only explaination I came up with is that we all have a limited ability to focus on ideas. I always have many distractions floating around in my head. Anyway these theories tend to focus our thoughts. Whatever the reason, these theories seem to work most of the time, but not all the time.
For example this weekend I wanted to install new air valves on the motor home, set up my reading room and correct some templates for one of my clients. My partner wants to clean the house, go shopping and get the car washed. I only have time to do three activities. Now I am in compromise mode trying to re-plan my day. So what really happened here?
A lot of effort went into our passion list and lifetime plan. The first test I need to do is determine which of the six items align with our goals and toss out those that do not match or find more time. Next I have to prioritize the items. On the first pass I toss out the reading room and house cleaning or put them way down on the priority list. This is where you discover that there is no real agreement on the goals and priorities even if you think the lifetime plan is agreed to. What you find out is that there are different visions attached to the lifetime goals. Let's say that one of the lifetime goals was to enjoy music. One person visualizes a Christian music festival and another visualizes an opera. You must make your lifetime goals clear as well as obtain agreement. Often people keep goals hidden believing that they are understood. Do not assume.

I do not see a problem with multiple visions as long as they support each other in some way. I do not think they can be totally isolated and definitely can not be a negative influence on each other. I do not see a problem with having a vision for my life, a vision for my business and a vision for my relationship or family. If you go through the long range planning and do not discover any conflicts that should be fine. The only caution I would raise is the amount of time dedicated to each and the priority assigned to each. You will probably have one predominant vision and that I suggest will be your life or your own personal vision. I would assume that your values are constant or the same for each vision.

I would think through how these visions support each other and how they will work together. One of the activities you will get involved with is looking at time allocated to see if you are on track. One of the problems that will frequently come up is that the days and weeks go by and you have not allocated any effort on your vision. Remember that a vision contains a purpose and a destination. If you do not allocate any effort you will not fulfill your purpose. If you have multiple visions you could dilute your time so much that you don't fulfill any of them. So you need to do some time management. With multiple visions this task becomes even more important.

I have seen people cringe at the mention of strategic planning. I think that this process is getting a bum rap. Strategic planning is made up of 4 critical sub-processes; i.e. (1) A GAP Analysis to determine weaknesses, (2) Documenting the vision to define your goal, (3) Identifying resources needed (based on the GAP and the vision), and (4) Defining the balanced score card to understand how to track progress.

Most of the time there is one of these elements that is not understood and therefore causing the fear. These four elements are all needed to create a strategic plan. It can be that the group does not want to spend time doing one or more of the elements or that they do not see the need for one of them. Without some attention on all four elements the strategic plan will not be complete. Instead of a five or ten year plan you get a plan that is obsolete in a few weeks or never followed at all.

Skip the strategic plan (or any one of the four elements), and you are doomed before you begin. To have a plan that produces a positive return on investment you have to design it and then implement it. This should be a long range plan with a useful and valid set of defined goals and measurements. There is nothing wrong with refining the plan as new information is generated, but don't waste time creating a notebook that will never be opened.

After a discussion about strategic planning I had someone tell me "Our purpose is not about plans or execution of plans. That is simply busy work." That did not mean that this person was not interested in planning, it was just not their focus. The problem is that without the focus you lose the passion for the vision. Your focus is quickly drawn to everyday problems and in a short time you are off the path. You have to step back and look at the bigger picture. You can't put all your focus on the planning and you can't put all your focus on the problem of the day. You need a balance. To have a passion for the plan does not mean that you do not look at daily opportunities. You need a passion for the big picture - a passion to develop the plan and to implement the plan. If you think any aspect of the process is "busy work" you will lose the passion. The power you receive by having passion for your vision and a focused intention will produce spectacular results.

Strategic planning develops a focus for your vision and a clear path to realize it. The awareness you have when you are certain of your vision will show you the path to success. Everything you do will brighten that picture of success. All your energy will be focused on the plan you have developed.

Busy work is a term for work or assignments that are felt to be time consuming, but not useful. Busy work is work which will keep someone occupied without being constructive or productive. I would say that busy work is any work that does not contribute in some way to the strategic plan. This usually happens when a person does not understand the plan (poor leadership) or they just do not buy into the plan. If you have no passion for the plan then just about any work associated with that plan will be thought of as busy work. When you hear someone say something like - this is all busy work, you have a disconnect.

One of the popular questions we get at our seminars is; why do I run out of time each week? They will tell us how they set up goals and priorities but still run out of time. The simple answer is, that they did not factor in the standard list of priorities (basic needs and relationships). You can do a great job is creating your bucket list or passion list but that is not all there is. You spend time on basic needs like food, housing, finances, health, etc. And you spend time on your relationships. So your top priority listed item may be feed the whales but you spent all your time recovering from an illness, fixing your home, or developing a relationship. Most people recognize this but do not realize the amount of time these items may take. For example I scheduled a camping trip for all day Friday and some time on Thursday to clean up the camper. That same week I had to repair the car, fix somethi ng on the house, my partner was sick, and I had physical therapy. While all these things were somewhat schedules I was no where close to the amount of time it took. A further example, I had one houre for physical therapy. In reality it took over two hours to get ready, drive there, do the activity, and drive back. The next thing I know I am at the end of the week and nothing on my "bucket" list got done and camping on Friday was canceled.
Factor in those default activities along with "reality" time for each. You should expect that these activities will sometimes take more time than you estimated. The real problem is when you discover that every week you run out of time. You are spending all your time on basic needs and no time on your list. Now it is time to re-look at what you want to accomplish.
The same think that happens in lifs will happen in business. You spent some time doing strategic planning (that is your business bucket list) and at the end of the year you did not realize any of your business goals. Take another look at what is important and factor in some realistic time spent on the basic hidden needs.

I saw your message on Facebook and will put this on the blog. You were looking for the industry survey that showed why strategic planning was a good thing. I think you are referring to the Evergreen project. That is the most popular reference I see. The best overview of the study is in a book called What Really Works by William Joyce, Nitin Nohria and Bruce Roberson. They had some good evidence that four key elements were responsible for success (strategy, execution, culture and structure). Most of the programs out there only had short term success (like total quality management, six sigma, and a few others).

Before you get lost in the details, take a step back. Outline a clear vision and a coherent set of values for your new business. Develop a mission statement and use it to define some short-term goals and priorities. There are three elements needed in advance of you developing a plan and throughout your life you will need to constantly re-think and redefine these elements.
The first are your values. Values are non-negotiable characteristics that you and ultimately your business will reflect. Values could include respect, honesty, joy, forgiveness, patience, humility, commitment, love, generosity, righteousness, etc. We personally believe each person should have a core set of values. These are values that you have learned throughout your life that guide you in everything you do or say.
Next, a Vision is a clear mental portrait of a preferable future. Vision involves change and focuses on what you want the future to be like. Vision provides direction. We challenge anyone who wants to change the direction of his or her life to take a weekend and think about his or her vision of where he or she wants to be down the road. Think about your personal needs and your professional goals. The two better mesh or you have set yourself up to fail.
Are you living as the person you want to be? What is the point? Building any business involves hard work. But it should also include a clear set of rewards. What do you want? Besides all that, you need to define some concrete motivation that goes beyond the satisfaction of a job well done.
Now, how about a mission for your business? A mission is the grand purpose for which you or your business exists. Be careful not to make this too narrow. Your mission statement is a reflection of who you are, and guides your business. We visited a law firm that had a mission to serve the legal needs of an entire state. Well that is pretty broad based. They wouldn't take any cases from the mountains and they wouldn't do real estate. That doesn't sound like "serving the legal needs of the state".
You are ready to start strategic planning. This is nothing more than a map showing you how to achieve your vision without violating your values. Once you have a clear road map for your business, you can plan your journey with more confidence.

I am going to make a rash assumption that you have already defined yourself (your beliefs, values and purpose for being). How about your business (OK, another assumption is that you own or help run a business)? Have you defined what values will drive your business? What is the purpose of your business? Before we (the Catalyst Group) get started on a strategic plan I always ask and I am frequently amazed at the answers. Following my question I usually get a question in response - why does that make a difference?
Let's look at some possibilities. You have or a partner in a law firm. What do you deliver and who or what creates that deliverable? The answer to that question is usually several different things. One way to prioritize your list is by using the relative return on investment expected from each. One segment of your business is driven by cases referred to you by other law firms that they retain some ownership in. Another aspect of the business would be cases that you own. In both aspects of the business your goal would be to provide client satisfaction. In the first example the "client" was the referring law firm and in the second the client was the person referred within the case.
Now we get to the route of the concern when it comes to strategic planning. Who or what creates the deliverable? Is it a single person (as in the lawyer) or is it a combination of lawyer, case management and paralegal staff support (as in the firm). When you look at the primary provider (lawyer or firm) is it the reputation, the skill, the visual effect, the efficiency, or something else that provides the best return on investment?
When you look at client satisfaction I would suggest that you are better off looking at client dissatisfaction keeping in mind who or what creates your deliverable. If you can address all the potential sources of dissatisfaction I suspect you will have met your goal. Knowing what concerns to address and what processes produce your deliverable is the second input needed to do a good strategic plan.
The next time you get asked: what do you deliver (what do you do, what do you sell, etc.) be ready with an answer that your true "client" can relate to. After our seminars I have seen many creative answers to that question. Here are a few I liked.

• We (our firm) provide peace of mind. This was a personal injury law firm dealing directly with plaintiffs.


• We (our firm) provide the best return on investment in terms of revenue, time and quality. This was a law firm that handled referred cases where the ownership was fully or partially kept by the referring law firm.


• I provide personal attention, integrity and an honest outcome for my clients. This was a single attorney handling domestic cases.

There are many theories and class on how to be a leader, manager or even a skilled employee.  I have found books and classes on how to do strategic planning.  There is even a book dedicated to Execution theory (Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy , Ram Charan , and Charles Burck). 

 

The question you need to ask is, "do you have any strategic plans that have not been implemented?"  Well of course you do.  To implement any new idea you have to address three areas; people, strategy and operations. Basically, who will do the job, what is the real vision of this project, and how does this project support the overall strategic plan.

 

So we can define what a leader is and write a great strategic plan but until we have an honest discussion about the project and reality, the plan never gets implemented.