Strategically Speaking

Several organizations that I am involved with are currently, have just recently or really need to spend time developing a strategic plan.

I have been involved with dozens of these efforts over the years.  Without fail, every single one of those efforts, at some point, devolves into a debate about terminology.

Do goals flow out of missions and action steps out of goals?  Does a vision flow out of a mission or vice versa?.  Do action steps need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) or should that be goals?  What is the difference between a vision and a mission and a goal?  Which is most important?  Which should be developed first?  Why did the chicken cross the road?

Without a good moderator, the debate can go on for hours.  I am convinced that it is this conversation that drives most people away from strategic planning.  Which is a shame because there are two very good things that can usually flow out of strategic planning.

The first is that, if everyone sticks with it, you come up with a plan. A strategic plan provides some guidance as to what the members of the organization should focus on over the next year or two.  It provides some direction as to organizational priorities and plans. It broadcasts to staff and other stakeholders the organizational priorities of the leaders of the organization.

The second good thing to flow out of the strategic planning process is that the organization's leaders sit down and talk.  It is, in my opinion, the more important advantage.

Too often, the leaders in an organization don't bother to get together and really talk about the direction things are going and the direction they'd LIKE them to going.  Too often the leaders of an organization don't take the time out from putting out daily fires to look ahead and think about what the future should look like.  If nothing else, the strategic planning process gets the leaders into the same room talking about the same thing for a short while.

A structured strategic planning process helps to ensure that voices that are often drowned out or ignored get heard.  A planned process helps to ensure that the leaders are focused on positive, forward-looking plans for the organization and not arguing over terminology.  A well run strategic planning process is a positive for the organization, regardless of the resulting plan.

In the long run, strategically speaking, it doesn't matter how you label things in your strategic plan, as long as you are talking about them!

The Medici's of the 21st Century

I received a message a little while ago on LinkedIn.  The sender was not someone I knew well or corresponded with often.  But his message was unusual.  Trevor Gilette wanted to start a business, but he lacked the resources to do so.  So Trevor decided to try to work his contacts.

Trevor's message, in part, read:

This is what I'm asking for help on. I need to raise some capital for my business, $5000 by Friday, July 19. I'm asking for 1000 people in my networks to donate just $5 to me. It's less than a cup of Starbucks Coffee. I'm very excited to become a business owner and I am very much grateful to anybody who is willing to donate just $5 to help me get there. If you can spare $5, please send it to me via paypal at trevgillette@gmail.com.

In the 14th century, if you were an artist and you were looking for a commission or an entreprenuer looking to start a new enterprise, you often found yourself talking to a member of the Medici family.  The Medici family is often credited with helping jump start the Renaissance, a time of great growth and productivity in virtually all of the arts and commerce.

In the 21st century, if you are an artist and you are looking for funding to pursue an artistic endeavor or a visionary looking to start a new business, you often turn to one of the many crowdsourcing sites like Kickstarter.  Or LinkedIn.

I was intrigued by Trevor's initiative, so I reached out to him with permission to write about his effort.  He agreed and we exchanged a few emails in which he answered some questions.  Trevor characterized the response he got to his message as a mix of supportive and skeptical.   His effort did not generate the support he had hoped, although Trevor did get some inquiries asking to see a business plan and more details on the proposed business. At the time we talked, Trevor was still deciding whether he would put together a business plan to share with those who inquired.

There are a few lessons that can be learned from Trevor's project:

• The landscape has changed and there are many more ways to accumulate capital and support for a project than there were just a few years ago.
• The increase of funding options does not minimize the need to do good solid preplanning and the need to be able to communicate that plan in an effective way.  Trevor indicated that if he were to change anything about his appeal, he would have done a business plan prior to making the ask.
• A cup or Starbucks coffee has become the new standard cost comparison.
• Some people are generous to a fault.  Some people are jerks whenever they get a chance.  Most people ignore an opportunity most of the time.  The challenge of the artist or the entreprenuer making an ask is to capture the reader or viewers' attention and ignite their excitement or at least their curiosity.
• If at first you don't succeed...

Related articles

• The modern business plan
• Crowdsourcing

The Dragnet Approach

A while back, when I worked at an ad agency, a client told me one day that he wanted an ad that didn't sound like an ad.  Actually, I think that is what most clients want from their ad agencies, but this guy was the first one to express it so succinctly to me.

There is a very simple strategy to writing an ad that doesn't read like an ad, a sales pitch that doesn't sound like a sales pitch, an excuse that doesn't sound like an excuse.  Tell the truth.  A colleague of mine used to call this the Dragnet Approach.  Just the facts, ma'am.

The truth, told in a straightforward and direct manner, will resonate with the reader or the listener.  More advertisers don't use the Dragnet approach because it is harder.  In the short term.

Social Media: Quality vs. quantity

The other day I read an email from a friend and colleague who had written to me on LinkedIn asking for a favor.   The problem is that she had written me several weeks before I had read the email, and now the favor was a moot point.  The problem wasn't that I had just ignored her request, the problem was I didn't see it until it was weeks old.  I didn't see it because of the volume of message I get from LinkedIn has caused me to turn the volume way down on those messages.

Don't get me wrong.  I am not suggesting that I am so popular or so important on LI that massive amounts of people send me messages to get my perspective or advice.  Rather, I have adopted the strategy of being what is called an Open Networker.  The philosophy of an Open Networker, as I understand it, is that no contact is a bad contact.  That the advantages of social media multiply if you accrue a larger network of contacts.  While I never got caught up in the arms race that some LI open networkers get in, trying to have the most connections, I also have not hesitated to accept link requests from people with little or no obvious connection to me.

I have had the belief that a larger network would serve me best by giving me a larger pool of references and a greater resource of opinions when I have posted a query.  While this proved true and useful when I was first using LI, as more of my "real" contacts have started using LI as a means of connection and communication, it appears to have become counterproductive.

So the question I pose to the blogosphere is this:  which is better, quantity or quality when it comes to connections in social media.  I realize that there are some differences between LI, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.  I am interested in whether people have strong opinions, relevant experience, or a pithy comment or two regarding contacts in social media.  What are the advantages to open networking?  What are the disadvantages?  I will be posting a link to this blog on all my social media sites (LI, Twitter & Facebook)  I am hoping to be educated and enlightened by my open network!