This post is part two in a series of five covering the Straightforward Consulting approach to strategic planning.
Today’s MBA-ish approach to strategic planning typically starts with a SWOT analysis. In a SWOT analysis, you assess your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Some approaches overlay internal vs. external on top of that. In that overlay, strengths and weaknesses come from inside the organization, while opportunities and threats come from outside.
The primary issue with the SWOT approach is that it’s designed to engage the brain. That’s not a bad thing. However…
The brain is not the real powerhouse of humanity.
The brain is dispassionate. It is dis-purposeful. The brain doesn’t consider who you are, why you’re here, or what you’re capable of.
That’s not where intuition comes from. That’s not where conviction comes from. That’s not where an environment of commitment and engagement comes from.
Intuition, conviction…those things come from the heart!
As a practical example, consider New Year’s resolutions. Let’s say I make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Shortly after I do that, I find myself at Grandma’s house. Grandma has just topped off her famous chocolate cake with that glorious homemade frosting. I know I shouldn’t eat that second piece…and I do it anyway.
Why?
Because it’s freakin’ fabulous, that’s why! It’s the best tasting stuff on earth! And it’s there…right in front of me…NOW!
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I know I should do. It only matters what I do. And when my heart is longing for that second piece of Grandma’s chocolate cake, guess what happens to everything I know? It gets swallowed with that second piece of cake…and washed down with a tall glass of cold milk.
Brian Klemmer captured this sentiment in his book entitled, “If How-To’s Were Enough, We’d All be Skinny, Rich and Happy.”
Engaging your brain is not enough.
One of the key differences to the Straightforward Consulting patent-pending approach to strategic planning is that we engage your head and your heart throughout the process.
Your heart is the part of you that is focused on the future. And the future is where you want your strategic plan to take you.
Another issue with today’s approach to strategic planning and project management is PMI, the Project Management Institute. They may mean well, but they are about as helpful and straightforward as the U.S. Tax Code and the IRS.
PMI has a 200 word lexicon. Two…Hundred…Words. And that’s just so you can understand what they’re talking about. I did some quick research on 200 words. Know what I found? You can begin to speak a foreign language with 200-250 words!
And yes, you can actually communicate real ideas with that many words.
Remember reading The Cat In The Hat? Dr. Seuss wrote the whole book using 250 unique words. Green Eggs and Ham? Just 50 words!!!
But according to PMI, it takes 200 nuanced, specially designed words just so you can begin to understand how to properly manage a project. But the thing is…there’s a whole bunch of stuff that got done before PMI ever existed!
Project management doesn’t take a whole vocabulary. Extensive, esoteric, customized vocabulary is the mask worn by unachievers.
In my experience, entrepreneurial business leaders follow their gut, their instincts, their heart. Yes, their head is always connected and paying attention. But when those head-based naysayers knew it couldn’t be done, entrepreneurs did it anyway and delivered results rather than excuses.
There has always been another way.
And now, that other way – the way that engages both the head and the heart – that’s what Straightforward Consulting is patenting and delivering through the Roadmap2Destiny program. And in Part 3 of this series, I’ll reveal the other huge difference between today’s approach…and one that works for entrepreneurial business leaders.
