Why Plan?

Why plan? By Ryan Williams Last week at Kwatlen University College I delivered a lecture about opportunities to involve employees in corporate communications planning. The presentation received many good questions; however I noticed a general confusion about strategic planning. On reflection, I thought it was useful to remind myself why we create strategic plans. I would tell those students strategic planning involves ambiguity, and uncertainty. Planning allows us to create order where we might not see any. This order is a step of faith. With our best efforts we gathering information and seek understanding. Faith comes from making choices about the future using knowledge given uncertainty. Strategic planning has two basic purposes - to prepare for and predict the future. In plans for preparation and prediction we have incomplete information. Incomplete information needs to be organized to fill in the blank spots and create knowledge. Planning takes ideas that may be counter intuitive and makes a coherent picture. This picture involves actions and aspirations. Strategic plans become our explicit articulation of what is, what we should do, and what outcomes we expect from our actions. Our plans are pictures which enable us to share what we see with others, get their input and continue to improve our understanding. A picture of reality can be tested, affirmed, challenged and improved. The frame through which we view the world offers choices about predictability, and chance. We plan then not for certainty, but to manage uncertainty.

Preparation comes from organizing and retrieving information about our current realities. Some of the common questions we seek to answer are:

1. What resources do we currently have? 2. What audience do we currently serve? 3. What is that audience’s current need? 4. How have we been delivering our product, service or technology? 5. How many resources have we used to produce our product or service? 6. What level of satisfaction or performance does our current product or service provide?

Predictions for the future help us understand what changes we may need to initiate. These elements are speculative, but they are based on current information and trends. Some of the questions we may seek to answer are:

1. What opportunities are emerging? 2. What threats do we need to counter? 3. What do our audiences expect and prefer? 4. Who will our competition be? 5. How will new technology affect our plans? 6. Can we grow and by how much? Our strategic plans paint a picture of today, our actions and our vision for the future. To be useful plans should be shared, tested and added too. Good plans will build strong teams, give clear direction and enable change with new information.