Traditional planning processes focus on “how” to move into an uncertain future. The problem with traditional planning processes is that they fail when sudden changes in the market or new opportunities make the existing plan obsolete. Traditional techniques for accumulating data like P.E.S.T.L.E (an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) and S.W.O.T. (an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) are nothing more than processes small groups of planners use behind closed doors to attempt to consider all aspects of the business. This makes the plan process-based, exclusive and top down.

Once the traditional plan is developed, it must then be communicated, put into action and integrated in the daily decision-making. The separation of the decision-makers from the implementers makes it difficult to get people to buy into the vision and align their efforts with the overall goal. Traditional planning also limits the options to achieve success as it defines how to achieve the objective.

In this rapidly evolving world of transparency, it makes much more sense to develop a “why” based strategy or strategic plan leaving flexibility in how. Why based plans include input from all the stakeholders greatly increasing the inputs (eliminating the need for P.E.S.T.L.E. and S.W.O.T.) and thereby creating more choices. The involvement of more people, means a more bottom-up approach and the greater the support for the resulting plan. Acceptance of why based plans results in empowerment with people finding new ways to reach the goal when obstacles appear.

Before undertaking this approach to planning, we encourage clients to undergo a company wide assessment that will provide specific areas where the greatest benefits can be measured and steps taken to insure measurable success.

Strategy and strategic planning in today’s highly competitive environment can no longer be relegated to the Executive Suite and then imposed on the rest of the organization. No matter how good the plan, if the people responsible for execution are not supportive, the plan will not succeed.  Involving and Empowering employees to react appropriately and quickly to solve problems on their own requires understanding and ownership of the “why” of the endeavor.

Bob Cannon knows first hand the shortcomings of traditional strategic planning and since 2002 has been studying and using Appreciative Inquiry to help organizations overcome those shortcomings. This why based approach can be applied to everything from corporate strategy, to brand strategy to marketing strategy covering the 4 Ps of product strategy, price strategy, placement strategy and promotion strategy.

Call today to see a sample report from one of our pre-planning assessments and how it can work to enhance employee engagement and overall performance in your organization. Our number is (866) 598-8450.