I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Journal that pretty much summed it up. In essence it asserted that strategic planning is something only smart people do. This is a myth! The problem with this myth is that it assumes that strategic planning is reserved for an elite group of people who are either born with a sixth sense of the future or have honed a scholastic storehouse of skills and knowledge to develop ethereal plans for the future. Allow me to turn off the smoke machine and drop the mirrors for a moment. Strategy is for everyone, you and me as well as Joe and Sue down the street.

In simple terms, the strategic planning and foresight process helps an organization to hypothetically stand in the future so that they can be more competitive today. This process focuses the organization on a path toward a preferred future of profitability and considers potential disrupters along the way. Strategic planning is typically focused on the here and now with an event horizon or future date within 5 years of today. We best know this as the three-to-five-year plan. The three-to-five-year plan is a great template to help us navigate the immediate future. Unfortunately, many companies will spend hundreds of hours crafting their three-to-five-year strategic plan, only to put it in a binder on their shelf and let it sit there until the next strategy meeting. Strategic planning is not about developing a beautiful set of documents insomuch as it is a plan that the company should and must interact with on a daily basis. The plan should be tied to the organization’s goals, mission and first principles, and referred to daily. Once we have mastered the strategic plan, we must consider the world beyond the typical strategy plan. In this case we move into a process called strategic foresight.

Strategic foresight is a deliberate process of establishing well-informed, future-oriented perspectives that help guide innovation, planning and decision-making at a macro level. The process of foresight creates competitive advantage by providing a future context for strategy and plans. In other words, a proper foresight plan will bring meaning to the current three-to-five-year strategic plan we refer to on a daily basis. Creating a future context provides us with a level of uncertainty that extends beyond the organization’s known risks. While most business leaders are well-accustomed to three-to-five-year strategic plans, strategic foresight uses a time horizon of 10 to 25 years (or more) to look for trends and game-changers which will shape the organization’s future. The process of foresight generates insights about alternatives which could affect the organization’s future. Foresight assists the organization in developing problem-solving skills which address potential mission-critical challenges.

Developing a foresight plan is worthwhile for any organization. If you believe your organization would benefit from a comprehensive strategic plan, we are ready to help! Our team has over 60 years of leadership, management and organizational development experience. If you believe your organization could benefit from our four-step process, please contact us today for a FREE consultation.