Think Big, Take Small Steps

Proper Strategic Planning is the Most Important First Step for Any Organization.

Strategic Planning is a structured and systematic process, where leaders of an organization establish the vision of the organization’s future and then develop and implement the actions necessary to achieve that future.

During World War II, Winston Churchill said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”  In fact, there are many different types of plans.  Strategic and business plans we often relate to professional business organizations.  Campaign plans might form a picture in the mind of a massive military campaign, like D-Day, or something like a political election campaign.  At the tactical level, operational plans define quarterly and annual actions required by a company.  At their roots, all plans focus on the same thing; conducting gap analysis and closing the gap.

At its most basic form, planning is nothing more than figuring out how you will get from one place to another.  Every day people plan: people make a list of things to buy at the grocery store; workers determine the best route to travel to and from work each day; we plan out how to finance that new car; etc.  Strategic planning usually applies to development of an overarching organizational plan on how the business will get from where they are today to their vision many years in the future, or at least the general direction they will head over the next several years.

To understand the importance of strategic planning, we must understand the impact without it.  The value of strategic planning is all about time.  When you compress time in planning — only thinking a few weeks or months out, operational costs escalate exponentially because of last-minute actions and constant rework based on poorly made quick decisions.  Strategic planning essentially gets you ahead of time and thus saves the organization money in the long run.  Traditionally, organizations that fail to have solid long-term plans spend at least 25% more than those with good plans.

FORTUNE Magazine, in 1999, published the article ‘Why CEOs Fail,’ which stated that, “70% of all strategies fail to achieve their desired results and 30% fail to achieve anything at all.”  Many organizations dislike strategic planning because it is additional work — work that takes away from their day-to-day issues.  It also can be difficult to examine the “long war,” when one is focused on the “knife fight.”  Planning, specifically strategic planning, tends to fail for many reasons.  These reasons can be grouped into five specific categories that leads to a structured and systematic process of planning to ensure success.  These five categories are:

• Executable Focus
• Strategic Framework
• Traceable Implementation
• Rigor and Accountability
• Communication

Regardless if you satisfy all of these five categories in your strategic planning activities, if you do not have leadership taking responsibility for the organization’s planning, it will always fail.  Thus, all plans and planning activities fail when the leaders do not support them.  If a leader supports the plan and the planning activity, overcoming these five problem areas during your planning will practically guarantee success.  Let us review these categories more in-depth.

Albert Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I would take fifty-five minutes to analyze the problem and five minutes to solve it.”  All successful plans have an Executable Focus.  If a plan lacks focus on fixing organizational problems and overcoming barriers to the organization’s vision it is not built on the realities of the environment impacting the organization.  This occurs when the organization does not look deeply at itself to understand what strengths and weaknesses exist within the organization and what opportunities and threats exist outside the organization.  This is normally captured in a S.W.O.T. Analysis.  When plans are built in a vacuum with by leaders or a planning team sitting in a conference room one afternoon, they often lack this focus.  Thus, the first and most effective step to strategic planning is conducting an Assessment.  This assessment is called many things: an environmental scan, organizational assessment, preplanning analysis, etc.  The end result is developing a strategy that is focused on fixing problems and overcoming barriers to the organization’s vision and not just some good ideas dreamed up in a conference room.

Once the organization understands the barriers it faces and what it has at its disposal to leverage, developing a well-informed Strategic Framework is the next crucial step.  When the major elements of a strategic plan (i.e., mission, vision, and goals) are not influenced by the assessment, they are often built upon fallacy and personal beliefs — a recipe for planning disaster.  The same failed result also occurs when the leadership hands over the planning responsibility to someone other than themselves.  The leadership’s primary role is to decide the direction of the organization and when the plan is not developed by the input of organizational leadership, it does not have their buy-in.  Just as importantly, a plan built without the input of the organization’s personnel will have an equally difficult time of gaining approval and traction.  A good strategic framework will include at least three key elements:

• A purposeful and everlasting mission statement
• An inspiring and far-reaching vision statement
• Three to five broad goals that encompass what must change

Having a mission, vision, and goals is nice for an organization, but without a roadmap on how to achieve these lofty items means the plan will probably go nowhere; least of all, no one will be able to “get on board” with the plan.  Thus, a strong strategic plan should also have Traceable Implementation.  Plans, not built based on the strategic needs outlined in the assessment normally have no traceable implementation.  Also, if the plan was not built from organizational involvement, any plans to implement probably are not based in reality.  Traceable implementation means having a solid and accepted implementation plan.  The best way to flesh out an implementation plan is to facilitate organizational action plan development with the personnel who will actually implement the plan.  This ensures the plan reflects the realistic capabilities and constraints of the people who are in charge of seeing the actions through.  Also, this will gain the buy-in of those in charge of those actions.  The best way to build an implementation plan is to document it as a series of interrelated projects aligned to existing organizational resources and performance measures.  In this way, the implementation of the strategy becomes an organizational program with a series of matrixed projects.

Plans not backed by governance and funding lack Rigor and Accountability — a leadership ignored and under-resourced plan is doomed to failure.  Once the plan is built, the way to keep it alive is through regular monthly, quarterly, and annual reviews.  Leaders must hold organization personnel accountable to the plan and they must provide the required funding and resources to see to the implementation of the plan over time.  Developing documented governance to budget, track, measure, and adjust the strategic plan and planning activities assist with its success.

Leaders can build the best strategic plan in the world, but if the activity and the plan are not well communicated, no one will know about it and no one will support it.  Communication focuses on the communication activities designed to drive audience commitment from an awareness level to one of advocacy.  These levels of audience commitment assist with the success of any planning action and are defined as follows:

• Awareness: When the audience is aware, they are cognizant of efforts within their immediate surroundings — this leads to a better knowledge regarding the plan and planning activities
• Understanding: When the audience understands, they acknowledge the purpose of the planning efforts as it relates to their immediate situation
• Acceptance: If an audience accepts, they realize the benefit of the strategic plan and better embrace the planning effort
• Advocacy: As advocates, your audience has full situational awareness and ensures the greatest impact is achieved by the strategic plan — the audience becomes a champion for the effort

By providing an executable focus through an effective organizational assessment, leaders set the planning effort up for success.  Developing a well-informed and leader-led strategic framework of a mission, vision, and goals, sets a strong foundation for any strategic plan.  Integrating rigor and accountability into a traceable implementation plan drives the success of the strategic plan for years to come.  Ensuring the entire effort is properly communicated to everyone impacted by the effort gains their advocacy to see the plan to success.

So, 70% of all plans fail to some level; however, by following these guidelines you can help ensure your strategic plan will be one of the 30% successes that everyone reads about.

–oO||Oo–

This Blog is the beginning of a series of articles that I am posting in regards to my experience with proper Strategic Planning.  With over 15 years experience in strategic planning and related business management consulting activities, I want to share my knowledge with you the reader.

If you have specific questions about strategic planning that you would like me to address in a future article or directly to you, feel free to ask in the comment box below.  If you wish to follow this line of articles, please click the “Follow” link at the top of the screen.

Here is my proposed article list for now — these will come out every few weeks because they have to be written (of course), reviewed and approved by Yahoo, and then linked.  I am sharing these on LinkedIn and on my Facebook, but feel free to share them yourself.

Current Planned Schedule:

00           Think Big, Take Small Steps
Proper Strategic Planning is the Most Important First Step for Any Organization

01           The Importance of Strategic Planning
Proper Strategic Planning is the Most Important First Step for Any Organization

011         What Is Strategic Planning Really?
Why Does Your Company Need a Strategic Plan?

012         When Does Your Company Need a Strategic Plan?
Realizing When You Need a Ship and When You Need a Life Raft

02           How to Conduct an Organizational Assessment
Establishing an Executable Focus to Ensure the Success of Your Strategic Plan

021         Understanding the Different Assessment Tools
Establishing an Executable Focus to Ensure the Success of Your Strategic Plan

0211       Assessing Your Organization Using the Military’s DOTMLPF – FREE Assessment
Understand How to Use this Military Assessment Tool to Assess Your Business

0212       The Importance of a Stakeholder Assessment
Conducting a Stakeholder Assessment When Developing a Strategic Plan is Crucial

0213       Are You Ready for Change?
Understanding Your Company’s Readiness for Change Prepares for Strategic Planning Success

0214       The Robust SWOT Assessment
Taking SWOT Assessment to the Next Level in Strategic Planning

022         Applying Innovative Thinking in Strategic Planning
“There is No Box” When it Comes to Strategic Planning

023         Incorporating Recurring Measures in Your Assessments
What Gets Measured, Gets Done — Over and Over Again

03           Leading Your Leaders to Develop an Effective Strategic Framework
Developing a Well-informed Strategic Framework is the Second Crucial Step in Strategic Planning

031         Facilitation of an Effective Strategic Plan Offsite
Getting the Most Out of Your Company’s Strategic Planning Offsite

0311       Building a Strategic Plan from the Bottom Up
A Successful Systematic Process to Apply at Your Strategic Offsite

0312       Incorporating Scenario Planning into Your Strategic Planning Offsite
How to Use Scenario Planning to Think Out of the Box in Planning

032         Developing the Purposeful and Everlasting Mission Statement
Understand the Do’s, Don’ts, and Process of Creating a Great Mission Statement

033         Developing an Inspiring and Far-reaching Vision Statement
Understand the Do’s, Don’ts, and Process of Creating a Great Vision Statement

034         Creating Resounding Core Values and Principles for Your Organization
Understand the Do’s, Don’ts, and Process of Creating Great Values and Principles

04           Translating Strategy into Execution — The Secret to Success
Establishing Traceable Implementation to Your Strategic Plan at the Objective Level

041         A PDCA Approach to Strategic Implementation
A Structured Approach to Developing Strategic Implementation Plans

0411       Turning Strategic Actions into Business Projects
Make the Implementation of Your Strategic Plan a Step-By-Step Project

0412       Incorporating Strategic Measures that Roll Up to KPIs
What Gets Measured, Gets Done — at the Strategic Level!

042         Matrixing a Strategic Plan’s Implementation
How to Link Strategic Actions into a Fully Matrixed Implementation plan

05           Ensure Rigor and Accountability in Your Strategic Plan
How to Tie Budgets, Funds, Operations, and Accountability to Ensure Strategic Success

051         The Key Elements of Strategic Planning Governance
To Ensure Strategic Success, Build Successful Strategic Planning Governance

052         Aligning Your Operational Budget with Your Long-term Strategy
A Step-By-Step Approach to Aligning Your Budget to Your Strategy

053         Keeping Your Organization’s Strategic Plan Alive
Methods to Track, Measure, and Adjust Any Strategic Plan

06           Dealing with the Change Inherent with Strategic Planning
From the Start, Plan Out Your Strategic Planning Change Management Efforts

061         Obtaining “Buy In” in Strategic Planning
How to Get Leaders and Employees on Board with Your Strategic Plan

062         Applying Change Communication throughout the Strategic Planning Process
Communication Designed to Drive Audience Advocacy of Your Strategic Plan

07           A Simple Systematic Process for Strategic Planning
Establish an Implementable Strategic Plan in Three Easy Steps

071         Implementing Strategic Planning in Any Organization
Understanding and Obtaining the Skills Necessary to Lead Strategic Planning

My Experience

For more about me, check out my Bio and Resume.  I have over 15 years experience in “Planning.”  My quality journey started around 1990 when the Air Force began to adopt Total Quality Management and eventually created the Air Force Quality Program.  As an Air Force Security Policeman, I became very active in the Air Force Quality movement in Texas, California, and Turkey.

I retrained in January 1998 into the Manpower and Quality Career Field and began teaching quality at Ramstein Air Base, Germany – one of the primary courses was Facilitating Strategic Planning.  My mentor then was Jerry Pena, and we helped the Air Force create and improve their initial 11-step Strategic Planning Model in 1998 and then their Performance Management Model a few years later.  I was involved in the Strategic Planning for the 86th Airlift Wing, 86th Medical Group, the United States Air Forces in Europe, and even the Belgium Air Force.

I personally implemented strategic planning in the Air Force Sergeants Association (AFSA) as a Chapter and Division President and proved its success by setting the standards for the nonprofit organization and being recognition with AFSA’s highest chapter awards.

Moving to San Antonio in 2002, I was the only one at the Air Force ISR Agency with an extensive quality background and was involved in several small strategic planning activities.  While in Germany, I began warplanning in 1998 and continued in San Antonio, up through 2004 as the Senior Manpower Warplanner for the Air Intelligence Agency.

After retiring from the Air Force in 2008, I went to work with Booz Allen and led the Strategic Planning Community for the international consulting firm of 25,000.  I also was the Strategy and Change Center of Excellence Lead in San Antonio.  Through Booz Allen, I led major strategic transformations for the Army and the Air Force with over 18 primary clients across the United States.

Through my own personal consulting endeavor, Crosscutter Enterprises, I provided pro bono and low-cost strategic consulting to several small businesses, business startups, and nonprofits.

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What is “visionary?”

Last night I had a great conversation with a good friend of mine about visionaries. We talked at length about Hinduism, Maslow, and people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (of all things). See, Gus is a Mac and I am a PC, so we often have some very interesting talks…especially over wine. This one centered around how visionaries impact innovation. Many years ago, I wrote a paper titled, “Formula for Innovation.” I built the notion that aside from Necessity, Risk is a major player in Innovation. That got us talking about how Vision … seeing several moves ahead like a chess player … can impact Innovation.

What are your thoughts regarding the “factors” that influence Innovation and how?

Can Your Employees Be Heroes Too?

John L. Levitow would not have been described as a stellar military member in the late 1960s.  He had some problems in the military and would describe himself in interviews as, “Nothing but trouble (Levitow).”  However, on February 24, 1969, during an Air Force night mission over Vietnam, he sacrificed almost everything for the mission and his fellow workers.  His job was to assist in deploying magnesium flares over a combat area to provide two million candlepower illumination to the battlefield—once ignited, the flares burned at 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit for about a minute.  While engaging the Viet Cong outside Long Binh Army Base, his AC-47 gunship was rocked as an 82-millimeter mortar shell exploded in their right wing.  As he was assisting members of the crew with their injuries after the explosion, he noticed a lit flare rolling amid cans containing 19,000 rounds of ammunition.  Riddled with over 40 shrapnel wounds, he grappled the burning magnesium flare to his body, dragged it to an open door in the plane, and threw it out moments before it exploded.  His act of selflessness earned him two-and-a-half months in the hospital before he returned to Vietnam to fly another 20 missions and the Medal of Honor (Air Force Link).  John Levitow’s story exists, along with thousands of others, in the annals of military history’s heroes.  Why is it that so many men and women rise to hero status in the military and why should that level of commitment be reserved for the military only?  Any employee can be a hero in any organization.

There is a fable about a chicken, a pig, and breakfast.  The fable shows that the chicken is fully dedicated to providing breakfast because she works hard to provide the eggs.  The pig; however, is fully committed to providing breakfast because he has to give his life to provide the bacon.  In a sense, the pig is breakfast’s hero, sacrificing his life for the mission—the ultimate in organizational commitment.  Throughout all the research currently available, you will find organizational commitment defined as a verb.  Wikipedia defines organizational commitment as, “The employee’s psychological attachment to the organization (Wikipedia).”  Works of Meyer and Allen further segregate organizational commitment into three components—affective, continuance, and normative (Meyer and Allen, p 11).  In “The Art of Winning Commitment,” Dick Richards states that there are four forms of commitment: 1) Political—commitment to something in order to gain something else, 2) Intellectual—commitment of the mind to a good idea, 3) Emotional—commitment that arises out of strong feelings, and 4) Spiritual—commitment to a higher purpose (Richards, p 12).  These definitions categorize the concept of organizational commitment in terms of predetermined definitions, but do little to explain what this type of commitment really is.  In fact, very little established work exists to pinpoint what organizational commitment actually is and, better yet, how to cultivate it in the workplace.  Research on the topic is found extremely sparse and very one-sided, following the opinions of few and then building upon these opinions.

For the purposes of this paper, organizational commitment is defined as a demonstration of dedication, loyalty, and sacrifice to an organization—a noun.  There are no varying types of organizational commitment, just varying levels—measurable levels.  Thus, organizational commitment itself is a measurable variable.  Different organizations normally solicit different levels of organizational commitment, the highest normally being of our public servants (military, police, and fire).  These workers willingly sacrifice their life and limb for their fellow man, the mission, and even an ideal, like freedom or democracy.  This level of commitment does not just happen; it takes an active involvement of the leader and follower.  Different organizations often desire different levels of commitment, but in all cases benefit from a worker that possesses it fully.  Strong employee-centric organizational commitment is valuable to any organization and can be developed in the employees of any organization.  Yes, any employee can be a hero in his or her own right.  First; however, we have to understand what organizational commitment is and why it can be so valuable.

Organizational commitment is a demonstration of three basic tenants: dedication, loyalty, and sacrifice to an organization, regardless of the organization’s type.  Dedicated means being devoted wholly and earnestly to the organization’s purpose, mission, and/or ideals.  Loyalty is being strict or thorough in the performance of one’s duty.  Sacrificing is the act of giving freely of one’s effort, time, and self to an organization.  There are three elements required for effective organizational commitment.  First, is, of course, the organization itself, second is leadership within the organization, and third is an employee or follower subordinate to the leader.  All organization’s followers possess some level of organizational commitment because they all have the three elements necessary.

Many authors would lead you to believe that preventing turnover is the reason organizational commitment is valuable.  In reality, turnover is just a symptom of low commitment within an organization—just one measurable outcome.  Organizational commitment is much more valuable to an organization.  Imagine the disgruntled employee in the organization that does not quit or are fired.  That disgruntled attitude could affect everything to include poor performance on the job, absenteeism, a lackadaisical attitude, theft, corruption, and even sabotage.  You might wish these employees would just leave, but instead they infect your organization with their discontent and let it breed like wildfire.  Now, take the alternative—the employee that is the inverse to the above.  Imagine if your employee was willing to sacrifice their very life for the mission of your company.  Unless you require this, you probably would not desire it, but why not work for that type of commitment in everyday operations regardless?  The employee that is fully committed to an organization will provide top performance, work overtime and off-duty hours without complaint, and possess a positive attitude that is not only a pleasure to work with, but motivates others around them.  Their level of trust within the organization sets new standards of internal ethics.  When looking at the two extremes, which employee would any organization want—probably the hero.

Therefore, organizational commitment is actually best defined as a measurable noun meaning a demonstration of dedication, loyalty, and sacrifice to an organization.  As a variable, it can sway to either end of the spectrum and greatly affect organizational efficiency and effectiveness.  The goal of organizations should be to influence employees toward the ultimate levels of commitment.  Therefore, we need to look at what influences organizational commitment.

Before we can encourage heroism—the highest level of organizational commitment—in our employees, we have to understand the existing factors that affect it.  The factors that influence organizational commitment are broad and diverse.  The focus of this point is to look strictly at the factors and not how they influence.  In the last point, we will discuss the potential impacts of the factors.  In many ways, we can look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Wikipedia) and we can categorize the factors important to the subject.  Just understanding the factors alone does not fully explain them—we also have to understand who or what provides them.  As discussed later in this paper, many researchers place the responsibility of organizational commitment squarely on the shoulders of the leader, when this is neither fair nor true.  It takes three elements—organization, employee, and leader—to influence organizational commitment.  The first two are crucial—you must have an organization to be committed to and you need to have a follower (employee) to be committed.  A leader may also be the follower, found in self-led organizations and positions.

Without an organization, there is nothing to be committed to, thus we highlight the organizational factors first.  By no means can we identify every single factor an organization provides or influences, but through this discussion, you will understand better the organization’s role in influencing all organizational behavior.  In regards to Maslow’s scale, the organization focuses mainly on some of the mid-tier needs like the “safety” needs of employment, health, and resources (leading to property) and the “belonging” needs of friendship and fitting in.  It is the organization itself that provides the means of employment and through those means, expected resources, which ultimately lead to property.  Organizations can provide means of health through prevention programs and health insurance programs.  Being part of an organization normally brings with it a level of belonging, normally through work friendships and just being part of an identifiable team.  In addition, an organization provides some of the basic factors of a mission or purpose, values or ideals, and goals.  The organization, in itself, provides the overall direction to the employee—which is normally translated by the leader, but understood by the follower.

The proverb goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”  This is inherently true of all followers or employees.  The employee must be willing to be led and, in many cases, must be ready to be led.  Without some of the most basic needs fulfilled, the employee is not ready to move forward in commitment.  Thus, the employee themselves are generally responsible for all Maslow’s “physiological” needs, some “safety” needs like body and health, and the interpersonal “love/belonging” needs.  In addition, although a leader can encourage “esteem,” a follower must be able to attain it.  So, without these two—organization and employee—you will never obtain any level of organizational commitment.

A leader is an essential element of organizational commitment in a sense, more than as a presence.  The leader can be the same as the follower, as in self-led organizations.  The leader; however, has a direct influence over an employee’s “esteem” in the hierarchy—self-esteem, confidence, achievement, and respect—but in many ways the employee has to allow these things to occur; the leader cannot “force” these things upon the employee.  The leader can also be the follower, as in self-led organizations.  The factors that influence these needs tend to reside in the motivational tools of leadership.  Rewards and recognition, power, direction, training, empowerment, and challenge are some of the leader’s key factors in developing organizational commitment.  As said though, internally, an employee can develop their own internal motivations—self-led—such as developing their own power, seeking out training, and setting personal goals.  That said, the leader must exist as an influence, but not as a physical body; however, a physical leader provides another valuable element to the subject of organizational commitment.

The highest (hero)-level of needs is Maslow’s “self-actualization.”  This is the ultimate level of organizational commitment.  This is where employees literally sacrifice themselves for the good of the company, for an intrinsic value that seldom is explained.  In the “Art of Winning Commitment,” Richards refers to this as the spiritual form of commitment—commitment to a higher purpose (Richards, p 12).  This is where the organization, employee, and leader normally all work in concert to illicit the ultimate desired behavior.  However, to understand how an employee achieves this desired level of self-actualization, we need to examine how to influence the factors discussed so they can work in concert with one another.

Some researchers would lead their readers to believe that the existence of commitment in employees relies solely on leadership abilities, but Dick Richards has it right in his book when he says, “Leaders cannot lead without the commitment of others (Richards, p 11).”  Leaders can be great, providing their employees the proverbial “water,” but if the employees refuse to accept, or are not ready for the liquid nourishment of leadership, they will not drink from the trough.  Understanding how each element of the organizational commitment chain—organization, employee, and leader—is affected positively and negatively by the factors under their control, leaders have a better opportunity to influence high levels of organizational commitment in hopes of periods of self-actualization.

Have you ever sat on the sidelines of a sports game where your team was winning?  The thrill of being a part, even from the stands, of your team’s victory tends toward exhilarating.  Fans across the nation celebrate in fanatical fashion with title wins regardless of the level of competition, if they are part of that team.  In sports, just because we say we support them, we take on ownership in that team, yet we have no control whatsoever its operation.  The odd thing about supporting a team is that anyone can attach themselves to a winning team and suddenly claim it as their own—a term referred to as, “getting on the band wagon.”  So, what could be said about the organization in respect to organizational commitment?  Are these fans committed to their winning teams?  What happens if their team does not win…often many fans lose interest.  This is true of organizations—employees want to be part of winning organizations.  A losing organization may have employees, but they probably will not be as satisfied with their place in the organization and may only stick around for its fulfillment of their basic needs of safety and security and less of belonging.  Picture in your mind a “winning” organization; better yet, ask your employees what they think a “winning’ organization means.  Undoubtedly, one takes care of its employees with commensurate pay and benefits to the level of work completed.  Moreover, the business should be successful and respected in the field and community.  The factors can be rather broad, but the concept is simple…people want to be part of a winning team!

Given that you have a winning team, let’s look at the employees themselves.  Are they capable of enjoying being part of that winning team?  If employees are sleeping in their car because they don’t have a home, if they are having serious medical problems, or not getting enough sleep for whatever reason, some of their basic needs will prevent them from being a committed employee in the organization.  It is common sense that if employees’ minds are elsewhere, or their comfort and concentration level is low, they will focus their efforts on these levels, which prevents higher-level needs from being met.  Leaders do not control these issues…let me repeat that for emphasis; leaders have no “control” over these external issues to organizational commitment.  If employees’ basic needs, which are outside of the control of the organization or leader, are not being met, one cannot expect a high organizational commitment.  A good leader, who is in tune to the patterns and needs of his or her employees, might be able to assist that individual through support, advice, guidance, and assistance, but this ultimately falls to the follower to implement.  Too often, people are ready to place the blame for low organizational commitment on a leader, when the employee is not ready to be committed or is not happy with the losing organization.  However, if the organization is winning and the employee, in the infamous words from the movie, “Field of Dreams,” “If you build it, they will come.”

Leaders, working with employees that are happy about their organization—truly identify with the winning team—and are mentally and physically prepared, can be led to levels of rivaled heroism in any organization.  Leaders, or the act of internal leadership in the case of CEOs and self-led organizations (entrepreneurs), have the tools available to motivate employees beyond normal levels of organizational commitment to realize their full potential in self-actualization.  These tools are vast and vary in effectiveness from leader to leader; too vast to discuss in this paper.  The premise; however, is for the leader to determine what personally motivates each of employees.  These motivational drivers are what transform organizational followership into organizational ownership.  Once employees feel like the organization’s success and failure rests on their actions, they achieve the strongest levels of organizational commitment.  Although we might desire our people to maintain the highest level of commitment at all times, what really happens is once the culture is in place, people “rise” to levels of heroic commitment.  This is when the employees put aside their lowest levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the company—self-actualization, or better known as heroism.

Technical Sergeant Israel Del Toro dedicated himself to the United States Air Force and his mission as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC), directing tactical air strikes on targets as an embedded member of Special Forces.  For years he dedicated himself to the greatest air force in the world—the United States Air Force.  No one can contest that the current United States Air Force is not a “winning team.”  With a beautiful and devoted wife, new son, and recent promotion, Israel was prepared at all the Air Force could throw at him.  After his Humvee rolled over a pressure-plate explosive in 2005, setting it off, the heat of the ensuing blast and fire badly burned and disfigured him.  Regardless, today, TSgt Del Toro is desperate to stay in the Air Force and share his message to the world.  Although this fanatical devotion to the organization is not attributed to leadership (either external or internal), it is the goals and expectations placed upon him that have driven him to continue to fight (Winn, p 14).  This devotion should be the level of organizational commitment every organization strives for—regardless of their role.

Heroes are characters that, in the face of danger and adversity, from a position of weakness display courage and the will for self-sacrifice; that is, heroism, for some greater good (Wikipedia).  You will notice that nowhere in that definition does it say that they must be members of the military or some other public service-related organization.  They are “characters,” in essence, you and me.  If you “expect” your employees to rise to heroism in your company, if your organization represents the “greater good,” if the employees are ready, and if leadership provides the proper motivation, it will happen.  We do not have to have John Levitow or Israel Del Toro in our organization; the John and Jane Does are just as capable of rising to a level of self-sacrificing self-actualization for their company as any military member in history is.  The key is simply understanding that organizational commitment rises and falls as a variable, and that it is not a static determination into which we pigeonhole our employees.  Then, we need to understand the factors that affect the three elements of organizational commitment in the workplace and we need to know how, if possible, to set the stage through the manipulation of those factors.  Once set, when the face of adversity rises to challenge your employees they will rise to levels of courage fit for any hero on the battlefield of business.  Yes, any employee in any organization can be a hero!

References

Brown, Barbara.  Employees’ Organizational Commitment and Their Perception of Supervisor’s Relations-Oriented and Task-Oriented Leadership Behaviors.  Falls Church, 2003

Fink, Stephen.  High Commitment Workplaces.
Quorum Books, 1992.

Friedman, Brian, et al.  Delivering on the Promise: How to Attract, Manage, and Retain Human Capital.  Arthur Anderson, 1998.

Hearn, John.  What Difference Can You Make?  Airpower Journal.  1 Jun 2007
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj07/sum07/hearn.html

Hero.  Wikipedia.  20 Jun 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero

Lee, Thomas.  Commitment Propensity, Organizational Commitment, and Voluntary Turnover: A Longitudal Study of Organizational Entry Processes.  Journal of Management.  23 Mar 2007
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4256/is_n1_v18/ai_12289729/print

Levitow, John.  Personal interview, circa 1992

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Wikipedia.  16 Jun 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Meyer, John, and Allen, Natalie.  Commitment in the Workplace.
Sage Publications, 1997.

My HR Network: Re-energizing Your Organization After Layoffs.
NEHRA, 2002

O’Malley, Michael.  Creating Commitment: How to Attract and Retain Talented Employees by Building Relationships That Last.  John Wiley and Sons, 2000.

Organizational Commitment.  Eds. NB Executive Leadership Development
New Brunswick, 2006

Organizational Commitment.  Wikipedia.  23 Mar 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_commitment

Richards, Dick.  Artful Work: Awakening Joy, Meaning, and Commitment in the Workplace.  Berkley, 1995.

Richards, Dick.  The Art of Winning Commitment: 10 Ways Leaders Can Engage Minds, Hearts, and Spirits.  New York : AMACOM, 2004.

Sgt. John L. Levitow.  Air Force News Agency.  1 Jun 2007
http://www.af.mil/history/person_print.asp?storyID=123006519

Stup, Richard.  Special Research Report: Human Resource Management and Dairy Employee Organizational Commitment.  Penn State, 200

Walton, Richard.  From Control to Commitment in the Workplace.
Harvard Business Review, 1985

Winn, Patrick.  Fighting To Stay In.
Air Force Times, 2007

What Is Strategic Planning Really?

Why Does Your Company Need a Strategic Plan?

Strategic planning, as a structured and systematic process, is successful when it is leader-led and overcomes the five reasons 70% of all strategies fail.  The strategic planning process is where leaders of an organization establish the vision of the organization’s future and then develop and implement the actions necessary to achieve that future.  This article expands on the strategic planning concepts addressed in Think Big, Take Small Steps and is designed to help you achieve success in your strategic planning process.

For many business people, strategic planning is a very foreign language.  When I discussed the importance of strategic planning late last month, several people were probably giving the post a “deer in the headlights” look.  The problem lies in the common definition of what strategic planning is.  This lack of common definition causes everyone to form an opinion about what strategic planning is and then why they think they do not need it for their business.

Today I will distill the term strategic planning and demonstrate why it is so important to business success.

Understanding Planning

The Latin word for “Plan” is “Cogito.”  Cogito is defined as to think, ruminate, ponder, consider, and plan.  Plan; however, can be an action verb meaning to decide on and arrange in advance, or a noun meaning a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something.  Confusion starts with whether you use the word “plan” as a verb or noun.  No wonder everyone is confused.

An actual plan is any diagram (like a schematic) or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective.  The common understanding of “plan” is as a set of intended actions, through which one expects to achieve a goal.  Plans can be formal or informal.

The most popular ways to describe plans are by their frame of reference or purpose, breadth, time frame, and specificity; however, these planning classifications are not independent of one another.  For instance, there is a close relationship between the short- and long-term categories and the strategic and operational categories.

Planning is setting performance expectations and goals for groups and individuals to channel their efforts toward achieving objectives.  It also includes the measures used to determine whether expectations and goals are being met.  Planning, in essence means to develop a plan and keep it going.

Where a lot of the additional confusion arises is in the specific types of plans that are out there.  Many times I have worked with different groups of people who say they are doing “strategic planning,” when in fact, they are not.  There are many different types of strategic plans — all this tends to get very confusing so let me break these plans (and thus planning — the act of developing the plan) into easy to understand categories:

Plans fall into two different categories:  Level and Type.  First, I will define the two categories, and then I will provide some examples to help you understand the application.

Level.  The level of planning is broken into Strategic, Operational, and Tactical.  The best way to explain these three levels is to look at it from the reverse — tactical first.  Tactical is your day-to-day, project-level activities.  Tactical plans are short in duration (weeks to months) and usually implemented at the lowest level (not always developed there though).  Operational plans are normally at the program level — there usually are several tactical plans that make up one operational plan and a few operational plans in a strategic plan.  Operational plans are somewhat broader and longer lasting than tactical plans (months to years).  Strategic plans are at the highest level.  There normally is only one of each type (see below) in an organization.  They are very long term (many years) and should drive all other (operational and tactical) plans (see figure below).

Type.  There are many types of plans and as noted, there can be different levels of each type of plan.  Generally the different types of plans follow somewhat functional lines.  Some examples of plan types are business, financial, communication, marketing, information technology, etc..  This is the area that really confuses people, especially when you have the same level plan in an organization (e.g., A company has a strategic plan, strategic communications plan, and an information technology strategic plan).

As you can see, between the different definitions, the different levels, and the different types, the whole subject of strategic planning (or any planning for that matter) can get very difficult to follow.

Let me give you a few examples of situations and the plans that would accompany them:

• Your supervisor tells you that the organization is trying to account for all the computerized assets they own and he directs you to conduct a major inventory and determine how to keep track of all the computer hardware and software for the 50 personnel in the section — you would develop a Tactical Information Technology Plan.
• Your office has a new product line that has been out for a few months and is not selling well.  In line with their communications strategies, they want you to develop and implement a marketing program for the new product — you build an Operational Communications and Marketing Plan.
• As the new CEO of a small business, you were hired to improve the company.  You see they lack direction and have a host of problems.  You sit down and work with the organization to build and implement a Strategic Business Plan.

As you can see from the above examples, each of the plans developed are slightly different in their operational level and function; however, they are all just plans — a list of steps with timing and resources used to achieve an objective.  The important thing is to understand the hierarchy of organizational plans and the differences between them.

A real world example of planning at its finest would be United States (US) National Strategy.  The US develops an overarching National Strategy Document that outlines the country’s focus as a sovereign nation — this encompasses diplomatic, information, military, and economic realms and is at the strategic level.  Both operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were major operational plans of activities that focused mainly on military, but also encompassed diplomatic, information, and economic activities.  At the tactical level, specific actions were occurring over time to achieve these operational plans.

The Organization’s Strategic Plan Trumps All

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” ~ Lewis Caroll

Lewis Caroll’s quote from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is commonly referred to in many books and statements regarding planning.  This quote; however, is especially important to every organization’s Strategic Plan.  This is the granddaddy and mother rabbit of them all!  If your organization does not have a published and well understood strategic plan, then somewhere in your organization someone is wondering why they are doing what they do.

Every plan that exists in your organization and every action in your organization should harken back to the Strategic Plan.  If you are doing something that is not listed as an important strategy for the organization that either the strategy is wrong, or what you are doing is wrong.  Something needs to be fixed.

If you do not have a strategic plan or you do but it if it does not influence anyone or anything, then something is wrong.

The first question I ask as a consultant is, “Why are you doing this?”  The correct answer should link back to the organization’s strategic plan.  (e.g., “We build these widgets because it allows our customers meet their needs, which is our purpose outlined in our mission.”)

Overcoming the Reasons Not to Strategically Plan

Recently I read a couple articles on Yahoo Voices on why firms should skip strategic planning (Morningside) or why strategic planning is a waste of time (VanAmee).  That prompted me to do a little more research into the subject and identify the reasons some think strategic planning should not be done (Reynolds).  That finally drove me to write this blog.

In a future article, I plan to discuss when a company really needs a strategic plan and when they do not.  Sometimes, a company is in so much trouble that they need a crisis action plan and they can focus on strategic planning when they get through the crisis.  This section; however, relates to why companies feel they don’t need a strategic plan at all:

1.  Overcoming the bad taste in their mouth.  Face it, not only have I seen, but I helped create many strategic plans that do nothing but collect dust on a shelf — what I refer to as “shelfware.”  I have worked with many organizations that have been bit by the “planning bug” too many times and they are downright sick of it.  You hear them say things like, “This is just another management fad,” or “We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.”  Let me tell you — the reasons you tried it before is because you needed it then and you need it now.  The problem is the way you developed the plan was flawed and it was no good, or you failed to implement it — chances are, both of those reasons are correct.  Get yourself a professional and invest some time and money in solidifying your company’s future.  That means dedicating resources to planning year-round, not just once.

2.  The belief that strategic planning is a waste of time and money.  This excuse always kills me.  I talk about this in my previous blog on the importance of strategic planning.  Planning is about preparing yourself for the future…about thinking ahead.  If any organization thinks that it can operate by the seat of its pants and stay in business, this would be why 7 out of 10 small businesses fail.  It costs an organization a minimum of 25% more money to react to an unplanned situation than to plan for and be ready when the event happens.  In rework alone dealing with a crisis, the cost can destroy a company.

3.  It is not the right time or we are alright.  Every organization should have a strategic plan, they should review their progress regularly against that plan, and they should update that plan annually.  If you are alright now, then now is the best time.  The speed of change in the world today is so intense that any organization that sits back on its laurels and thinks it is doing ok is about to be out of business.  The proverb, “There’s no time like the present,” seems to fit right here.

4.  Fear of change that comes from strategic transformation.  Strategic planning means changing your organization.  You determine where you are, develop a vision of where you want to go, and lay out a plan to get there — transformation.  The official term for fear of change is Metathesiophobia.  This fear can severely reduce one’s will to continue in life; sometimes one may feel like they have no control in life and may want to end it.  Those with this fear constantly look back on the past and wish it would come back, but know it will not; they are willing to do anything to go back and tend to fill themselves with false hope or lose faith in life.  If you do not think this is real, read “Who Moved My Cheese.”

5.  We are just too busy to plan right now.  Excuse me, but there is a reason for that.  You are too busy right now because you have not and are not planning, thus you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off.  Good strategic planning will help you overcome the “we’re too busy to do anything productive” syndrome.

6.  Developing a plan is too much work.  Strategic planning, just like proper education and training, quality improvement, etc., will always be “work” for a company.  Too much, would be because of an over-emphasis on the planning process.  Having someone conduct an organizational assessment and taking a day or so once a quarter to emphasize the direction of the organization is nothing to the results you will gain.  All too often, planning becomes a “get around to it” type of thing, when it should be the most important thing leadership does — they set the vision and evaluate the organization’s progress achieving it.  Along the way, they adjust their effort and resources to continue to move closer to success.

7.  People are rewarded for the wrong thing.  Have you ever worked in an organization where people were rewarded for crisis management and those who planned and prepped were not?  This type of attitude breeds a culture of “fire fighters” not planners.  This will encourage an organization full of people who cannot look past six months on a schedule and are always fighting to get deadlines met.  Soon customers will start leaving, budgets will dry up, and the company will fold.

8.  We are fine; we do not need a plan.  This is especially true of small or overconfident businesses.  Many small businesses think strategic plans are only for large companies and they do not need one yet.  Talk to some of your mentors who have big businesses now and see how they started — they planned.  Business will grow if you have the right mix of things like product, demand, and placement.  But have you thought about how you will grow?  Some companies think they are doing just fine without that “holy plan;” however, the environment has a way of changing and if it is not evaluated and monitored, it will catch you when you least expect it.  Big or small, effective or not, everyone needs a strategic plan and continuous strategic planning.

9.  We built a plan and it is fine.  Congratulations!  Having a strategic plan is a great first step.  The importance of it has been recognized; however, how good is it?  How often do you look at it?  Does anyone even use it?  Strategic plans can be pretty and used as a marketing device, but must be living and constantly reviewed and updated.  Every organization will start with a very basic plan and if it is constantly reviewed in a professional manner, they will improve and refine it over time.  Just because you have one, does not mean you are done.

10.  No one can plan for the future.  Unless you have a psychic or soothsayer on your staff, then you are right, no one can predict the future and plan for it.  What good organizations do; however, is identify the potential threats and opportunities they face with their best guess and take steps to put measures in place to prevent the future from negatively impacting them.  Examining potential actions against your current strategy and determining if they fit, sometimes prevents a company from making unwise and risky decisions.  It is the whole, “Look before you leap,” philosophy.  If we all had crystal balls, then everyone would be rich and their businesses would run perfectly — since no one has a crystal ball, the next best thing is a strategic plan.

Plans come in all shapes and sizes.  Your organization probably already has a few or more that people have created (formally or informally).  The most important plan for every organization; however, is a Strategic Business Plan — normally just called the strategic plan.  Do not be fooled by other strategic-level plans — there is only one strategic plan and it trumps all others.  There is no solid reason why any organization should not have a good strategic plan and implement regular strategic planning activities.  Some reasons might sound convincing at first, but in the end, having a strategic plan is key to organizational prosperity.

The Importance of Strategic Planning

Proper Strategic Planning is the Most Important First Step for Any Organization

Strategic Planning is a structured and systematic process, where leaders of an organization establish the vision of the organization’s future and then develop and implement the actions necessary to achieve that future.  This article expands on the strategic planning concepts addressed in Think Big, Take Small Steps and is designed to help you achieve success in your strategic planning process.

You hear a lot of rhetoric these days about the importance of strategic planning, but seldom can anyone provide any concrete return on investment data from such planning.  The reasons often presented; however compelling, leave the business owner asking, “So what?”

On the surface, these are some of the typical reasons why hundreds of books and articles say strategic planning is important:

• Improves performance
• Provides direction
• Provides high quality services
• Optimizes resource allocation
• Meets accreditation and regulatory requirements
• Maximizes chances for success

Let me start by saying that “effective” strategic planning will have a positive effect on any organization, but it is not the answer in all situations or to all the organization’s problems.  Do not think that strategic planning is a “magic pill” your business can take to get better; however, businesses without strategic planning tend to fare far worst than those with.

Many companies, large and small, choose not to develop strategic plans.  M.C. Morningside highlights seven of these traditional reasons in his article.  Lee VanAmee, in his article, highlights why some organizations may feel strategic planning is a waste of time.  The bottom line is there are three very big reasons why all organizations should have robust strategic planning.  These three reasons clearly demonstrate why strategic planning is important.

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

According to the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration, 7 out of 10 new employer firms survive at least 2 years, half at least 5 years, a third at least 10 years, and a quarter stay in business 15 years or more.  In the book Small Business Management, Michael Ames cites eight primary reasons for small business failure: lack of experience, insufficient capital (money), poor location, poor inventory management, over-investment in fixed assets, poor credit arrangements, personal use of business funds, and unexpected growth.  All of these problems and many more could be mitigated with an effective business strategic plan.

You would not build a house without first laying a strong foundation first, so why would you start a business without ensuring it had a solid foundation as well.  When the soil shifts under your wonderful new home, cracks start to appear in the walls, doors do not close correctly anymore, and eventually the house could collapse entirely.  A business started without a strong plan, which addresses the primary small business threats, could end up in the same heap of failure.

If it is so important for a small business to have an effective strategic plan, what makes the large firm that has been around for 20 years any different?  They face the same challenges as a small business, just on a grander and broader scale.  Going in the wrong direction in a business that deals in millions versus thousands can cause any large organization to fail just as quickly if not quicker.

Direction and Inspiration to the Workforce

Have you ever worked in a company where you had no idea what the company did or how you fit into it?  This is more common than you may think.  One of the largest intrinsic reasons employees’ demonstrate strong organizational commitment is that they feel like their work matters.  Everyone wants to be part of a winning team — look at the fans of winning sports teams.  However, what really keeps fans coming, even in a losing season is that they feel like their support matters to the team.  This organizational purpose is highlighted and defined in the organization’s mission statement — a very important part of the framework of a strategic plan.  This mission reminds the organization, its leadership, and its employees of the organization’s direction and purpose.

Inspiration is what drives and motivates employees even in the dire times.  This inspiration is provided through a well-designed vision statement — another key element of the strategic plan.  Lofty and unmeasurable vision statements like, “Being the best,” may look good on paper and give leaders a warm feeling, but seldom inspire employees.  The fact is if the vision seems impossible to ever achieve, then it will probably work to demotivate employees.

As highlighted in the five primary reasons strategic plans fail, in Think Big, Take Small Steps, not developing an effective strategic framework hamstrings your strategic plan before you ever try to implement it.  If you want to provide direction and inspiration to your workforce, take time to develop a purposeful and everlasting mission statement and an inspiring and far-reaching vision statement.

Responsiveness to Change and Elimination of Rework

Picture getting in your car for a cross-country trip to visit friends.  Would you plan what you needed to pack, the route you would take, where you would stop along the way, and how much money it would take?  Of course — if you did not, chances are you would run out of money, get lost, and be wearing the same clothes you started in with never arriving at your intended destination.  To understand the value of strategic planning, you must understand the impact without it.

The value of strategic planning is related to time.  When you reduce your time in planning — only thinking a few weeks or months out — costs escalate exponentially because of last-minute actions and constant rework occurs due to mistakes based on quick decisions.  Strategic planning is like planning for that cross-country drive — it gets you “ahead of time” and saves you loss of productivity and money in the long run.  Failing to plan can spell disaster for an organization that goes in the wrong direction.

Many organizations will find a plethora of excuses why they think they should not plan.  Literature by the droves tells us strategic planning is important; however, if you want your business to succeed, if you want to drive organizational commitment in your workforce, and if you want to operate effectively and efficiently well into the future, strategic planning is for you.

Looking to learn more about strategic planning?  The Association for Strategic Planning (ASP) is a non-profit professional society whose mission is to help people and organizations to succeed through improved strategic Thinking, Planning and Action.

Related Links (find three links related to the topic of the article):

1.  http://www.strategyplus.org/

2.  http://www.sba.gov/

3.  http://managementhelp.org/strategicplanning/index.htm

2011 Learning and Leadership Development Virtual Conference

I’m attending the 2011 Learning and Leadership Development Virtual Conference.  It’s going on in Boston and I’m attending from San Antonio.  Great startup and good presentations overall.  Looking forward to getting the presentations.  In January is the Workforce Planning Conference — they do five conferences a year.  Good stuff that really makes one think.

Watch “Calorific Calorie Counter Introduction” on YouTube

Strategic Planning Presentation

Upcoming for American Society for Quality and Continuous Improvement Professional here in San Antonio…

Strategic Planning

Think Big, Take Small Steps

70 Percent of all strategic plans fail!

This presentation is designed to answer these four questions:

• What is it?
• Why does it fail?
• Why is it important?
• How do I do it?

Learn about what strategic planning is, how all plans are inherently the same, how strategic planning is a process much like DMAIC, why planning saves money, and how process improvement is linked to planning.

Discover the five primary reasons strategic plans fail:

• Focus
• Framework
• Implementation
• Rigor and Accountability
• Communication

Walk away with a simple hoshin kanri-based three-step approach.  This presentation will show you the basics of strategic planning, but, by no means, will it make one an expert.

Strategic Planning Presentation

Get Xtreme on your Android, San Antonio!

Get Xtreme on your Android, San Antonio!.