Strategic Planning Strategies
Last week we looked at what a Strategic Plan is and an outline for how to create one. This week we look at a method for thinking through any big project or idea. In order for your Strategic Plan to be useful, you will want to think it through in as many ways as possible so that it is robust enough to be relevant in real life.
Edward DeBono 6 Thinking Hats? Edward de Bono - discusses the Six Thinking Hats?
This is a powerful way to think through a situation without assigning roles like making anyone be “the devil’s advocate”. It's not fair to put anyone into a single role like that in group work. Within a group, there are always the ones who think and speak with these hats and what often happens is that the lens gets associated with that person and is often dismissed because of it.?
This is also powerful for when it is just you or a small group, so that you make sure you cover all the ways to look at your plan. Diversity in thinking is essential and this method helps you with that.
Think about who should be a part of this process. We’ll dive deeper into who, or what roles you may want to bring to the table in a later article.
Yellow Hat What’s the best that can happen?
You’re working from your personal vision and your business mission, so you have a clear idea of what you want to have happen. Go deeper and think about what would be the situation if all your dreams came true and it succeeded beyond your wildest dreams?
This opens your mind to possibilities. It gets you thinking about ways to expand beyond - whatever that means to you.
We talked about making economic models to test your plan last week. You definitely make an economic model with this wildest-dreams-come-true idea in mind.?
One of the things I hear from business owners is, “what happens if it succeeds and I can’t keep up?”. I always tell them that is a better problem to have than not having enough sales and to trust that they will be able to solve that problem if it happens. As a business owner, you are always solving problems, so look forward to solving the fun ones!
I give them examples of things they can do, such as let people know delivery may be delayed; to make contingency plans around supply and time; to be prepared to work like crazy for a short period to catch up; to hire help; to put financing in place now so cash flow isn’t a limiting factor (I also suggest looking at customer deposits, vendor financing etc. The dialogue with your bank and/or vendors is very different when you have a long list of orders to fulfill).
It’s important to think these things through so that anything that comes up won’t be a complete blind-side hit.? Also trust that your customers are rooting for you and most will be willing to accommodate any hiccups as you scale up.
Black Hat What’s the worst that can happen?
As business owners, ie optimists, we have a hard time thinking this way, but we must. Coming up with all the problems that may happen is usually not hard to do. We can always bring people onto the project for just this purpose. It’s usually easy to find ‘black hatters’.?
For every worst case scenario, put together a couple of ideas of how to solve them. Once you face the possible problems, it’s usually easy to come up with some ideas of how to fix them.? You can have these ready to execute if things go sideways. It’s better to think this through in the beginning so you aren’t trying to be creative while under stress.?
You may put some contingencies in place before, just in case. For instance, it’s always a good idea to negotiate extra credit before you need it.?
Again, you will build models for worst case scenarios. You may find they aren’t as bad as you thought once it is down on paper.
White Hat What are the facts?
Think of channelling Data. Data (Star Trek) - Wikipedia
This is where you get all logical and do research. What’s the average that you can expect? If you look you will find rules of thumb, such as average sales per newsletter subscriber, average contract size.?
Look at how many or much you can produce in a week. We talked about this last time as well in terms of testing and modelling your strat plan.
The idea is to be realistic, get facts, find examples, test and ask questions. The point is, you aren’t guessing here, you are finding actual figures that actually apply to your situation.
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Red Hat How does it make you feel?
This is where you do a gut check and heart check. Are you moving in the right direction? Do you feel excited about your plan?
Feeling nervous, or anxious is okay. You want to be pushing the boundaries. If you do the same things you will always do you will get the same results you always did.
Think about who you are and make sure that you can do the things you say you will do in your plan. I know I’m not great at selling out events - it’s something I’m learning and working on - so I know it doesn't make sense for me to build into my plan that I will sell out large events. At least not without help, or a clear doable strategy that I know I can execute.
Blue Hat What’s the process?
This is about how you do this work of making your strategic plan. You will think about the information and the perspectives you need to bring to the table and the best ways to do that. This thinking hats process is part of it. You may need a process to bring in stakeholder ideas, or people to review your plan for other ways of thinking.
Has your thinking changed as you are following the process? Especially with a process as powerful as the thinking hats, you may find that as you learn and gain experience your thinking changes. Prepare a process to go back through your plan with this new thinking.
What do you need to put in place to make this all work? You have a wonderful plan that is tested, and modeled and ready to give you the results you want. You may have to make changes or bring in other expertise to execute on this great plan.
Green Hat How can you get very creative about this?
There are prescribed ways of doing everything in business. But what if you did something completely different? This is where you get outlandish in thinking. Have fun. No idea is a bad idea here.?
How could you do this in a completely different way? Bring in new scenarios. Ask yourself “what if…”
What if we did it for free, did it backwards, did it faster, did it bigger, did it for seniors (babies, teens, newlyweds, pet owners), did it in other colours, etc.
Push yourself here. You may want to come up with 20 outlandish ideas. A list of 20 outlandish ideas will give you seeds for several great ideas.
“...I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” The Red Queen to Alice by Lewis Carroll.
Finally, how does your plan affect everything else?
Your business isn’t in a vacuum, you are part of a community, an ecosystem, a fellowship of business. Take time to think through how what you are doing will affect other people, business, the environment, how it will accomplish other goals such as diversity, doing good, leaving your legacy.
You should have thought through these things as you were making your way through your strat plan, and it helps to take a step back at the end to go through it with several external lenses, too.
There are some very cool business model canvases around feminism, environment, and sustainability that can be very helpful here.
All in All
You want to bring as much new thinking into your strategic planning process as you can.
Updates
The next free Be Your Own CFO workshop is here. We’re looking at the CFO role and Strategic Planning.