Worldly philosopher Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Clearly, he’s not alone in that perspective. Often, when I’m working with leaders to develop organizational strategies, I encounter similar dismissals: “Things change constantly, so what’s the point?” Or, “We’re too busy managing day-to-day operations; there’s no time for strategic planning.”
I don’t quite agree. I’m much more partial to the more nuanced perspective of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
In other words, while plans themselves may be of diminished importance as time passes and situations evolve, the exercise of creating a plan is truly worthwhile — it’s where the real value lives.
Here are three compelling reasons why planning is so valuable:
#1. Planning forces an honest evaluation of your organization and its environment.
The strategic planning process compels leaders to step back and rigorously assess their organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It encourages a disciplined examination of market trends, emerging competitors, technological changes, shifts in consumer behavior, and internal resources (both human and financial).
For example, I recently worked with a membership organization that was pleased its membership numbers were up slightly from the prior year. But as I dug deeper, I found a more significant trend: membership had been in a steady decline over the past 25 years. Even with the current year’s slight increase, membership was now half what it was at its peak in 2000. Considering the longer trend helped sharpen their focus on the need to make membership issues more of an immediate priority and led to a different way of thinking about the business.
Regardless of where one comes out when the plan is finalized, moving through the process is where the greatest learning takes place.
#2. Even the most well-crafted plan is inherently temporary.
No strategic plan remains relevant indefinitely. Organizations — for-profit and nonprofit alike — operate in dynamic, unpredictable environments. Recognizing and planning for this uncertainty is a key to success.
For example, how would your organization respond if a new tariff suddenly impacted your supply chain costs? Or if a major competitor entered the market with disruptive technology? What would your fallback position be if a key assumption underpinning your strategy changed overnight?
None of these scenarios represent decisions that have been made or situations that have occurred… yet. Instead, having these types of “what if” discussions helps organizations become comfortable with uncertainty, while building adaptability into the way they operate and view the world.
#3. Engagement in the planning process helps your staff make better decisions.
When your employees participate in the strategic planning process, they become clearer about their roles, responsibilities, and the overall organizational vision. They understand the reasons behind critical decisions, priorities, trade-offs, and assumptions driving your strategy, making them better equipped to respond intelligently as circumstances evolve.
If you design the process well — including a hard, objective look at your organization and the context in which it operates — and engage a good number of the people on whom execution of the plan will fall, it will help set a clear general direction that adds clarity as you move forward.
The outcome of a good planning process should provide your leadership team with a clear and simple set of criteria that help them with decisions.
For example, when we crafted the strategic plan for the University of North Dakota several years ago, we summarized the key strategic goals on a simple wallet card, providing everyone with a simple reminder. From there, any proposed new project could first be tested by asking whether it would advance the university towards one of its key goals.
None of these benefits occur if a plan is simply handed to people who have not worked through the process.
So, are plans themselves truly “worthless?”
With all due respect to President Eisenhower, I don’t believe plans are worthless… so long as they are the result of a thoughtful and rigorous process.
Having a plan that is understood and embraced by your team — even one that may ultimately be subject to change — is a far better approach than flying blind with no plan at all. Plans may change, perhaps even quickly, but your team still needs guidance for the decisions they must make today.
