strategic planning

[EVERETT813 at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/24/05 5:57:16 PM, jack at designinglife.com writes:
> 
> Planning is a tricky thing, especially in a world that seems to have an 
> endless appetite for surprise. Planning is in itself neither intrinsically good 
> or bad, but the intention behind it can be more or less effective.
> 
>  I am weary of groups and organizations whose intention to plan is based in 
> the futile effort of trying to surprise-proof the world. I encourage planning 
> from an intention that a vision of the future can help us see the sparkling 
> opportunities of the present in a fresh way. In this sense, a vision is a 
> lens not a commandment, taking away from us our responsibility and passion. It's 
> purpose is to create rather than predict. Prediction projects responsibility 
> and power; creativity returns them to us.
> 
>  Jack
> 
Jack, et. al.,

The above struck me as being imminently sensible, or as Howland Owl in Pogo 
used to say "imminently fraught", fraught with fairly deep implications.   One 
of them is that much of the vaunted corporate planning exercises are basically 
huge wastes of time.   And excellent read on this issue is "Managing The 
Unknowable" by Ralph D. Stacey.   It might better be titled "Dealing With The 
Unknowable In A Sensible Way".   

I remember challenging our top management on this planning bit because they 
started in July for the following year.   Several thousand man-months were 
absorbed by what was really a financial issue.   I suggested that we throw bones 
and say that is what the markets were going to be like---bounded instability.   
(I told them the story of the Canadian Indian tribe who's Shaman threw bones 
to decide where to hunt.   Worked wonderfully for some incredible reasons, too 
long to type).   Trying to say what reality was going to be never worked.   
The variances between plan and actual were all over the map, from deep losses 
to huge profits, none of which were planned, which I pointed out.   I guess it 
would have been cooler if I had suggested something using stochastics or some 
other mathematical model but I thought throwing bones would do and then we 
could get on with the business of dealing with the emerging markets and realities 
as they arrived.   Needless to say there was pained silence all around and a 
few guffaws.   We didn't do it.

Anyway, as Jack points out, trying to 'surprise proof' the world is a fool's 
errand.   Can't be done.   "So, smart ass" says someone to me---"what do we 
do".   Well, I can see a great opportunity to use OS as the model for 
discovering the potential of the future.   Because ALL the minds would be working on 
their issues, because ALL the minds would be observing the emerging environment, 
therefore the organization could be incredibly flexible, able to not only 
respond to the inevitable surprise but also seize emerging opportunities for which 
no one had planned.   In a word, deal effectively with the unknown.   (In my 
$500k budget I always had a line item of $25k for "Unknown Projects" and it 
got past the green eyeshade folks because we made big money with those "unknown 
projects" and I could prove it.)  

I'm not saying plan for everything and every eventuality.   What I am saying 
is with enough eyes, ears, minds, etc., facing outward as well as inward (you 
have to become Janus faced) we could take swift advantage of emergent 
opportunities and deal fully with emergent troubles/threats, etc.   Little OS's going 
on all the time.

In case you think this is nutso, Steelcases' four sided pyramid in Michigan 
is their research and development center.   Six floors high.   Completely open 
in the center with a great six story pendulum gently swaying to and fro as the 
earth turns.   On many of the floor's long side walls there are little 
islands of high tables and stools, white boards, materials, etc., for impromptu 
meetings that occur at the coffee bar (which is where the coffee is located, funny 
thing).   There are only a very few very small elevators in the building 
because people don't talk in elevators (check it out).   Instead, all the floors 
are reached by open escalators heading up the spines and some internal ones, 
too.   People talk on escalators.   Chance meetings occur.   People get seen and 
can see.   Now, this is only a small example of 'opening up the space' for 
creativity and serendipity to work their magic.   It's working.

Just some wild thoughts from the finally sunny and warm Northwest (or, Left 
Coast).

Paul Everett


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