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I recently conducted a facilitated session for an organization and asked them what was in their mission statement. None of the people present, mostly Board members, could answer. The reason this surprised me is that the mission statement was written on a flip chart sheet clearly visible to all of them.
All too often when I talk to people about their strategic plans, they do not know any of the elements or they can recite the words but don’t know (or possibly care) what they mean or how they apply to the organization.
I am a big believer in the value of consensus, the power of the collective, and the benefits of facilitated sessions that reach out to employees, customers, and other stakeholders for strategic planning efforts. At the same time, I am aware that, all too often, words from these sessions can be twisted, misunderstood or become dogma. Something said casually can easily become set in stone. A quick aside, a summary from tired participants, or a flawed voting or prioritization process can mean that the direction set for the organization is created without intent or deliberate choice. This is a disadvantage to the organization and is unfair to those who devote their time and effort to making an organization more effective.
Frequently, strategic plan goals seem to be lofty or unachievable. For some, it is hard to tie day-to-day operations to the strategic plan. This can be disheartening and un-empowering for employees toiling for an employer who they believe fails to recognize the value of their efforts. Additionally, these goals can be become irrelevant or outpaced by the marketplace or technology and linger long after they are meaningful or helpful.
There are notable exceptions and these exceptions tend to be highly successful businesses. They also tend to have employee wellbeing as a key component of the strategic plan.
In the Human Performance Institute’s White Paper, “The Power of an Energy Microburst,†Janet Nikolovski, Ph.D. and Jack Groppel, Ph.D. talk about the fact that work is a series of sprints with times for recovery in between, not a marathon. In fact, it is often during the recovery that we have the best ideas. They define a microburst as “a small (short in duration), intentional activity that results in a disproportionate, higher return.â€
This applies to strategic planning as well. Rather than looking at it as a marathon over several years, think of breaking it into sprint like pieces with microbursts along the way. Moreover, with the advent of 24x7 information cycles and access and the expectation of instantaneous responses, we often “micro-learn†enough for the next step or to move forward slightly, before acquiring the next piece of information. It is a very different model than many of us grew up with before access to information was so quick and response times so short..
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