Julie makes an excellent point about strategic planning. Just as Ben
talks about strategic imporvisation, Julie wants to simply identify
unexpected outcomes as emergent phenomena which require a revision to the
theory, and therefore a revision to the plan. This is not a failure, it
is a reflection of learning something that changed our understanding of
what needed to happen.
I think both this metaphor and Ben's are right on the money in terms of
the real goal of planning. The intent is not to develop a plan which is
followed in lock-step and results in a very predictable outcome. The
healthy planning is oriented toward learning, flexibility, willingness to
change, and so forth. Plan to be flexible. Plan for change. Plan for
change to change (like a second derivative). All these views are intended
to show that planning is not about being static but about being flexible,
responsive, fast-moving, open to new data, and constantly interpreting.
--Rol Fessenden INTERNET:76234.3636@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>