Strategic Planning in Practice | Anne Johnson | TEDxWilmingtonUniversity

Summary

The speaker emphasizes the importance of strategic planning in all aspects of life, not just in business. They introduce their own theory of success, which involves four key steps: innovate, strategize, organize, and energize. The speaker encourages everyone to think creatively and develop a plan to achieve their goals, whether it's starting a new business, improving their job, or personal growth. They highlight the need to adapt to changing circumstances and to involve and energize the people around you to support your objectives. The message is that strategic planning is a dynamic process that can be applied by anyone, regardless of their title or role.

Takeaways

• 📈 **Strategic Planning is Universal**: Strategic planning is not limited to CEOs or company leaders; it's a skill applicable in all aspects of life, including personal goals and daily decisions.
• 🚀 **Innovate First**: The process begins with innovation, which means thinking differently and creating a space that allows for new ideas beyond past experiences.
• 🧐 **Strategize with SWOT**: After innovating, use a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and strategize how to achieve your goals.
• 🤝 **Organize Your Resources**: Organize your team, resources, and finances to support your strategy effectively, ensuring each component is aligned with your strategic objectives.
• 🔄 **Adapt to Change**: Be prepared to adapt your strategies as the environment changes, acknowledging that facts and circumstances evolve over time.
• 👥 **Everyone is a Manager**: Recognize that everyone manages something in their life, whether it's their career, family, or personal development.
• 📚 **Education and Support are Key**: Identify the education and support you need from your family and community to achieve your strategic goals.
• 🌟 **Energize Your Team**: Involve and motivate the people around you by communicating your goals and the importance of their roles in achieving them.
• 🤔 **Continuous Improvement**: Keep innovating and strategizing as new information becomes available, and be willing to change your approach when necessary.
• 🏆 **Set Clear Goals**: Whether starting a business, seeking a new job, or personal development, set clear goals and use strategic planning to work towards them.
• 🌐 **Understand Your Environment**: Pay attention to changes in both your task environment (customers, suppliers) and general environment (weather, politics) that can impact your strategy.

Q & A

What is the main topic of discussion in the provided transcript?

The main topic of discussion is strategic planning and its application in practice across various aspects of life and work.

Why does the speaker believe strategic planning is exciting?

The speaker finds strategic planning exciting because it is applicable to everyone, regardless of their position or role, and it involves making decisions that can lead to success in various stages of management.

What is the speaker's personal journey in the business world?

The speaker started as a warehouse manager, drove a forklift, and worked their way up to becoming a business owner and later working in non-profit organizations.

Why did the speaker decide to come up with their own theory?

The speaker found that the theories learned from business books were not effectively applicable in the real world, so they decided to create a theory that would be more practical.

What are the four components of the speaker's proposed theory?

The four components are innovate, strategize, organize, and energize.

How does the speaker define innovation in the context of strategic planning?

Innovation is about creating a space for change that allows one to think from a different perspective and move beyond their current situation.

What is a SWOT analysis and how does it relate to strategizing?

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that examines an individual or organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It helps in strategizing by providing a framework to understand and leverage these factors.

Why is organizing important in the context of strategic planning?

Organizing is crucial because it involves aligning people, resources, and money to support the specific strategy, ensuring that each piece fits in the right place.

What does the speaker suggest doing when the facts change?

The speaker suggests that when the facts change, one should be willing to change their mind and adapt their strategies accordingly.

How does the speaker recommend energizing a team or organization?

The speaker recommends communicating the importance of each team member to the overall goals, asking for their support, and expecting results, which shows investment in them and their ideas.

What is the speaker's final advice on applying strategic planning?

The speaker advises not to make business theories too complicated, to use the strategize, organize, and energize approach, and to apply strategic planning in practice in everyday situations.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Introduction to Strategic Planning and Practice

The speaker begins by expressing their enthusiasm for strategic planning, despite its potentially dry reputation. They emphasize that strategic planning is not exclusive to CEOs or company leaders but is a skill applicable to everyone in their daily decision-making, regardless of their job title. The speaker outlines their own theory of strategic planning, which involves four key steps: innovate, strategize, organize, and energize. They encourage the audience to think creatively and to continually adapt their strategies in response to changing circumstances. The importance of managing resources effectively and rallying support from one's community is also highlighted.

05:03

🔄 Adapting to Change in Strategic Planning

The second paragraph delves into the necessity of flexibility and adaptability in strategic planning. The speaker references a famous economist, likely John Maynard Keynes, to stress the importance of changing one's approach when new facts emerge. They discuss how both the task environment, involving customers and suppliers, and the general environment, including weather and politics, can impact industries and strategies. The speaker advises the audience to stay attuned to these changes and to reorganize and re-strategize as needed. The paragraph concludes with the importance of energizing one's team and involving them in the process, ensuring they understand their role in achieving the overall goals.

Keywords

💡Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is a process that organizations use to set goals, develop action plans, and allocate resources to achieve those goals. It is crucial for businesses and individuals to align their activities with their vision and mission. In the video, the speaker emphasizes that strategic planning is not only for CEOs but a daily decision-making tool for everyone, regardless of their role or title.

💡Innovate

To innovate means to introduce new ideas, methods, or products. It is about thinking creatively and differently to improve or enhance something. In the context of the video, the speaker encourages viewers to innovate around their ideas, considering what innovation looks like for them and how they can create a space for change that allows them to go beyond their current state.

💡Strategize

Strategizing involves developing a plan or method to achieve a specific goal. It often includes conducting a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The speaker in the video uses the term to describe the process of taking an innovative idea and creating a plan to make it happen, considering what support is needed and how to obtain it.

💡Organize

Organizing is the act of arranging or putting things in a systematic order. In the video, the speaker discusses the importance of organizing one's team, resources, and finances to ensure that each element is in the right place to support the specific strategy being pursued. It is a critical step in implementing strategic planning.

💡Energize

Energizing refers to the act of motivating and inspiring others to take action. In the video, the concept is linked to the importance of engaging team members and making them feel valued and invested in the shared goals. The speaker suggests that by energizing those around you, you can create a supportive environment that contributes to the success of the strategic plan.

💡Management Theories

Management theories are principles or sets of ideas that explain how organizations and managers should function. The speaker mentions that they have studied various management theories but found that these theories did not always work in the real world. This led them to develop their own approach to strategic planning and practice.

💡Leadership

Leadership is the act of guiding a group of people or an organization. The video emphasizes that leadership is not limited to those with formal titles; everyone can be a leader in their own right, managing their own lives and making strategic decisions. The speaker encourages viewers to embrace their leadership potential.

💡Change

Change refers to the process of becoming different. The speaker discusses the inevitability of change in the world and the importance of being adaptable. They mention the need to keep innovating, strategizing, and reorganizing in response to changing facts and circumstances, which is a key aspect of effective strategic planning.

💡SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to identify an individual, organization, or project's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. In the video, the speaker suggests using a SWOT analysis as part of the strategizing process to understand what is needed to achieve the goals set during the innovative phase.

💡Vision

Vision is a clear picture of what an individual or organization wants to achieve in the future. Although not explicitly mentioned, the concept of vision is implied throughout the video as the speaker talks about setting goals and making strategic decisions that align with one's aspirations.

💡Action Plan

An action plan is a series of steps designed to achieve a specific goal. It is a crucial component of strategic planning. The video suggests that after innovating and strategizing, one must develop an action plan to organize resources and activities effectively to achieve the desired outcomes.

Highlights

The speaker emphasizes the importance of strategic planning in all aspects of life, not just for CEOs or company leaders.

Strategic planning is presented as an exciting concept that can be applied to personal and professional goals.

The idea that everyone is a manager in some capacity, whether it's managing their own life, career, or family.

The speaker shares their journey from a warehouse manager to a business owner, highlighting the evolution of their understanding of business theories.

The realization that traditional business theories may not always work in the real world, leading to the creation of a new theory.

Introduction of a new theory: Innovate, Strategize, Organize, and Energize as a framework for success in management.

Innovation is about creating a space for change and thinking from a different perspective.

Strategizing involves a SWOT analysis to understand the idea's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Organizing is crucial for aligning resources, people, and money to support the strategy.

The need to adapt and reorganize when changes occur in the task environment or general environment.

The famous economist Keynes' quote about changing one's mind when the facts change, and its relevance to strategic planning.

The importance of energizing the team and involving them in the innovation process.

The necessity of asking for support and clearly communicating goals and expectations to the team.

Strategic planning is not an overnight process and should be integrated into everyday life and decisions.

The speaker encourages applying strategic planning in practice, making it accessible and less intimidating.

A reminder that strategic planning is not limited to business settings but can be used in various contexts such as family or education.

The applause at the end signifies the audience's appreciation for the practical and engaging approach to strategic planning.

Transcripts

[Music]

I know right go flipping up the stairs

hi guys let's shake it off we're more

than halfway through right everybody

still awake the problem now is that all

I can think about is Bree and a nice

baguette and a glass of red wine so if

my stomach starts rumbling just go with

me through it sound good

your stomach's are rumbling too so today

I'm going to talk to you all about

strategic planning and practice and I

know that sounds a little bit snoring

and a little bit businesslike but for me

there's nothing that could be more

exciting than the idea of strategic

planning in practice and I want

everybody to sort of leave here today

thinking that you don't have to be the

CEO you don't have to be the leader of a

company we make strategic planning

decisions every day every aspect of

every job stay-at-home moms teachers and

leaders right so we want to keep this

feeling of strategic planning throughout

all aspects of what we're doing and for

those of you I see my students out there

so you definitely get an extra five

points for showing up today for me good

work good work

good planning right so how many of you

out there are managers today do I have

managers in the room and I see about ten

hands so now I'm gonna ask it how many

of you are managers everybody raise your

hands keep going come on I see you cuz I

got a good view right everybody in the

room is a manager you manage to get

yourself here today you manage to sign

up for the right classes yes you manage

to look for a bigger better job you

manage to create an idea for yourself

that might challenge you for whatever's

next in your life so remember that

you're always managing right you don't

have to have a big title to do it and we

also have studied whether it's teaching

or nursing or whatever it is that you

study you all have had a class on theory

yes we've all studied theories

management theories etc so throughout

the course of my life in business

starting out as a warehouse manager

driving a forklift trying to figure out

what I wanted to do with my life working

my way up to a business owned

eventually starting another company

moving through to work in nonprofits all

of these new challenges and things that

I created for myself but I found along

the way that the theories I had learned

about in the business books weren't

really transcribing or working for me in

the real world and the more people I met

the more experiences I had the more I

was changed by what I was experiencing I

decided that I was going to come up with

my own theory so strategic planning and

practice we're gonna start with a theory

innovate strategize organize and

energize and if you can do those four

things I believe that whatever stage of

Management you're in you're gonna be

successful right so maybe we want to

start a new business we've got big goals

yes maybe we want to get a bigger better

job maybe we just want to lose a little

bit of weight maybe want to go back to

work maybe you want to have another

child whatever it is we need to innovate

around that idea what does innovation

look like for you does it mean better

education does innovate mean I'm going

to look at things from a different

perspective right what does that look

like create a space for change and a

space that allows you to innovate beyond

where you've been right we start there

we create it once you have innovated

you've got to strategize about it and

strategizing isn't scary right you've

all done a SWOT analysis in your

business class your strengths weaknesses

opportunities and threats so take your

innovation and your idea then strategize

about it what do I need how am I going

to make this happen for me what support

do I need from my family what support do

I need from my community right can't do

it by ourselves

what more education do we need

strategize around it get it done then

you're gonna organize right can't do

anything unless we organize and when

you're in business especially I find

that organizing your team right let's

say we're strategizing in business we

want to want to innovate and say I want

my current profits to be only 30% of my

profits for next year

sound good I want to innovate and create

a new job or a new stream

that's gonna bring in 70% new profits

for next year

I'm strategizing around it and then I'm

organizing my people my resources my

money everything making sure that each

piece fits in the right place to support

that specific strategy but how many

times are things changing you guys find

change happens in the world yes I agree

Kees is a famous economist and he said

when the facts change I changed my mind

what do you do and so often too many

people don't decide to change their mind

when the facts are changing and when

we're strategizing and we're planning I

guarantee you the facts are changing

every day we've got things in our task

environment that are changing things

like our customers and our suppliers

right but we've got things in the

general environment that are changing

and the gentleman before me talked all

about that general environment what is

the weather doing to change the wine

industry what does politics doing to

change the wine industry right we've got

to pay attention to these changes that

are going on remember our original

innovation keep strategizing and make

different decisions right go back

reorganize ourselves when something

changes and finally we're going to

energize right every person in your

organization or your team right we want

to lose a little bit of weight we've got

a team around us that's going to help us

do it we want to go back to school we

got a team around us it's gonna help us

do it energize those people in your life

tell them how they are important to your

ultimate goals explain to them what you

need from them if we don't ask for

support are we gonna get it now right

you have to ask for what you want and

then expect results so energize your

team and your people around it let them

know that you're invested in them and

their ideas and that ultimately they're

going to be invested back in the

innovation that you're creating as a

whole so that's the idea right strategic

planning in practice it doesn't happen

overnight it doesn't just happen in the

CEOs office right it's going to happen

at every dinner table at every cafeteria

on a college campus yes so use it plan

it in practice and don't make business

theories too hard in a

strategize organize energize you then

you've got a plan

thank you guys so much

[Applause]