If organizations fail to anticipate or prepare for fundamental changes, they may lose valuable lead time and momentum to combat them when they do occur. These fundamental elements of business are customer expectations, employee morale, regulatory requirements, competitive pressures, and economic changes, and they’re always in flux.
Often businesses achieve a level of success and then stall. Strategic planning helps you avoid the stall and get off the plateau you find yourself on.
Accidental success is dangerous. Succeeding without a plan is possible, and plenty of examples exist of businesses that have achieved financial success without a plan. If you’re one of them, consider yourself lucky, but ask this question: “Could we have grown and become even more successful if we’d organized a little better?” I’m willing to bet your answer is yes.
Another danger is that the lack of a strategic plan negatively impacts the attitude of an organization’s team. Employees who see aimlessness within an organization have no sense of a greater purpose. People need a reason to come to work every day (besides the paycheck).
Lack of direction results in morale problems because, as far as your employees are concerned, the future is uncertain, unpredictable, and out of control. These depressing conclusions can only be seen as a threat to employment, which negatively impacts productivity.
To avoid these dangers, you need to get rid of the naysayers (including possibly yourself). Questioning the value of strategic planning is normal because planning can be intense and costly, but if the attitude that planning isn’t necessary becomes part of your corporate culture, it can prove deadly. So look out for the warning signs of indifference:
Leadership indifference
Confusion among the employees
Complacency of stakeholders
Short-term thinking
Lack of unity
Deeply entrenched traditional perspectives