What makes a strategic plan strategic? — The Uncommon decalogue
Ten rules of the plans that actually get done. Most plans get approved in crowded sessions and get shelved within weeks: more than 50% of companies fail to deliver on their own strategic priorities (MIT Sloan · Donald Sull).
The decalogue
01. The diagnosis starts everything. First, where you stand.
Before dreaming, write down where you stand. What works, what only holds because someone carries it, where you're losing. It hurts to read. That's why it works.
02. Data validates the diagnosis. Every number with a source and a date.
Every claim with its number, every number with its source and its date. A diagnosis made of opinions produces a plan made of opinions.
03. The aspiration fits in one sentence. And everyone says it the same way.
At one, three, five and ten years. If your team needs to open the file to remember it, you're not there yet. The test is free: at your next meeting, ask everyone to say it.
04. Assets define what is possible. Take inventory before asking.
Relationships nobody can copy, years of data, installed capacity, reputation. There is almost always an asset you're using at half capacity. With that inventory, the aspiration becomes the consequence. Without it, they're just bets.
05. Criteria come before priorities. First the yardstick, then the list.
First define how each initiative gets scored, then review the list. The other way around, whoever defends their project best in the meeting wins.
06. Three to five priorities. Period.
Sull measured it in the S&P 500: the strategies that get done carry three to five objectives, over three to five years. Fitting into five forces the most important conversation: what stays out.
07. Each horizon has its own yardstick. Measured separately.
The immediate is measured by speed. The strategic by your ability to sustain it. The transformational by what you learn even if it fails. One yardstick for everything always rewards the urgent — and that's where your big bets die.
08. Every priority carries a number, an owner and a date.
In the S&P 500, only 6 percent of declared priorities carried a quantitative target. A priority without a number is a wish. And one with two owners belongs to no one.
09. The plan declares what stops. With a closing date.
The stop list is the most valuable section of the plan — and the one everyone avoids. Stopping with a date turns discomfort into a normal decision.
10. Rhythm keeps it alive. Monthly review, on the calendar.
Every month, review assumptions, checkpoints and the stop list. Conditions will change. Rhythm is how you change with them.
Sources
- Donald Sull et al., MIT Sloan Management Review: between half and two-thirds of companies fail to deliver on their strategic priorities. Strategic Agility Project series, 2017–2018.
- Donald Sull, Stefano Turconi, Charles Sull and James Yoder, MIT SMR, 2017: analysis of 494 S&P 500 companies; only 6 percent of strategic priorities included quantitative targets.
- Donald Sull, MIT Sloan: survey of 302 organizations, 2012–2017; given five attempts, only 29 percent of executives could name three of their company's strategic priorities.
- Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School: resource allocation as the organization's real strategy.
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Strategic Focus: five weeks to go from an inflated list to a plan that actually gets done. 30 minutes, no strings attached: lonuevo@noescomun.com.