Dutch Driver asks:
>So, my question is "Is the strategic plan a set of future goals or a
>framework for making future decisions?"
to which R. Dante Vilardi replies:
>*Values* are a "framework for making future decisions," not a strategic
>plan. If you can get bankers to focus on values, perhaps a new
>appreciation of the importance of strategy will emerge.
In our work exploring questions about leadership (with people positioned
in the organization where we expect to _see_ leadership), we have framed
things this way:
The _Vision_ determines the ultimate destination.
The _Values_ constrain how you can get there (basically agreeing with
the response above).
The _Plan_ outlines the steps which you think (at this point) will move
you toward that destination.
For example, suppose the Vision is 'to be Number One in the Market', but
a Value is 'we don't accept bribes'. The first talks of the destination,
but the second constrains the acceptable routes. The Plan, in our
thinking, follows from the Vision. So a Plan might involve 'use targeted
marketing'. But if you don't have a Vision, then you can't really have a
Plan. Rather you have a series of steps, but no coherent sense of why
you're taking them.
(Incidentally, I don't think that 'be number one' is an especially
compelling vision, even though I often see slogans like this held up as
'visions'. But that's a different topic!)
And I suggest also that how any one individual defines terms such as
these is much less important than that the group or class or team come up
with its own operational or working definition which it can then use
consistently. In fact, when we come up with a problematic term like
this, we often actually create the definition, write it on a flip chart
page, and post it where we can all see it, and leave it there to 'inform'
the subsequent conversation.
Michael A
--
Michael Ayers
mbayers@mmm.com Voice (612) 733-5690 FAX (612) 737-7718
IT Educ & Perf Svcs\3M Center 224-2NE-02\PO Box 33224\St Paul MN 55133-3224
"Sometimes the right question is, 'Are we asking the right question?'"
Ideas contained in this note represent the author's opinions and do not
intentionally represent the positions of anyone else in this galaxy.