Three Sins of Strategic Planning that Hinder Innovation and Growth

In a survey of executives, only 23% said major strategic decisions were made within the confines of the planning process (McKinsey).

Leadership teams around the world conduct the ritual of strategic planning - most fail to be effective.

Three Sins of Strategic Planning That Hinder Innovation and Growth

Sin #1. Failure to push outside the

comfort zone. The best buggy whip companies died when automobiles became mainstream. They did not recognize quickly and decisively enough that their core product had to be abandoned and their skills completely retooled.

Strategic plans too often end up being the course of action that is within the comfort zone and tolerance of the collective team. Even young organizations are caught in this precarious space by failing to shift from the fun idea generation stage into execution.  

Three Sins of Strategic Planning That Hinder Innovation and Growth

Sin #2. Focusing on the controllable and underestimating the non-controllable.

An organization cannot control the market adoption rate or curve a new or updated service or product, nor does one rule the economy or actions by its competitors.

A simple move by a competitor can throw off any adoption curve estimate. The relationships between all major uncontrollable factors have greater complexity and are more organically intricate than what a typical three-scenario approach (conservative, most likely, and aggressive) can accommodate.

Sin #3. Focusing on writing the plan document creating linear thinking.

No poker or football game is won with a step-by-step document. Strategy is not about creating a defined sequence of actions but about forming a lens by which one will evaluate and respond to developing situations - a playbook.

Three Sins of Strategic Planning That Hinder Innovation and Growth

Mastery of Purpose

Mastery of Environment

Mastery of Questioning

Mastery of Change

Development of Strategic Agreements

Landmark Mastery Method to Strategic Planning Landmark Consulting Group developed and refined a powerful and effective strategic planning process that overcomes the limitations of the traditional method.

The Landmark Mastery Method continues to enable our clients to build the next generation version of their organization and raise hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

Mastery of Purpose focuses on “why” the organization exists, what inspires the work and how we will know if we are succeeding or failing. The team comes to alignment, calibrates to the organization’s purpose and checks to ensure all strategies also reinforce this purpose.

Mastery of Environment by the team develops a deep understanding of major developments and trends in the market. It asks the team to create scenarios of what they would do if they could create a new strong organization or change the strategy of an existing competitor.

Mastery of Questioning inspires the team to ask driving questions stimulated by their enhanced understanding of the marketplace and how it may impact the current organization.

Mastery of Change challenges the team to develop scenarios about possible current organizational changes, actions, sequencing, results and implications in response to the market.

Development of Strategic Agreements memorializes team agreement and understanding about the market, plays and successes. It also is an agreement about desired culture and communication.

Leverage Landmark Consulting Group’s experience to facilitate your next strategic planning process and

create breakthroughs for your organization.

Contact us today!

Ted Fujimoto, President tedf@consultLandmark.org

+1 916-769-2417 www.consultLandmark.org