Making Your Strategic Plan Strategic

Strategic planning is (and has been) among the most widely used management tools of all time.  But most strategy scholars argue that the annual strategic planning process is anything but strategic.  Gary Hamel notes "In the vast majority of companies, strategic planning is a calendar-driven ritual... [which assumes] the future will be more or less like the present." (Hamel, 1996, Harvard Business Review).  Further, Rob Grant in his study of strategic planning in a turbulent environment found that companies use strategic planning largely as a goal setting and control process with only limited levels of innovation (Grant, 2003, Strategic Management Journal).  That's too bad given that upward of 90% of organizations engage in annual strategic planning.  Clearly there is room for improvement.  

In a recent Fast Company article Kaihan Krippendorff highlights four steps leaders can do to make their strategic planning processes more strategic.  His findings from his own work discuss useful--but challenging--ways to improve the quality of the strategic planning process.