Last week, I wrote about one reason not everyone in your organization will be able to see themselves clearly in your strategy. Today, we’ll explore a second reason.
Sometimes, in an effort to make a strategic plan thorough and inclusive, we see it as an inventory of everything we currently do.
A strategy is not an inventory—it’s a filter.
Continue reading “Filter not Inventory”I often hear clients talk about the importance of all staff being able to “see themselves in the new strategy.”
It’s an appeal for relevance and inclusion, and I get it. But it’s the role of strategic leaders to help each person see themselves in the strategy—it’s not the role of the strategy itself to reflect everybody’s work.
Continue reading “A Flattering Mirror”Strategic planning is not just for corporations—lots of my one-on-one coaching work feels like strategy-building for individuals too. And that’s a space I’m curious about—as group activities that also apply to individuals, and vice versa.
So over the next few weeks, I’m going to write about what strategic planning is and isn’t, and I’d invite you to view it through both an individual and collective lens, as I suspect it will apply to both.
Continue reading “Strategic Leadership”Have you ever been asked to “trust the process?”
It’s something I’ve invited groups or coaching clients to do, out loud and far more frequently in my head.
Why? Because the process of strategy building or navigating transitions can become fuzzier before it gets clearer, and if you give up on it too soon, you might be doing so just before the fog clears.
Continue reading “Trust the Process”As a strategic planning facilitator, whenever someone asks me if it’s possible, useful, or necessary to develop a strategic plan during times of volatility and uncertainty, I always say some variation of “yes.”
Except…
There are three scenarios where a new strategy may actually be unhelpful — or at least not your best investment of time. Maybe one of these applies to you right now?
Continue reading “When not to plan”