Too often, once a strategy gets written the discussion tends to taper off as people go back to business as usual. Applying these tests to your strategy helps to keep the plan alive and relevant while bringing up several key points that might otherwise never see the light of day.
Test #1: Does your strategy put you ahead of trends?
In many companies, strategic planning involves little more than incrementally ratcheting up the goals from the previous year. In other words, doing the same things as last year, only doing a little more of them and doing them a little better. But in today’s markets, the big winners are those companies that successfully create disruptive (rather than incremental) change. Doing so requires getting ahead of the curve rather than following just behind it. If your strategy puts you in the middle of emerging trends in your industry, you could be vulnerable to competitors creating change and innovation at the leading edge.
Test #2: Does your strategy embrace uncertainty?
Change occurs at a frightening pace these days, which means every strategy should be crafted with an uncertain, rather than static or predictable, world in mind. To embrace uncertainty, start by shortening your time frame. Today’s strategic plans should look out 12 to 18 months at maximum. Anything further and you’re just guessing. At the same time, don’t assume your strategy will unfold exactly as written. Plan for changes to occur, both expected and unexpected, by considering multiple scenarios when crafting your strategy.
Test #3: Is your strategy contaminated by bias?
The biggest danger to most strategies consists of lack of awareness regarding your own attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions about how the world works. What do you know to be true about your customers? Your markets? Your industry? What are you constantly telling yourself and each other that “must be so” about how to add value to your customers? Unless you check these “thought bubbles” on a regular basis, your entire strategy may well rest on outdated or worse – false – facts and opinions. When a strategy no longer aligns with the wants and needs of its customers, it has already become obsolete.
Test #4: Have you translated your strategy into an action plan?
I call this the “Marine barracks inspection test.” If a drill sergeant ran his white-gloved finger across your strategic plan, would it come away clean or would there be a thick residue of dust from sitting on the shelf? Strategies don’t unfold by themselves. They need detailed action plans that translate high-level goals into specific actions, behaviors, and incremental objectives for the people who will implement the plan. Good strategies almost always ask people to do things differently. Unless you provide clear action steps, people tend to get stuck in doing things the way they have always done them. You shouldn’t use the “and then a miracle occurs” approach for turning your strategic plan into reality!
In today’s markets, you may not get the chance for a do-over if your strategy misses the mark. Putting your strategy to these tests will definitely improve your chances of getting it right the first time.
SOURCE: http://bx.businessweek.com/strategic-management
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