Last week I was asked the question by a client prospect, ?so how many retreats will we be doing as part of the strategic planning process??.? That got me to thinking about just how many of these retreats are probably happening in hotels across the U.S. this fall. Strategic planning retreats are a joke in terms of producing meaningful strategic plans, yet every year companies go through this ritualistic planning process.? These retreats are usually held over a long weekend or two and are essentially a leadership caucus brimming with tedious reviews of the previous year?s plan, sometimes some budgeting and always a lot of hotel food and cookies from the snack platter.
The problem is, virtually all of these so called strategy retreats provide very little value in terms of desired strategic planning outcomes.? Sure, you will gain a few pounds and miss your son?s football game, but will you have an actual strategic plan?? You know that you are experiencing this rut and are probably in big trouble when you have to ask your administrative assistant to locate a soft copy of last year?s plan and reprint it beforehand so that you can prepare enough to go to the planning retreat and not look silly.? All of this effort and expense yields take-aways like PowerPoint slide decks, some spreadsheets guaranteed to produced eye strain and cute strategy slogans that you can?t exactly recall the meaning of afterwards or how to explain it to your management team by Monday.
Real strategic planning produces truly actionable work product.? It involves a thorough review of the existing strategy, coupled with a hard look at the organization?s results on the operational execution to the current plan?but there is so much more that should be involved.? Where is the analysis behind the plan hatched over the weekend at the Four Seasons? (As a side note, the Four Seasons is a lovely resort.)
What About These Planning Omissions?
Did the management team do a current-state analysis that included a review of the enterprise ecosystem, competitive analysis, contingency (scenario) planning and culture / hierarchy analysis? ? all while munching on cookies in Banquet Room-A? Were strategic goals decomposed into all of the supporting initiatives that will be important have fully mapped-out in detail (something resembling project plans)?
Were measurable goals, metrics, accountabilities set in place for the coming year and even further out on the planning horizon? Are required resources, timelines and responsibility now fully understood?? All of these planning components matter a great deal.
Don?t get me wrong.? There is definitely value to holding management retreats, but more from a team building perspective. Unfortunately, most companies are repeating the same common planning mistakes each year, leading to strategic plans that are less than effective and fail to meet to their full potential. These strategic planning ?mis-adventures? follow what we refer to as the ?traditional? approach.? In traditional planning, the staff that are affected by the plans produced are often unaware of what organizational goals have been established and have only been given ?need-to-know? levels of information to carry out their own relative goals.? They may see information emailed to them containing the cute slogan and then be asked to enter some personal goals in to the company?s performance management system that will be their measuring stick for the coming year ? boring and ineffective.
There is usually a team or set of teams that have been given the ?go ahead? to carry out the ?plans?, but they often fall prey to their own reactions to change occurring within the business environment that are magnified in impact due to the lack of adequate planning in place to counter those tendencies. Traditional planning is typically a mixed academic and artistic exercise that is done annually. In most cases, traditional planning is conducted from the top-down and does not penetrate deep enough into operational layer where the tactical implementations of goal-supporting initiatives are planned. Worse yet, there usually is not enough ?meat on them bones? to really do much of anything with the magic binder of strategy.
Sorry to have to say it, but strategy, vision and cathartic brilliance take more time to create than the weekend planning retreat can produce and corporate strategy deserves more.
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