Don’t Let Strategy Become Planning

It's time to admit that we have a problem. For decades, we have been obsessed with planning. Planning has become so prevalent in business, and so ingrained in our culture, that it seems impossible to even imagine doing anything else.

A lot of people equate planning to having a strategy. They say, let's develop a business strategy, but what they really mean is let's plan and let's document our plan. But that is not strategy.

Strategy and planning are often used interchangeably, but in reality, they are not the same thing.

Strategy is actually the act of making choices. When you make a choice, you're saying I'm going to do this and not that. That's what strategy means.

In the business world, we tend to confuse people by calling our plans a strategy when it's really just a detailed plan or an operational plan or a project plan.

While these kinds of documents may be useful, but can also be dangerous. If your team sees strategic thinking solely as a process by which they come up with a plan, then you've stifled their ability to engage in strategic thinking on an ongoing basis. The next time something doesn't go as planned, they'll just make another plan rather than changing their thinking about how the world works or what their competitive position really is.

This is why it's important for organizations to define the difference between strategy and planning. Strategy should be thought of as the process by which we make decisions about where we want to go and how we are going to get there; it involves making choices about our core capabilities, trade-offs between different parts of the business, and where we focus our limited resources. On the other hand, planning is the process by which we implement our strategy.

The reason this distinction matter is that most companies don't have a shortage of plans, but they do have a shortage of strategies that are clear, accepted, and understood. This leads to a lot of wasted effort and resources as people work on things that ultimately don't move the company forward. By separating strategy from planning, leaders can be more focused in their efforts to define strategy and engage others in it, while also ensuring that their teams have clear goals and work plans to execute against.

A true strategy is more than just what you do - it's why you do it, and why it matters. And if you're only focused on the actions you take, you miss out on the rich insight and inspiration behind those actions.

Planning should be the execution of the strategy; it should outline how we are going to achieve the strategic objectives we have set out for ourselves - and it needs to be different from one organization to the next because each company's situation is unique.

Planning is not strategy. It is one piece of the puzzle, and it's an important piece. But it's not the whole thing.

Planning can be thought of as a series of steps or processes that organizations can use to implement strategy. For example, once a company decides on its target market and its strategic positioning, it will create an advertising plan to reach those customers with messaging that aligns with the company's positioning. The company may also create a marketing plan to support its sales force in selling to those customers. A financial plan provides the steps by which the company will meet its financial targets, while an operations plan defines how the product will be designed and manufactured.

For most organizations, strategy development is a complex and difficult process. One of the biggest challenges is getting people to agree on the root problems facing the organization and what it wants to accomplish. Often, these disagreements are rooted in different perspectives about how different parts of the business fit together. Because there are so many variables, it often seems easier for people just to ignore that there is a problem at all and continue along with business as usual.

All these activities are planning - they're what we do after we decide on our strategy - but if you were to ask most managers what their company's strategy was, they would likely describe one or more plans in detail instead.

When a firm is too obsessed with planning they end up with a lot of plans and not much strategy. The reason, I think, is that we're all too familiar with planning as a discipline. It's comfortable for us because it's familiar. We can create detailed budgets and timelines for dozens of projects, tying them to hard milestones and measuring whether those milestones were met.

We need to get over this aversion to strategy. It's too important and too powerful not to embrace. In the world of business, strategy has become synonymous with the budget or the set of goals produced at the end of a planning process.

Planning is just one step in this process. Planning tells you how you're going to get from A to B. Strategy tells you why that matters, and why you're going there in the first place.

We've all seen it: the endless plans and predictions, the long PowerPoint decks that try to predict the future and layout a plan of attack.

In my experience, this approach to strategy is fundamentally flawed. We don't need another plan: we need a strategic mindset.

Imagine how confusing it would be if we started each new initiative from scratch, with no idea of how it fits into the larger picture - and no way to evaluate whether or not it actually does. We'd be doing a lot of work that might very well get us nowhere, and end up wasting more resources than we could afford in terms of money and time.

A good strategy gives us a clear sense of direction so we know where we're going and what we're aiming for. It helps us measure the value of our efforts against our goals. And it allows us to make sound decisions about which initiatives we should be focusing on, instead of just doing as much as possible without thinking through what our best options are.

That's why we need to get managers focused on developing strategy before starting any planning.

Planning without strategy is a recipe for disaster.

We're all guilty of it. We hear the phrase "strategic planning" and we immediately start dreaming up ideas and initiatives and investments, instead of thinking about the strategy itself. And then we wonder why our ideas don't seem to connect to one another or work together to drive results.

Let's say you have a strategy to grow sales by expanding into a new market. To do that, you're going to make some investments in different programs and initiatives. You'll need to develop new products or services that address the needs of your new customer base, and you'll need to get those products into the hands of customers in your target market. You might also want to develop a brand that positions your company as the leading provider in this new market.

But before you start building the plan for these types of programs and initiatives, take a closer look at what you're trying to achieve with this growth strategy. What does it mean for your overall business? What type of growth is it going to yield? Is it strategic growth - growth that supports your overall business objectives? Or is it just incremental growth? And what are the implications if it doesn't work out as you expect? Is this really the best approach to growing your company?

It's important to think carefully about these questions before you start planning which programs and initiatives will support your strategy. Because if there are problems with the strategy itself, then all the time, effort, and money spent on executing the plan will be wasted.

A good business strategy will allow you to visualize what success looks like, and then work backwards from that point to create the specific steps that will lead you there.

Do you have a strategy for your business or just a lot of planning documents? This might be the time to rethink your business strategy.

Having one without the other can lead you down a path of wasted effort and money.

If you would love some help brainstorming this with you, feel free to reach out.