Strategic planning is figuring out two things:
- Where do we go?
- How do we get there?
The questions are easy. The answers are hard — but not for the reasons you might think. Even if everyone agrees to be brutally honest in assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, the process can get still get derailed by what the Harvard Business Review calls “comfort traps:”
- Over-planning: too many “to-dos,” too much documentation, not enough strategy
- Cost-based thinking: using the same method to model costs as revenues
- Self-referential frameworks: focusing on opportunities that rely on existing strengths instead of focusing on (potentially bigger) opportunities that require developing new ones
Sound familiar? Fortunately, this Harvard Business Review Assessment Test can help you identify which ones you fall into.