I don’t work in politics, I work in Information Technology. As in all project-related pursuits, planning a victorious, successful implementation of an information system is a lot like going to war. Many campaigns are waged in this process, but the bloodshed is usually virtual. Adaptations and workarounds must be made to accommodate the “facts on the ground”. There are many ways to do it right, and many ways not to do it. We call the collected consciousness about these ways to do and not do it “lessons learned”.
One of the lessons I’ve learned over my 20 year career in this field is that it’s always useful to start with a strategic plan. What's the purpose of doing what we do? We call this purpose a "goal". What are the things that we absolutely have to get right in order to succeed? We call these “critical success factors”. What are the things that can go horribly wrong? We call these “risks”. How do we know when we’re done? We assess whether we've met our “goals” and “objectives”. How do we know whether we’ve succeeded or not in our mission? We convert the critical success factors into “key performance indicator” metrics. We set up a feedback loop and display it in places like nifty dashboards that let the decision-making leadership see clearly just what we’re doing right, wrong, or simply “good enough”.
Where do we get the input to the critical success factors, goals and objectives? Executive management usually likes to think they ought to set the direction for the strategic plan, but the best information almost always comes from the people whose boots are on the ground. That would be the boots worn by “We the People”. Our best meetings start when the executives get out of the way and let the people provide input as to what the real strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are. The people know because they live these "SWOTs" on a daily basis.
Strategic Planning can be a lot of fun. Usually we kick it off by developing a Mission Statement. “Why do we exist?” This is not a rhetorical or existential question. It’s the justification for the very existence of the project, the team, the organization, the product. It usually hinges on what level of quality, service, product, or any combination thereof we can provide to improve the lives of others. Once we understand why we exist, then it becomes child's play to hang critical success factors, goals and objectives onto that framework. It’s also fun to examine our core values. What beliefs drive us to succeed in the face of insurmountable odds, small budgets, scarce resources, long hours and high risks? You can light up a whole room with the positive energy generated by a good strat planning session.
Strategic Planning gives birth to a vision and a set of intentions that will launch a blueprint which everyone in the organization can follow and believe. We can follow and believe the blueprint because we helped create and deliver it. It’s our baby. If anyone tells the team that our baby is ugly and we dressed it funny, we are motivated to defend and improve our baby with passion and commitment. Responding with passion and commitment does not require that we throw rocks and mud on other people’s babies. It requires that we nurture and pay attention to our own baby, first and foremost.
When I asked my local GOP what their plan was to win elections, they could not tell me. When I asked what their core values are, they could not list them. When I asked what the differences are between our candidates and the opposition, they could not articulate those differences. So I volunteered my time to do for the GOP what I get paid to do at work, which is to gather information and document our community’s wants and needs, to develop our mission statement and critical success factors, to document our core values, to help design a strategic plan. The GOP leadership listened politely, joked about how I should become a speech writer, and never contacted me again.
Kevin Boyd recommends we develop a lot more consultants, outside of Washington. I agree. I also think that the consulting skill set should include strategic planning with input provided by the voters, rather than the Party executives.
