There is no escaping change.  The inevitability of change has led to a myriad of different philosophies, approaches and methodologies to help individuals and organizations deal with the reality of change and to find ways to ease the anxiety associated with the ever-evolving landscape in which organizations operate and people work.

Against this backdrop, we have spent considerable time and energy contemplating the reality of change and how to equip our clients with the skills to face its inevitable challenges.  In so doing, so we have coined the name Change Engagement™ to describe our unique leadership driven approach to successful change.

The Change Engagement™ approach anticipates that leaders equip themselves with the necessary tools to lead three distinct but interrelated aspects of every change.  First, one must articulate the intended organizational benefits of the change.  Secondly, leaders must equip the organization to manage the mechanical aspects of that change.  Third, leaders must be equipped to lead the organization to successfully engage people in the intended change.  When leaders tackle those three aspects of change, the chances of achieving the intended benefits rise substantially.

The ability to lead and sustain successful change is especially critical to the implementation of an organization's strategic plan.  Over the past few months we have focused a great deal on Dimensional Strategy™, our strategic planning framework. This framework has matured over the past few years to become a flexible and comprehensive method for setting direction, aligning goals and driving execution.  We are preparing to release the framework in book-form this fall.

The focus of my writing to you this month is not toward  the promotion  of the book, but rather aimed at how one organization has used its strategic plan to foster change in the organization, and how in that process they have matured their planning capabilities.  In other words, they have initiated change through strategic planning and simultaneously changed the way they strategize.

We have a client we have worked with for a number of years.  Our relationship began after another consulting firm facilitated the creation of a strategic plan for the organization.  Unlike many, this organization did not let their new strategic plan become a proverbial paperweight or dust collector.  Instead they focused on putting resources in place to accomplish the goals called for in the plan.  That alone is success, but what has been more interesting and encouraging is how the leaders of the organization have matured their strategic planning capabilities. 

You have heard me say in the past that the value of strategic planning is in the process of planning, not just in the plan itself.  This client is a demonstration of that philosophy.  Not only has the organization been diligent in achieving its goals, but it has matured its approach to planning by involving broader audiences in plan development and progress reporting.  They matured by creating linkages between the plan and various systems needed for plan implementation.  The organization focused on leadership capability as a driver of plan development and execution.  The result of this maturing has been comprehensive strategic plans with stretched goals that are prioritized on a routine basis and periodically measured for success.  The final result is an organization that has built a platform for accomplishing its mission and achieving its vision by deliberately maturing its approach to strategic planning.

Leaders often focus too closely on leading the changes the strategic plan initiates in the organization, and do not focus closely enough on changing the way it plans.  This client story makes the case for our approach and perhaps the motivation to, not only change the organization through your strategic plan, but to strategically change the way you plan.