Sabotaging a Strategic Plan

March 27, 2023

Good morning!  (Or, for our readers in India and Dubai, Good Afternoon!) Blessed Ramadan! The snow banks and snow drifts still exceed six feet in places around our neighborhood — and we are in the meteorological equivalent of mid-September. The Mississippi is still frozen solid; no sign of melting yet.  (This is weather, not climate.) Probably about time to get started on my taxes.

• Do you read The Economist?  We find it to be among the better publications with a learned world view.
  • This recently:  “One thing is clear:  in the year or so since (Putin) visited China in the run-up to his invasion of Ukraine, Russia has grown weaker and more dependent upon its bigger Asian neighbor.
  • Not only is Russia suffering directly… it has become ever-more isolated diplomatically than before…
  • Russia is on the path to becoming a vassal state, cut off from Europe and (the United States), and there to do China’s bidding.”  (Gabuev, 2023)
• “Without a vision the people perish.”  (Probably King Solomon)
• Prior to the so-called Great Depression there were 30,456 banks in the United States; currently there are fewer than 5,000.
  • Something always bothered me about that Jimmy Stewart movie:  The bad guy was never caught, never even mentioned after he stole the money.
• Did you know it’s easier to sabotage a strategic (big picture) plan than it is to implement one?
  • Ten times or one hundred times easier, actually.Among the reasons:  There are few forces more powerful than the unrelenting tug of the status quo.Most plans fail because they aren’t genuine plans in the first place… they don’t contain the key ingredients:  Mission — Vision — Strategic Imperatives — Specific Action Plan MeasurablesThe measurables are SO important:  Who will do what, when, where, how — and most importantly, why?The why traces directly back to one of the strategic (big picture) imperatives.What MUST we do to make it more likely we will achieve our vision?They then also fail for one or more of the following reasons:
  1. Death by Planning, aka, the Paralysis of Perfection
  2. Loss of Focus, aka, a failure to keep revisiting the vision and strategic imperatives — and to stay disciplined.
  3. Circular Reaffirmation, aka, we’re already doing all of this, we’re good, we’re good.
  4. The top; i.e., the C-suite/ ownership, is out of alignment with management and the staff.
  5. Passive Aggressive Compliance, but the hearts aren’t in it, aka, work to contract — and, make the boss happy when she’s looking; fake it.
  6. Holes in the Dike, aka, blaming others, aka, no systematized formal accountability, no regular check-ups.
     • Do you have transparent mile markers and do you continuously track progress toward those mile markers?
  7. Top leadership (or others with responsibility/ authority) obfuscate, undermine, don’t tell the truth (gasp!).
  8. Resource allocation is not aligned with stated priorities; i.e., the Strategic Plan sits there off to the side.
     • Guess what?  Your plan needs resources if it is to have a chance of succeeding.  (Without A Vision, distilled from numerous sources — and experience.)
• “Remote workers have praised the benefits of working from home, but there is one downside that has become hard to ignore: isolation.
  • Over a third of remote workers said their virtual setups made them feel lonely…
  • …loneliness can have a debilitating effect on workers’ health and productivity. (Fowler, 2023)
• I had not thought much about Sojourner Truth these last several years until a good friend and faithful reader, Charles, brought her to my attention last week.
  • Her in-the-moment extemporaneous speech (1851) is considered by most historians to be on a par with the other A+ speeches in United States history.
  • Ain’t I A Woman?! is brilliant as she uses very few words to unleash a trifecta of Lincolnesque logic against the stodgy, self-important status quo of the day.
  • Here is part of it — and then treat yourself by clicking on the link to slowly savor the rest:

• “Well children … Well there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that betwixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North all talking about rights these white men going to be in a fix pretty soon….  And then that man back there in the black … That man back in the black says that women can’t have as much rights as men because Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him. Now if the first woman that God ever made was strong enough to turn this world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again. And now they is asking to do it and you men better let them.  Obliged to you. Thank you for letting me speak to you this morning. Now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.”
• Original Text, Aint I a Woman?