In just 10 easy steps

When advising clients in strategic planning, I start by congratulating myself on having such a cool job that people pay me to be a part of this very important milestone in the life of a business.  I then start packing several days worth of non-perishable snacks, noise-canceling headphones, a dictionary, and a box of tissues.  Invariably, strategic planning is a long, painful process.  Sorry, it just is.  Anyone who says otherwise and offers “no fail”, simple X step process has never done strategic planning for something more complex than a lemonade stand. 

Further, there is no guarantee that at the end of this tortuous event that you’re going to have anything valuable.  The biggest risk to a lasting, bold strategic plan is the process itself.  Often it’s so difficult to reach agreement, that you end up with a pile of mashed potatoes.  Comforting, yes.  But it’s really just a blob of flavorless fluff.

So, with this in mind, where on earth might we start to create a strategic plan for our marriage?  Google, obviously.  Not Google Earth.  Just regular Google.  Anyway, “how to create a strategic plan” yeilds nearly 25 million links.  A couple down from the top, we have a 10-step, 1 day strategic planning process.  Jackpot!  Forget what I said before.  Erica Olsen’s approach  sounds promising and she looks like a lovely person (though her picture is a bit pixelated).  I’m diggin’ this.  Why drag it out when you can outline your entire future in one day?  I mean, hello, I could be using that time to run on the treadmill. 

We’ll give her approach a shot and try to fill out these 10-steps.  Not to sound too competitive or anything but I’m wondering if Ms. Olsen has timed this process.  Does it really take a whole day?  I’m thinking we can knock this out on no more than 45 minutes or roughly the amount of time Brian will focus before feeling compelled to flee the room and turn on Sports Center.

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Day 1095 and beyond

3 years sounds like a lot more when converted to days– more than 1000 wake-ups and good night kisses, elaborate meals and leftovers, dog walks, and quick check-in calls.  I wonder how many cell minutes we’ve expended on, “Hey, how’s your day going? Good.  When will you be home? Love you. Bye.”?  Of course, there have been a couple of BIG days sprinkled in– buying our house, sleeping in our new bedroom after the reno, picking up our dogs (two separate 12 hour round trips), vacations, birthdays, holidays, etc.

So, there is something I’ve always liked about the number 3.  The perfect unevenness.  Maybe this is the exact right duration to view this next phase.  What can we accomplish in the next three years?  Hopefully have a baby.  Sell this house and buy/reno another.  Change careers to something either less demanding or more fulfilling.  Those pesky details of “who, what, and where” will be worked out.  Our intention is to use the business tools we’re so familiar with to provide a framework for that discovery process.  Next stop?  Strategic plan.

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