The Right Time to Write a Mission Statement...When is the right time to write a mission statement? My answer has always been at the beginning of a strategic planning process. At least initially. Don’t get married to that one. Strategic planning the mission. Strategic planning is about thinking strategically, at least that should be its goal. Strategic planning is about … [Read more...] about The Right Time to Write a Mission Statement
Strategic Planning
Washington DC Needs Strategic Play
Washington DC Needs Strategic Play As I listen to the partisan bickering in Washington D.C., I mourn the loss of ideas that could be fueled by real engagement. Rather than lob old ideas and quick fixes across the aisle like rhetoric bombs, they should be finding a common ground for strategic play. Scenario planning, at its very core, calls for the integration and … [Read more...] about Washington DC Needs Strategic Play
Strategic Planning and Action Plans: Actually Taking Action
Strategic planning: rethinking action plans A common mistake in strategic planning comes when the “strategic planning” team communicates the strategic plan to functions and individuals and asks them to “incorporate the strategy” into their operations. The last part of the last sentence is OK, but the rest of it implies that the functions are doing is the right thing but … [Read more...] about Strategic Planning and Action Plans: Actually Taking Action
How to Define Goals and Objectives
How to Define Goals and Objectives It is always interesting when I enter a conversation about strategy because, before long, the conversation turns to terminology. People spend hours discussing: What is a mission? What is a vision? What is a goal? What is an objective? That is forgivable because most people don’t live this terminology. So I bring my definitions, and once I … [Read more...] about How to Define Goals and Objectives
Strategic Planning: The Environmental Scan
It is important that strategic planning not be linear. Strategic planning has moments of parallelism, most notably at the beginning and the end (there is really no end, but we’ll get to that later) of the project. So as you have your team ruminating on the mission statement and agreeing on the process, you can engage a wide range of people on the environmental scan. If you do … [Read more...] about Strategic Planning: The Environmental Scan
