What is Your Context?
As I mentioned in a previous posting, there are two sides to the analysis part of strategic planning: internal and external. In the internal analysis, you want to understand what are your strengths and your weaknesses. This is particularly important because if you want to provide decent performance while reducing your stress, you want to seek opportunities that allow you to play in your area of strength.
In a recent job that I had, I was heading a humanitarian services organisation which had lost $1.1 millions the previous year on a $2.7 millions budget. My mandate was to bring this organisation in the black again. The organisation was in such a dire situation that the best person to lead it should have been someone with an accounting background. So, for one year, with my strengths in marketing, I struggled to make the thing work.
This experience taught me the importance of operating in your area of strength as opposed to your area of weakness. You can see when an employee is in his or her area of weakness: they will have a tendency to procrastinate and their work will be either/or late or of poor quality.
Threats and Opportunities
When looking to gain a better understanding of your context, you want to take them separately and take the time to understand what forces in the environment could cause you to fail (threats) and what this same environment offers you in terms of possibilities.
I will eventually come back to the aspect of personal attitude, but I feel it’s particularly important to point out that some times, some people see an opportunity where another will feel that there is a threat. This is normal as two persons are the same and have the same strengths.
The Trip Analogy
I like to use the analogy or a trip when discussing strategic planning. Your current position is your current position (!), meaning where you are, in which condition (tired, etc.). Your strengths and weaknesses could be the amount of money or time you have to undertake the trip, the vehicle that you have, etc.
Your goal (here is another epiphany) is your destination. That’s why in goal setting, you want to make them as specific as possible (more on goal setting in a future posting). And your plan is the road, the vehicle, the time required to travel.
I invite you to write me your comments if you have other analogies that you use for strategic planning.
As I mentioned in a previous posting, there are two sides to the analysis part of strategic planning: internal and external. In the internal analysis, you want to understand what are your strengths and your weaknesses. This is particularly important because if you want to provide decent performance while reducing your stress, you want to seek opportunities that allow you to play in your area of strength.
In a recent job that I had, I was heading a humanitarian services organisation which had lost $1.1 millions the previous year on a $2.7 millions budget. My mandate was to bring this organisation in the black again. The organisation was in such a dire situation that the best person to lead it should have been someone with an accounting background. So, for one year, with my strengths in marketing, I struggled to make the thing work.
This experience taught me the importance of operating in your area of strength as opposed to your area of weakness. You can see when an employee is in his or her area of weakness: they will have a tendency to procrastinate and their work will be either/or late or of poor quality.
Threats and Opportunities
When looking to gain a better understanding of your context, you want to take them separately and take the time to understand what forces in the environment could cause you to fail (threats) and what this same environment offers you in terms of possibilities.
I will eventually come back to the aspect of personal attitude, but I feel it’s particularly important to point out that some times, some people see an opportunity where another will feel that there is a threat. This is normal as two persons are the same and have the same strengths.
The Trip Analogy
I like to use the analogy or a trip when discussing strategic planning. Your current position is your current position (!), meaning where you are, in which condition (tired, etc.). Your strengths and weaknesses could be the amount of money or time you have to undertake the trip, the vehicle that you have, etc.
Your goal (here is another epiphany) is your destination. That’s why in goal setting, you want to make them as specific as possible (more on goal setting in a future posting). And your plan is the road, the vehicle, the time required to travel.
I invite you to write me your comments if you have other analogies that you use for strategic planning.
posted by GRK at 9:56 p.m.
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