Two Factors for a Successful Strategic Planning Office

The very idea of a Strategic Planning Office is antithetical to the successful practice of strategic planning in historical application. In the 1970's GE had hundreds of strategic planners on staff who worked tirelessly, but achieved virtually nothing.

The very idea of a "separate" office is a dangerous one. SPO's typically should perform two major functions. 1) Conducting critical research on trends. Surveys, collecting data, investigating changes in the industry and broader world environment. 2) Facilitation of organization-wide and departmental strategic plannign processes. So, why is this dangerous? 1) The separation of strategic planning from the people who need to execute it means that the very people who need to own the plan are merely recipients of the plan from someone else. Without ownership, they are not likely to succeed. A separate planning department is unable to monitor and adjust as well as the "doers" who are carrying out the plan. Plans that are static and don't follow leading indicators or make mid-course corrections in view of changing environments are bound to fail. 2) Data collection by a third party, unrelated to the key performance of a plan will likely be data that reinforces the status quo. What is needed, is a wider worldview that stimulates innovative and disruptive thinking. Third party research rarely accomplishes this goal.

This not to say that external SPOs cannot succeed, but rather, that they must be structured to 1) guide and support the planning process from within the teams who are carrying out the plan 2) their process encourages innovative and disruptive thinking and guides teams through tough decisions that may challenge current power structures and fiefdoms within the organization, 3) the planning process must be viewed as continuous, not as something the SPO performs once a year, 4) project teams must be responsible for continuous monitoring, measurement and adjustment of the plan as situations change, 5) teams must think of strategic planning as their means to "create" a future rather than simply carrying on business as usual or responding reactively to internal and external environmental impacts.

Malcolm Gladwell speaks in both Blink and Outliers about the need for extraordinary experience nad expertise to spot subtle changes and trends. Strategic planning specialists must understand that their expertise is in facilitating information sharing and process for people who have spent years in gaining specialized expertise. A good SPO will leverage that expertise for the organization when the proper relationship exists.