Have you developed a strategic plan then hit a wall, ready to throw up your hands in defeat? What has typically happened is that you are discovering the difference between planning concept and process vs. implementation an management through your staff. You can neither plan alone nor implement a plan alone.
Dear Al:
I’m afraid we’re going to have to stop our Strategic Planning process. It’s just NOT WORKING. That’s not your fault. Over the last three years we’ve consolidated my thought process and come up with EXACTLY what I would like my business to become over a five year period. My problem is two-fold, a lack of execution on my part and a lack of responsiveness on my part to things I should be changing in the Plan. That combination of events makes the process more frustrating each year.
It seems that if I’m not on top of every objective, they don’t get done. And, as you have pointed out, I hate giving up and don’t want to change goals, objectives and action plans, even when the circumstances of the year make it evident that they aren’t working.
In retrospect I should have sent you the monthly reports (as you suggested) and included you in each Quarterly Meeting instead of just having you out once a year. But my ego was (and still is) strong enough that I felt that I should be able to control and manage my own plan with my staff. I didn’t realize until now that I’m too close to my staff to make them accountable in an objective manner. Every time I do it, it seems to be emotional and critical and I’ve had a few people in tears when I criticize them.
All in all, I’m ready to give up and go back to the ‘seat of the pants’ management style that I complained about when I originally asked you to help us plan. I still remember how physically and emotionally draining it was to manage crises and firefight all the time. But I hope to use some of the Planning principles to allay that continuous panic mode as an agency owner.
Sincerely,
XXXX XXXXXXXXX
Dear XXXX:
Every year we have actually done better in advancing the Plan. In the early years you weren’t convinced that planning five years out could even work. Now, you see that Planning is the right tool to drive your business (and your personal life, if you choose to use the tool) in the direction you want. If implemented right and flexed to the ever-changing conditions of our industry, the economy and our lives, the creation and drive of a Strategic Plan will move you ever-forward to achieve your potential as a business owner.
What you have run into is the WALL that separates the concept and process of Planning from the implementation and management of Plans through your staff. As I’ve indicated often, you can’t Plan alone. Neither can you implement a Plan alone. And, in some cases, the staff that fits your business in the panic mode of crisis management and firefighting can’t adapt to a more structured, disciplined process in which everyone is ACCOUNTABLE for achievement of their Action Plans and Benchmarks and budgets. You can blame yourself all day for their inability to step up and mature in their roles as you have in yours. But the only fault that remains yours is that you have not seen the handwriting on the wall and taken action, whether REtraining, RE-motivating, or REplacing those employees, management or not, that can’t progress with you to help grow the agency.
We have explained often the need for accountability of each person in your Plan process including rewarding them through the Incentive Compensation Program for non-production employees and for managers AND THE PENALTIES for failure to implement their required activities. You’ve been great on the rewards, but have not done a good job in the management of expectations and the definition of ramifications for failure.
Instead of replacing the fine scalpel of Planning with the old “shotgun” approach, I suggest that I help you manage the next annual iteration of the Plan including getting the resulting reports and chairing the monthly meetings (we can Skype them) and quarterly meetings (in person). A part of that will be sessions with every participant getting their buy-in to the process and their responsibilities with very clear indicators of their expectations, results and cost of non-performance. If necessary, some members will no longer be in the Planning process, in management, or in the agency.
If you don’t do this, you have given up the operation of your agency to the vagaries of your employees instead of them adhering to your goals and objectives. We still need to build your agency staff as you continue to mature and grow your agency.
As far as flexing is concerned, you share this problem with many, many agents who want to continue to try to do something that isn’t working for just a little while longer to see if it might still work. Some Action Plans and even Objectives have to be changed and/or abandoned at the Quarterly evaluations because they HAVE been properly implemented but are not working. Whether it is ego or dogged determination, too many agents decide to continue the course for quarter after quarter until they find the results at the end of the year were far from what they desired. Flexibility is one of the keystones of planning and defines the difference between successful planning agencies and all the others. No one can pre-determine every trend and direction of their lives or business. We can just make good, educated judgments about the most likely directions that will work and the best ways of implementing those objectives. If you concentrate on flexibility at quarterly meetings for those objectives that are not working, we can also get you over that hurdle.
Call me.
Al Diamond
Note: We have been given permission to republish this communication to us from one of our Planning clients and our response. The agent DID continue the plan and changed two key staff members during the next year. We chaired his Planning process for the next year and educated all into accountability results and flexing the Plan to the realities of the year. Last year, the agency grew 10.4%.
Reprinted from the PIPELINE, the national newsletter for agency principals. The PIPELINE is published by Agency Consulting Group, Inc., a leading consulting firm for independent agents in the U.S. for over 20 years. Call 800-779-2430 for information about the content of any of these articles or PIPELINE subscription Information:
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Copyright 2010 by Agency Consulting Group, Inc. Used with permission.