![\"The](\"https:\/\/sidewaysthoughts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/strategy-in-the-whirlwind1.jpg\" "\\"The")
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Organisations are complex. Each week presents dozens of issues and opportunities from a range of stakeholders to which the manager or leader can decide to plan, react, or ignore.<\/p>\n
The role of a leader and manager is to bring order to seeming chaos<\/a>.\u00a0 In the irrational storm, they are positioned as the height of rationality, fighting a likelihood of failure<\/a>\u00a0to consolidate complexity into succinct \u201cn-step\u201d change programs<\/a>\u00a0to achieve profitable outcomes. While vision may give context to the storm, it is strategy that provides any hope of converting the noise to an outcome.<\/p>\n Three\u00a0basic questions answered by strategic planning<\/a>\u00a0are: 1)<\/strong> where we are now, 2)<\/strong> where we are going, and 3)<\/strong> how we will get there. How these questions are answered and in what context will\u00a0determine the model used<\/a>:<\/p>\n I went to an executive breakfast where a Franklin Covey consultant shared about their 4 Disciplines of Execution program<\/a>. It was from this presentation that I borrowed the whirlwind metaphor as well as the distinction between lead and lag goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was fascinating to watch as everyone in the room resonated in agreement that their jobs were difficult and gravitate to the hope that it could be less difficult with something as simple as four easy to understand disciplines:<\/p>\n Other models such as the Argenti System<\/a>\u00a0 share similar attributes. Argenti talks about \u201chunting your strategic elephants\u201d, ignoring anything that is not of significant importance and consolidating smaller symptoms into underlying causes similar to a \u201c5 Why\u201d program<\/a>. The five stages of the planning process include:<\/p>\n These are just two of a myriad of models all following a similar path. A Google image search<\/a> for \u201cstrategic planning models\u201d\u00a0 produces enough flow charts and diagrams to add to the confusion.\u00a0 With so much free advice at our fingertips, you would think we as a society would have strategic planning down to a fine art.<\/p>\n Looking at results we experience in the market each day, I would say this is not the case. \u00a0What is often lacking is focus, discipline and accountability, hence why the planning process often requires an external facilitator.<\/p>\n Most of my career has involved taking companies from \u201chere\u201d to \u201cthere\u201d through delivery of a strategic plan.\u00a0 I am perceived as helping a few companies along the way, with my LinkedIn connections<\/a> considering \u201cbusiness strategy\u201d as my most endorse-able skill. I find this interesting as strategy has not been something I have “strategically” set out to cultivate, but has just happened.<\/p>\n I am now in a position to see if their sentiments are validated as I take my own medicine in a strategic planning process with two organisations I am involved in, one a digital agency and the other a not-for-profit youth engagement program. My review here of the fundamentals is in part to address a feeling that I \u201cshould\u201d by now know the best approach.<\/p>\nStrategy planning models<\/h2>\n
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Back to fundamentals to address the \u201cshould\u201d<\/h2>\n