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Strategic Planning
I was driving down to the lake for a walk, navigating the busy university “drag.”
Midway through the gauntlet, a young man stepped off the curb into the road, looking not toward my car coming his way but in the opposite direction. I hit the brake, and he finally swiveled his head in time enough to beat his retreat back onto the sidewalk.
I heard my father’s voice, what he repeated over and over again as he taught me to drive: “Always look in the direction you’re going.”
At the time, his words seemed painfully obvious, and forgettable.
Decades later, of course, his advice has proven prophetic. “Always look in the direction you’re going.”
In fact, it has become my mantra for strategic planning.
Even though the point of strategic planning is to “look in the direction you’re going,” we are all too tempted, like Lot, to turn backward. It’s a challenge to let go of the situation we know, love, and enjoy comfortably. But if we don’t, we risk destroying it.
In order to make the most of your strategic planning process — whether it’s an informal one you’re doing on your own or a large-scale, consultant-facilitated undertaking — you’ve got to look in the direction you’re going.
That means:
1. Look up
If you’re focused only on yourself, your organization, and your work, you will never notice the opportunities to create new connections and to enlarge your community of stakeholders.
2. Read the writing on the wall
What you need to know about the trends in your community is right there in front of you, spray painted large and day-glo. You ignore that message at your own peril. The world moves forward with or without you.
3. Use binoculars
There are tools you can use to bring what’s distant into full and immediate view. You need to see your imagined future in clear detail before you can plan how to make it happen.
Best,
Ann
March 2007