The Link Between Planning & Doing

If you have read the preceding articles in this section on

strategic planning, YOU will have a sense that strategic

planning involves more than getting together for one

day a yearto develop a strategic planning document.

Strategic planning is both a logical, rational process,

and a process that involves people. It takes more than

developing a plan for that plan to be implemented. In

this article, we consider that the critical link between

planning and doing is leadership.

Traditional Planning Methods

The traditional way for government organizations to plan

is for a group of people, usually executives/management,

but sometimes including employees, to get together for

some period of time each year. Generally, inadequate

time is allocated to the exercise, but if it is completed,

it results in a document that contains a mission statement,

broad organizational goals, and other elements as is

deemed appropriate. Then, the plan is usually hidden

away somewhere, never to be seen again. Traditional

methods yield traditional results. As a wise man once said

"If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will get

what you have always got".

It needn't be this way.

Reconceptualizing Strategic Planning

Planning should be considered as a blueprint for change.

The plan should be the basis for introducing controlled

change into an organization so it can adapt to changing

times. By anticipating shifting demands, the plan serves

the purpose of allowing the organization to control its

own direction, rather than waiting until political forces

demand change (and demand change NOW). In addition,

the plan allows for consistent monitorin~ofsuccess,~nd

re-examination of the degree to which organizational

resources should be structured and allocated to achieve

future goals.

But, if we look at strategic planning in this light, as a

blueprint for change, we also need to consider that any

organization has built-in inertia.. the tendency to keep on

doing what one has been doing. On its own, the strategic

planning process, as traditionally undertaken, is insufficient

to overcome this inertia. Other forces need to come into

play if the plan, and proposed changes get implemented.