Why Almost Everyone Struggles With Strategic Planning

Somehow strategic planning and creativity are not two phrases that you usually see in the same sentence. But they should be.

In this short article, you'll get a crash course in strategic planning from a classic angle, and from a more creative approach

3 Must-Haves For Strategic Planning

Every headquarters that makes strategic decisions whether for business, military or politics deals with input, processes and outputs.

Inputs refers to inbound communication such as data, field reports, research, situational and progress reports.

Processes covers the interactions of the work group as well as the collaborative dialogue and participation of advisors, subject matter experts and decision makers.

Outputs are the communications, decisions, stories, messages, presentations and reports that flow out from the Command Center.

While many of these terms work for a strategic and military metaphor, the processes also can be viewed through the lens of creativity.

The four classic stages of creativity are: input, incubate, output and verify.

Take a look…

Gathering Input

Input is all about getting people talking, thinking and contributing to the creative process. The fastest way to do this is with strategic storyboards, charts and diagrams.

Visual display of strategy creates a fast, at-a-glance view of a complex process and sequence. Visual display helps people make faster and better decisions.

Involvement during formation of strategy is a powerful method to build individual and group participation and collaboration.

Involvement of subject matter experts guarantees that expert insights become part of the core story and strategy. This builds strength, credibility and focus to information gathering and to building a cohesive solution.

Input from diverse people with different perspectives insures that the general and specific stories are included from the beginning.

Input from decision makers helps groups and teams stay focused and down to earth. This early involvement can save group’s hours and weeks of time and untold frustration by shaping and directing efforts to the most targeted course.

Encourage Incubation

Incubation is the critical phase of creativity. It's where you 'go off and let things roll around.' This aspect of creativity is precisely why people do not get their best ideas at their desks.

Collaborative refinement of the story is an ongoing effort. Host teams tell the story and add their own insights plus input of visitors, experts and advisors. The story goes through multiples of refinement as new input is added.

Organic evolution of message is a natural outcome of group storyboarding in a Command Center process. New words, alternative images, different metaphors and diverse storytelling techniques add a richness and diversity to the message.

Just about every strategy and project planning is full of the unknown. Quick ramp-up to meet deadlines. Urgent request to give unexpected presentations. Projects and planning is characterized by unexpected surprises. Visual display and open incubation of the Command Center invites participation and helps teams to quickly respond to impromptu presentations.

Generate Output

Idea factories, think tanks and creative geniuses know this: you have to try, try and try again. Experimentation is the fastest route to success. And if you aren't getting your ideas out of your head and onto the wall…you most likely aren't using this phase of creativity in your strategic planning.

Faster decision making with visual display is well documented in research. Studies from Stanford and Wharton show that groups decide 64% when visuals are tightly integrated with text.

This is a welcome relief for task forces and strategic planning teams using the Command Center method.

Organizing complex projects is faster and easier to do when the elements are easy to see — on the wall and in one location. This helps anyone involved work more effectively to respond well to crisis situations and high-pressure changes.

Fast orientation of new team members is easy to accomplish. New members receive a walk-through from a host of the Command Center. They can easily walk around the room and get an immediate understanding of the evolution of ideas and the current state.

Fast re-orientation if pulled off project or if urgent situations interrupt planning time. This is often the situation in a time of transition or turmoil. Focus changes, unexpected situations arise and teams have to shift gears. Walking back into the Command Center, it is easy for teams to pick up right where they left off.

Defined space and process to focus on planning helps groups maintain momentum, make progress and get results. Without a defined and proven process, this can be an unwieldy task of analysis, selection and evaluation that is too broad in scope for one person or even one team. The Command Center provides a definite space and Strategic Storyboarding reveals a specific sequence of thinking templates to get measurable results.

This defined process helps group bypass unnecessary detours of re-design so they can understand, define and proceed in building effective strategy.

Get Verification

The fourth phase of creativity is of course to check, measure and verify results. This is where the 'pie in the sky' thinking has to be put to the test. Is the plan working? Is the story sticking?

How will you measure and verify your strategic plan is working?

Storyboarding in a Command Center environment structures the verification process.

Confirm direction from diverse people both on and off the project. This wide spectrum confirmation and verification builds a powerful strategy through continual improvement and refinement.

Rehearsals of telling the story allow for hosts of the Command Center to refine and adjust the story to match their audience. This gives valuable insight into necessary flexibility, appropriate words, images and metaphors to shape the message so that it matches the targeted audience.

Ability to see flow and sequence streamlines changes and enables nimble flexibility and creativity. Owners of the story and strategy can adjust to tell the story whether giving a high-level one-minute overview or an in-depth formal briefing.

Fast changes in response to input ensure that even up-to-the-moment adjustments can be integrated to make the message clear, coherent and current.

Shared group decision making puts the power in the strategy, the message and the shared documentation. The result and out-put does not rely on one person, one charismatic storyteller or one subject matter expert. The entire group owns the process, the growth, the refinement and the output.

Confirmation with key decision makers ensures that the output is in alignment with the direction of top leadership. Because this is an active, participatory process key decision makers can provide direction and course-correction as needed.

Are you ready to stop struggling and click into full-tilt results? Use these four phases of creativity in your strategic planning: Input. Incubate. Output. Verify.

Strategic Storyboarding

Gathering Input

Encourage Incubation

Generate Output

Get Verification

Search Site: