Strategic Planning Can Jump Start Your Organization

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One of the biggest challenges as a leader or an entrepreneur is to overcome organizational inertia. In physics inertia is the resistance of any object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. In organizations inertia means there is built-in resistance to change or direction. Habits form, people get comfortable, there is a routine for how things are done, and inertia then sets in like a baby wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day.

Baby in a State of Inertia

Why is this? Because the most difficult thing to do in any business is to think, to think clearly, to think strategically, and then make decisions based on those thoughts. It is much easier to just act the way I have done things before–because acting feels more productive, more energizing, more leader-like. All planning should lead to acting and sometimes there is a strong case for a bold move in the moment, but it is better and far more powerful to act based on a thoughtful view of your organization. There are virtuosos among us who seem to have a sixth sense for making good decisions, but for the rest of us, there is strategic planning.

Strategic Planning is really just a systematic way to think intentionally and carefully so that leaders can consistently make good decisions. In fact, the best strategic planning is a decision-making system that constantly responds to both short term and long term opportunities.

Strategic Planning can jump start your organization and overcome inertia by forcing the baby out of the blanket into the world. Who knows? Maybe you have a precocious E-trade baby who does not just want to crawl around on the floor and play with a ridiculous mobile hanging over his head, but instead wants to trade stocks, make witty jokes, and generally operate on a much higher level. Strategic Planning reveals that potential.

Make a resolution this year to do strategic planning and banish inertia forever.

Why Leaders Don’t Like Strategic Planning

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The truth is a lot of leaders just don’t like strategic planning, but they never want to admit it. They prefer to make decisions:

  • By themselves, without consulting anyone
  • On a day-to-day basis as situations develop
  • Based on their own interpretation of the facts

Some very smart intuitive leaders can sometimes make good decisions in this way–particularly if the company is small and the industry is not overly complicated. I worked with a family owned manufacturing business where the original founder and owner made all the decisions for decades. The company grew and thrived because the industry did not change much and the customer base was loyal. This leader did not see any benefit in planning or need to consult with any of his managers. He thought he saw his business clearly, and he did, for the most part. But he retired, the company changed, and so did the industry. The new CEO knew he could not lead and manage that way.

Many times, however, the reasons for ignoring strategic planning have deeper, negative root causes. For one thing, strategic planning forces leaders to look at the facts–the good, the bad, and the ugly. It can be painful, like going to the doctor for your annual physical and finding out you require surgery or taking your car to a mechanic for routine repairs and discovering you need a new transmission.

What is the alternative? As someone said “hope is not a strategy” so it is better to deal with bad news and realize the opportunity to get better. The first job of a leader is to define the truth and it takes courage more than intelligence to do that job. It is counter-intuitive to many leaders, but acting courageously in the face of bad news actually inspires followers. So take a hard look at yourself and your organization in the mirror and then do something about it.