Jeff has already posted a similar request on his blog, but we’re trying to cast as wide a net as possible:
We are looking for stories of really, really BAD strategic planning experiences.
Jeff and I write a lot about strategy, and it is no secret that we think traditional strategic planning is not only dead—it’s killing us. We wrote an article a couple of years ago describing our approach to building strategic capacity, but in gauging the reaction to it, I feel that too many people put it in the category of “better way to do strategic planning.” While it’s true we’d rather associations build strategic capacity than do strategic planning, we didn’t intend for our approach to be a better way. We see it as completely different. I was amazed at how difficult it is to get people in the association community out of the mindset of strategic planning.
So we’re writing a new book to try and make the distinction clearer. The working title is Dead End: Why Strategic Planning is Destroying the Future of Associations and How We Can Change Course. In the book we want to give real-life examples that illustrate the waste strategic planning can be, hence our call for stories.
So if you have a story about time you ended up wasting in the name of strategic planning, send me an email. All information will be kept confidential, and there is no way that anyone’s story will be recognizable in the book, don’t worry. This is not about embarrassing anyone—it is about shining the light on a “best practice” that is failing us.
We’re trying to get the first draft of this thing written by the end of June, so please act on this quickly if you have something to share.
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