Summary
A functional executive told me this week, “I have to fill in the template for strategic planning. But it shouldn’t take very long.” Based on some other tidbits, including the use of words like forecasting and budgeting, this well-funded group didn’t seem to be changing “how” they think as part of strategic planning, which typically leads to repeating the past.
Improve “How” We Make Decisions To Avoid Repeating The Past.
A functional executive told me this week, “I have to fill in the template for strategic planning. But it shouldn’t take very long.” Based on some other tidbits, including the use of words like forecasting and budgeting, this well-funded group didn’t seem to be changing “how” they think as part of strategic planning, which typically leads to repeating the past.
Each company can think about its path forward in three ways. The first path is that everything we are doing today works, and we will continue to do exactly what we’re doing today – just more of it. In 20 years, I have not met a company where the present state is good enough, whether the group recognizes it or not. The desire or need for improvement is never in question. So, let’s just assume companies of a reasonable scale want to improve.
In a second path, we accept that things aren’t working well and acknowledge that radical changes are needed based on what’s not working. This approach might sound logical because we are learning from history, which is important. The question, though, is what we are learning from history. If we take away biased lessons, we will repeat history, only with different people or things around us.
The second path is suboptimal, and the reason is what Einstein meant by saying, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.” Major outcomes will not change if we continue using the same problem-solving mindset and approaches while merely changing the “widgets” we choose. This second path focuses on what we do, as opposed to changing “how” we think about what we do.
