{"id":10299,"date":"2012-02-09T20:05:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T01:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"\/news_blogs\/john\/?p=10299"},"modified":"2023-12-22T10:34:29","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T15:34:29","slug":"planning-for-the-unpredictable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/john\/2012\/02\/09\/planning-for-the-unpredictable\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning for the Unpredictable"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 9 of 18 in the series Faithful Strategy Development<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Before you begin to develop your strategy, the next few posts in the series will increase the number of sources feeding into the strategy development process. The posts should lead to many more strategic possibilities to consider than would be the case if you rely on yourself or the current team for ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your strategic planning<\/strong> process must ensure there are plenty of opportunities for you, the leader, to be surprised<\/strong>. If you forge ahead based on what you already know, or what your research plan discovers, the strat plan will simply reflect what you thought you should research and think about. Simply put, you don’t know what you don’t know<\/a>, and you need to check regularly for blind spots<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get really fresh, daring, out-of-the-box ideas, to get completely new approaches to pursuing your mission, you need to enter terra incognita, <\/em>the unknown land. Y<\/em>ou need a planning process that deliberately introduces the unpredictable<\/strong>, the unforeseeable; the jarring, non sequitur<\/em> idea that makes you say, “Oh yeah! Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-Help Is of Limited Value<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You likely can’t do this on your own. Your staff and board likely can’t do it either, because they are too close to the way you think and you probably have a common understanding of “the way things are.” Unless you have some very new staff or directors, you all share the same organizational lore, mindset and assumptions. However, there is no harm in asking the board and staff to suggest blind spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best people who can take you into uncharted territory are people who are on the periphery or even completely right off your map. This is “edge-centric” strategy development. People on the edges are not tainted by your organizational history or its aspirations. If you assure them you are open to hearing some hard truths and want their honest thoughts, they will say what they think and they will do that from a variety of perspectives and assumptions that are vastly different from your own. Their ideas are worth their weight in gold!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outsource\u00a0Your Planning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the ways to introduce unpredictability into the planning process is to outsource part of it by engaging people on the periphery. Here are some ideas for how you can do that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n