In truth, most good managers have always treated the steps of strategic planning as indiscrete. In other words, they do multiple tasks associated with strategic planning all at the same time. However, they all rely on a directional focus to guide their decisions. Good managers have always been good adapters - adapters to their internal capabilities, their industry environment, government regulations, competitive pressures, and many other factors.
So, in the twenty first century how can we as leaders and managers in our organizations go through the strategic planning process? The simple answer is that we need to treat the functions of strategic planning as concurrent events rather than sequential events. A strong vision and mission for the organization create focus. Everything else wraps around this focus. But we don’t have to wait for the focus to become crystal clear in order to start setting objectives, creating a strategy and working to correct organizational failures. As soon as we have an idea of strategic direction, we can start adapting the organization and its human resources to that direction.
Once we have a clear focus for the organization, everything else can be done at virtually the same time. We can set incremental objectives, create processes and structures, analyze and adjust the human resources within the organization, insure that we have the right technologies, evaluate our customers and markets, and analyze any and all value added activities that we provide to those customers and markets, all within the same time span.
It’s not your father’s strategic planning process. But then again, what is the same in business today as it was in 1970? There’s a reason why the upcoming generation of students and workers has grown up with a multitasking mindset. We as human beings have adapted to our environment. It’s time for businesses to make the same adaptations.