Strategic Planning

Most business leaders do extensive strategic planning for their business. They are responsible for profit and loss for their area and must manage their team strategically.

The strategy provides the direction. It gives the team a target and something to pursue. It provides a guide to follow when things get chaotic. Without a plan, the team goes through the motions hoping it takes them towards success.

Inexperienced managers tend to shy away from strategic planning. They feel they are too busy. The daily tasks pile up and they aren’t left with enough time. But the strategic planning is more important than most of their daily work. The strategic plan will save them time in the long run and confirm that they are moving towards success.

The other argument against it from inexperienced managers is that situations always change. Why plan when it could all change in a moment? It seems like wasted time. But that is incorrect. Planning helps establish movement, even if there are uncertainties that will make the plan moot. The plan isn’t a rigid, set, document that is preserved in a case and never adjusted.

They often quote Mike Tyson and say, “everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face.” I love that quote, but it doesn’t mean we don’t plan. It means that we must realize plans need to be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances.

I’ve taught many leaders how to build out flexible plans that adjust based on external variations. I’ve built out contingency plans to address probable future changes. It is valuable to them, and they start to see that the strategic planning isn’t to inhibit creativity and adaptability, it is to make them, and the team focused, aligned, and agile.

With so much value that comes from strategic planning in a business, why don’t we take the same approach with our personal life? Most people go through the motions in life expecting success, improvement, and happiness to follow close behind.

They are caught off guard when they age and realize the steps that they took weren’t optimal. They didn’t plan throughout their life.

The arguments are the same as the inexperienced manager. They don’t have time. Or they feel that they can’t predict the future so why do anything other than go through life’s motions.

I once read that without a plan we fall back on habits. I believe that is true. If we refuse to plan, our habits take over. If we have great habits, that means we move in the right direction. If we have poor habits, it drowns us in a sea of discontentment and frustration.

Most of my work has been around taking the principles we use in business and applying them to the rest of our lives to create a better life. I’ve written about using systems and habits similar to processes and procedures to help direct our life. I’ve written about the value of continuous improvement and how to do that in life.

Strategic planning is yet another way to take what works well in business then apply it to achieve more success and happiness in your life. The best thing about strategic planning is that it revolves around what you want in life, not what others tell you to want.

If you want to be rich, that can the focus of the plan. If you want to find love, that can be the focus. If you want improved relationships, world travel, better social skills, optimal health, etc. those all can be achieved by planning out your life. Sure, you may get lucky and stumble upon them by going through the motions. But that drastically reduces your effectiveness.

The plan will point out where your actions conflict with your desired outcomes. It will show you the habits driving you towards or away from what you want.

Stop going through the motions because you don’t want to carve out time to create a strategic plan. Refuse to buy into the idea that uncertainty means winging it. Find the time to be strategic about your life. Find one of the many strategic plan templates and begin building the plan that will take you to your definition of success and a life well-lived.