Are you developing a plan before you develop a strategy?

Transcript

Transcript: Hi there! It’s Peter Winick. I’m the Founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage. And here’s the thought that I would like to share with you today and it’s this. I have been seeing over and over again in the last couple of years a pattern. Or at least I think it’s a pattern. And the pattern is this. Authors, speakers, thought leaders, academics etc. develop a plan. And it’s a plan that they’re going to execute whether that’s the launch of a online program, whether that’s the launch of a new initiative, whatever the case may be.

And because they’re really really good at planning, they develop a very sophisticated and detailed plan. I mean there are Gantt charts, and there are contingencies, and there are dependencies. And everything is mapped out day one, week one, hour three. And this is an amazing plan. And then, we get into some conversations.

And I ask some questions around, “But what’s the underlying strategy? You know, with this plan?” And I get sort of blank stares as if it was not something that they considered. They immediately jumped into the tactical, to the planning, to the selection of the tools, to the finding of the right resources, etc. And kind of skipped through the foundational piece, the key piece of developing the strategy that dictates what the plan should do.

So in any case, you know, my thought today is are you developing a plan? And is the, you know, are the tactics becoming the tail that wags the dog? Because if it doesn’t start with a solid strategy, any plan executed really really well is not going to get you an outcome that you’re going to be happy of, that you’re going to be proud of, that’s going to get you where you want to go.

Love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.