Developing effective and executable strategic plans is hard, especially if one of the goals is to bring about significant organizational change.
In a recent article, Why Strategic Plans Fail, Shamis and Nisberg list some of the factors which can cause your great sounding plan to slide off the road into the ditch. They include:
- Change is always hard
- Change threatens those invested in the status quo
- Insufficient buy-in during plan development
- Organizational "short term-ism"
- Founder resistance to change
- Lack of concrete goals and accountability
Truly effective strategic planning requires:
- Clear executive sponsorship
- Evidence-based analyses
- Broad organizational participation and buy in
- Executable strategies with clear implementation plans and accountability
- Extensive alternative scenario planning to prepare for changing circumstances
And remember the old saying often attributed to Dwight Eisenhower: "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."
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