It always shocks me how many businesses do not formally plan. Recently, at a conference, I asked a group of CEOs, “Who plans on an annual basis?” Only a quarter of them raised their hands. I was shocked. In addition, when pressed on why they did not plan they said they were too busy fighting fires to have time for that. They then complained about low growth, no profits and blamed the economy for their problems. I felt better at that point; at their clearly powerful and insightful analysis. Clearly, they were Dunderheads. These CEOs did not connect that planning helps you deal with the economy and the issues that challenge your business. To deal with these guys, I am getting my pointed stick dipped in organic monkey dung. It is organic dung because they are CEOs after all.
It is true that many small to midsized companies do not formerly plan. Conversely, many adults do not exercise. Yet we know exercise is good for you. It helps you live an improved quality of life. Routine exercise allows your body to maintain its health and vitality. Strategic breakthrough business guessing works in much the same way as exercise does for the individual. It does not guarantee health but exercise certainly dramatically increases the likelihood of health.
I have never seen, in my thirty years of conducting planning processes, a healthy company maintain long-term growth without ongoing planning. Planning is about growing and improving your company. At best, what you get by not planning is maintenance and status quo. At worst, you can ignore problems and challenges that significantly damage and destroy your organization.
The time has now come to present the streamlined list of CMIs most important and critical rules of planning. There are only 120 of them. As you can see we have really paired them down so...Music please….OK OK simmer down and take it easy…….you get overwhelmed so easily. We will go with seven rules for successful Strategic guessing– IS THAT BETTER FOR YOU???
1. Always pick the right team for planning.” This poses the question of who should be part of the planning team. This is an important question. It is important that who is on the planning team are people who are committed to and can add value to the growth conversation of the company. The only exception is if there is a key employee or manager who you want to develop. If you want these participants to better understand the strategic issues facing the company, then it might make sense for them to be a part of the process. In addition you can have members who are outside of the leadership team. These could be sales people and other critical key employees. It is important that you vet them and ensure that they are of the quality and stature that is required for being a part of the planning group. It is also important that they are all getting their jobs done and are employees of stellar standing within the company. A number of times over the years I have seen the wrong leaders and key employees involved in planning and their participation actually hurt the effort. Pray tell how about an example you ask. Ok. Well there was Jason who, in the middle of the year, abruptly left the company. After an investigation, it became apparent that Jason was not returning customer’s calls. In fact, a lot of work around Jason’s customers was not getting done. Yet we spent a lot of time in planning on improving customer service. Jason had actually taken on being a Champion in and working on improving customer service. Then we got to see what he was actually doing – talk about a buzz kill. It was enough to want to use that pointed stick.
Now how did this happen and what allowed Jason to be on the team and go to this dark place? Clearly, there was a lack of supervision and oversight. His manager was not providing oversight. What was really going on, you ask? This could be the subject for an article or book and that is for another time.
Then there was this HR manager at a manufacturing plant who took employees into her office and gossiped about managers. A number of times she would run out of the planning session crying. Again, a buzz kill. Then she left. Thank GOD and music please. After her departure, the CEO added Lucinda to the team. She was young, energetic, knowledgeable and clearly with a vision of what the company could be. Her role was completely different than the first HR woman. Lucinda’s addition to the planning team was constructive and positive.
So the message here is pick wisely and selectively. Members of the planning team must be able to hold complete confidentiality and be engaged in the growth and well being of the company. Select the employees who are passionate around growing the company, developing an extraordinary organization and being the CEOs partner in accomplishing the above. Do not just accept mediocrity or have peopled be part of the planning because of their position.
2. The second golden rule of planning is to, Make sure the design of the planning is one that will get you a good result. I am not a believer of leadership teams locking themselves in a room at a resort for two to three days. This type of planning may be sprinkled with some golfing, gambling or other type of fun stuff. From this design, supposedly a plan is born and created. The problem with this design is that it curtails critical thinking. This process begins to smell of plan in binder syndrome poke me in the eye with a hot stick. If you do all your planning during one session, you risk just doing more of what you are doing in the present . There is no opportunity for research or really involving others within the organization who are not at the planning session.
Here is what to do. The process should take place over 2 – 3 months and take 3-4 days. It is predicated on white papers and dialogue. Listening and understanding are critical. Better research ensures better debate and thinking. What is a white paper, you say hysterically? Hang tough, I say. that is covered in rule 5.
3. For the third amazing rule, It is important that you complete the previous year. For 2011, a powerful completion processes will allow you to put 2010 behind you. This is important for the organization to distinguish that indeed there was a 2010 and what happened during it. At the first session of the planning process, the past goes into the past. How we typically do this is that 2010 goes up on flip charts. The group puts up on flipchart the items in categories such as breakdowns for the year, breakthroughs, fiascos, disappointments, accomplishments and the like. One of the great aspects of this exercise is that employees get to confront all the work that got done during the past 12 months. It also brings completion to the year. One season completes and the next season opens up. I love this metaphor – excuse me while I get a little weepy. What aspects of 2010 are we taking into 2011 and what aspects are we leaving behind are flip charted. As a grand finale, participants stand up and say farewell to 2010 – tears flow, not. Hugs and sobbing ensues, not. The planning team then greets 2011 with cheers, handclapping, hurrahs and gales of laughter. Very emotiona...l this is not ......however, worthwhile and useful. All sit ready for the future and to begin anew. Game 2011 – 2015 on.
4. This are by far my favorite rule el grandote numero quarto. Start big by getting into the future of the company. Then narrow the focus as you get back to present and address what to do for the next twelve months and how to implement. Establish where you want to be in the next five years. As the Bible says, “without vision the people perish.” The bible does not say that you have to attain the vision. It is saying that you need one to live into. This is critical. At essence, you are creating a future for the company that the employees can live into and fulfill on.
It is important that the Breakthrough guessing planning process allows for dreaming, visioning and looking at what is needed by the organization for a bright future to be realized. Typically, we do this by asking the group to get three to five years into the future and flip charting .
Some questions to be asked are the following:
• Standing in 2015, what does the world look like?
• What are the important trends affecting your industry?
• What is your industry dealing with and looking like?
Once a futuristic scenario has been developed, the group then looks at what do you want your image to look like. The planning team then asks itself:
• What are customers saying about the organization?
• Why in 2015 are customers loyal?
• What goods, services and new products have you brought forth?
The team speculates on how big the organization is and how many employees there are. This part of the Planning can be used to run growth scenarios. Have at least one for aggressive, medium, sluggish and no growth. Play with the numbers and have some fun with what could be. The planning team wants to get familiar with the possible territories and futures.
5. The incredible number five rule is Facing the brutal facts that confront your company. This is a distinction given to us by Jim Collins in the book Good to Great. It means honestly confront the issues that confront your organization and truly deal with them. Do not deny them or sugar coat them--- deal with them in the most intelligent way that the group comes up with.
How to do this is by having the leadership team define critical issues facing the growth of the company. These are issues that will be or presently are confronting the company.
Examples Puleeeees – coming right up.
1. How is the organization going to transition from our old technology to the new technology? How are we going to fund this transaction?
2. What new products are we bringing out in the next year?
3. How are we going to grow 20% per year for the next three years?
4. What improvement do we need to make in the plant for us to reduce costs by 10%?
Typically these types of critical issues are addressed through the writing of a white paper. What is that you ask? Good question. I respond and if you had not brought it up I simply could not have continued to write this so thank you for the question.
A white paper is a three to five page paper that addresses the critical issue. It is written between planning sessions by the members of the leadership group that are best suited to address the problem. The group can also have members outside of the planning team who have useful knowledge and can contribute. The paper should directly deal with the issue. It is the answer submitted by the group with research and analysis. The entire group will read the paper prior to the subsequent session and then debate it during the session. Problem solving ensues. Everyone is invited to bring their feedback, questions and concerns to the next session. This is where the critical issue is dealt with and a direction is hammered out.
6. El fantastic numero sies is that The planning group has to be able to actually work and create together. For good productive work to be done, there can be no pretense here. The group has to be able to implement the plan. They have to perform together.
This has to be much more than play well in the sandbox kind of behavior. The planning group needs to be creative, generative and able to move quickly to implement change. They have got to be collaborators, problem solvers and change agents within their organization.
Implementation is the key to planning success. This is not about producing a document that is pretty and will sit on a shelf. This is about implementing actions and activities that will steer the company in a healthy and profitable direction. Committed action is key to the success of the planning endeavor. Part of the process is to focus the leadership team on becoming a high performance team. This is done by experiential exercises and measuring for high performance team behavior.
There are advantages that a company with a high performance team running it has over the competition. I have a particular client in mind. This company has done a remarkable job of growing in very challenging business conditions. I have seen them change marketplaces and customers. Recently they have grown at 60%, they have continued to hire and retain great people. Part of how they have done this is by having a fun committee that pays attention and by having people enjoy their work and being at the company.
In this planning team, there is trust. People can speak their minds. This communication is taken as straight communication and not personally. They are playing a business game of growing a great company. This team is not engaged in petty issues nor are they interested in who gets along with and agrees with whom. Their corporate culture is not a smelly type of gossipy and political environment. This type of focus gives this leadership team great advantage when competing against other business leadership teams that are rife with gossip, mistrust and miscommunication.
7. Rule number Siete is by far the coolest. This reglo says It is critical that the team be disciplined and does the work. Remember the saying “garbage in, garbage out”…. It is important that the leadership team does complete work. In this endeavor, it is better to do less with better quality than to do a lot with mediocrity.
Some companies have heck of a time getting out of the fire fighting stage. Some cannot get out of the fire fighting stage. Sometimes I have seen that members of the leadership team are addicted to fire fighting. Now that is hot. Another way of saying this is that they are addicted to the way things are and not to the way that the company could be. To really participate in a good breakthrough planning guessing process, the planning team has to take time and give it time. Real thinking and dialogue has to exist. Once you have done the plan, then you need to make sure that it is acted upon. Monthly meetings of one to three hours and spending time on objectives and action plans will ensure focus.
Then, once a quarter go off site and meet preferably with a “bald headed” coach. The “bald head” makes the coach smarter and buffer. Really. At the session, review what happened in the quarter and then focus on what needs to happen in the next quarter. This will keep the group aligned as to what needs to take place in order to push the company forward.
Well there you have it, 7 rules that will support you in having a successful planning process . Put another way, it is the plan to good strategic guessing. Use or lose it. Use the above and you cause your bright business future. When you get to that bright business future, let them know that the Brucie sent you.
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