My son Allen and I sometimes go Geocaching. Geocachers leave hidden caches (there is almost certainly one near you) and then they publish the latitude and longitude of the cache, along with hints on how to find it. The photo above shows a magnetic lock box and the geocaching directions that we used to find it. If you have never geocached, you might think that knowing the latitude and longitude would guarantee that you could find the cache. This is rarely the case.
GPS units, used to locate your latitude and longitude, and the GPS system itself, are only accurate to a few meters (or yards if that’s how you measure things). Geocachers are expert at hiding their cache. You can be within an arm’s reach of the cache and still not be able to find it without the help of the hints given with each geocache.
Like geocaches, strategic plans are supposed to make it clear where an organization is aiming for. Let’s contrast geocaches with strategic plans:
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Good strategic plans have a clear destination.
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While the destination might be clear to senior management, the destination is often lost in how it is communicated. If you were told to meet on the street outside “10 Downing Street” you would be more likely to arrive at Whitehall in London, England than if you were given latitude 51.5, and longitude -0.1. Humans work better with human related references.
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Even if we have the destination in both human terms and in latitude and longitude, we can be helped to find our destination with hints. We will meet on the street closest to the home of the British Prime Minister gives us a lot more context to work with. Many strategic plans do not provide the context everyone needs to find the destination.
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If you are meeting at “10 Downing Street” and you are coming from Vancouver, Canada you might need a lot more guidance than if you are coming from Birmingham, England. Most strategic plans are missing the intermediate milestones that let each individual make their way to the destination.
If you start with written down strategic plan, you will have a clear destination and the key measures that will guide everyone to that destination in a context they understand. If you follow that up with weekly meetings to keep everyone focused and in rhythm and flow, you dramatically increase your organization’s performance.
Are you clear on where you are going?
