Ronald A. Gunn

Dwight D. Eisenhower said it best: "Plans are nothing, planning is everything." While your strategic planning activities will result in a document, the document itself matters less than the process of collecting and analyzing input and thoughtful discussion and  debate. Even at that, examples of failed strategic planning efforts abound. Strategic planning does not provide perfection, nor does it provide instant miracles. However, if expectations concerning the possibilities and limitations of strategic planning are accurately framed and communicated, great value can be had. With this said, there are plenty of paths to bad planning! Some of the more serious pitfalls to be avoided are presented below. In a bad pun that is a take-off on my name, I refer to these pitfalls as the "21 Gunn Salute to Bad Planning." To judge your organisation's readiness for strategic planning, please see our Strategic Planning Questionnaire for Business, or our Strategic Planning Questionnaire for Government.

Pitfalls in Getting Started

1. Top management's assumption that it can delegate the planning function to a "planner."

2. Rejecting planning, i.e., deciding to just "go through the motions," because there has been success without it or because previous planning efforts have been viewed as unsuccessful.

3. Assuming that planning is not feasible because of "political" factors or the uncertainties inherent in a future not carved in stone.

4. Assuming that an organisation simply cannot develop effective long-range planning appropriate to its resources and needs.

Pitfalls in Thinking About Planning

5. Ignoring the fact that planning is as much a personal, "political" matter as it is a rational process.

6. Ignoring the fact that planning should be a learning process for everyone.

7. Assuming that planning is easy.

8. Assuming that the organisation's comprehensive planning is entirely separate from the ongoing management process.

9. Assuming that effective total planning can be done piecemeal.

Pitfalls of Doing Planning

10. Assuming that the future will be just like the past, rather than thinking through future alternatives and making the tough choices.

11. Developing such a reverence for numbers that there is no room for intuition or value judgments.

12. Seeking precision of numbers throughout the planning effort and making this the central focus of accountability during the planning process.

13. Conspiring in one way or another to do long-range planning every once in a while and to forget it between planning cycles.

14. Automatically assuming that older methods should be discarded in favour of newer techniques.

15. Developing a rigid structure and process for planning that smother possibilities for flexibility and simplicity.

16. Automatically assuming that equal weight should be given to all elements of planning.

Pitfalls in Using Plans

17. Assuming that plans once made are in the nature of blueprints and should be followed rigorously.

18. Approaching the planning task and using the results, on the assumption that it is possible to eliminate uncertainty in the future.

19. Assuming that planning must meet some single test of rationality.

20. Assuming that planning is an interesting and useful exercise but that, snicker-snicker, resulting plans should not be taken seriously.

21. Assuming that because plans result in current decisions, it is only the short-run that counts.

Engagement

Employee engagement is a comparatively new term, but the concept is old. We used to call it commitment or involvement.

Even without research, common sense dictates that if you’re keen, committed and involved — and these attitudes are supported, respected, encouraged and rewarded — you’re likely to do a better job.

The words “supported, respected, encouraged and rewarded” are what’s important here.

There’s evidence to suggest the level of people’s engagement declines with their length of service in an organisation. They start off keen and try to perform at their best. But if they receive no support, or get disrespect, zero encouragement or acknowledgement, praise or reward, they learn that being “engaged” is a mug’s game.

Gallup estimates it costs the US economy about $300bn a year and that 17 per cent of employees are “actively” disengaged. These employees each cost their employers $13,000 a year in lost productivity. You can quibble about whether these figures are a precise reflection of the situation, but even if they are discounted by 50 per cent the effects are devastating — and the situation is just not acceptable.

Engagement/disengagement is quite clearly not just a phenomenon in commercial organisations. On one of its websites, the UK civil service reports that

12 per cent of UK public sector workers are highly engaged; 22 per cent are disengaged

84 per cent of highly engaged public sector workers in the UK believe they can have an impact on the quality of the organisation’s work — compared to about one-quarter of disengaged workers.

Engaged employees in the UK take an average of 2.69 sick days per year; the disengaged take 6.19 sick days per year.

Engaged employees generate 43 per cent more revenue than disengaged ones.

Engaged employees are 87 per cent less likely to leave the organisation than the disengaged.

Clearly, failing to support, encourage, respect and reward people carries an enormous cost. Sometimes this failure is a sin of omission but depressingly often it is a sin of commission.

Many managers consciously treat people disrespectfully, belittle their accomplishments and make every effort to “keep them in their place”.

We know what most people want: they want to feel valued. They want their contribution to be recognised. One of the consequences of not feeling valued or not being recognised is that people withdraw and do less and less.

This has a major impact on an organisation, lowering morale and productivity, draining resources and blocking performance. It is also infectious — negative behaviour has a multiplier effect on the behaviour of others.

Here are some signs that someone’s disengaged at work

• Try to avoid being held solely responsible for things.
• Avoid firm time commitments for getting things done.
• Keep a low profile on issues.
• Distance themselves from others’ failures.
• Avoid sharing information with others.
• Cut themselves off from people at times.

By Ronald A. Gunn, Strategic Futures Consulting Group, Inc.

Excerpt used by permission. (c) Copyright by Strategic Futures Consulting Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.  To read entire article, please visit: www.strategicfutures.com