The wrong--and right--way to build a strategic plan: done well, it can serve as the centerpiece of an organization's work, guiding it in ways both large and small.

• Author: Armajani, Babak
• Position: Commentary

Here's a sure-fire formula for developing a strategic plan for your organization that is guaranteed to collect dust on the shelf:

Build the plan as a description of the status quo. Be sure that your mission statement describes all the things the organization does rather than its purpose. Make sure the plan is a checklist of things that need to be done. Don't put anything in the plan that you might not be able to accomplish. (After all, it could end up making you look bad.) Make sure to align the language of the plan with the organization's culture so that it does not provoke anyone.

Sometimes strategic plans are written as a perfunctory task. More often, strategic plans that provide powerful new direction end up getting lost in the day-to-day pressures of organization life.

By contrast, many of us have also served in organizations where the strategic plan was a centerpiece of all-important activity. It informed allocation of resources--not just an annual budget but the use of time and political capital as well. The plan was used as a guide in making difficult decisions and setting priorities for work. It was the principal standard against which progress and performance was measured. And based on what was learned through action, the plan was regularly improved.

What accounts for the difference in whether or not a strategic plan gets used? Three things.

THE CONTENT OF THE PLAN MATTERS

If the existing strategic trajectory of an organization is working and is expected to work under projected future circumstances, there is no need for a plan. Strategic plans alter the trajectory of an organization, prepare it for new circumstances in the organization's environment, and/or are a response to an impending threat or opportunity. The strategic plans with the most vitality are those that reflect planned change.

Quite simply, the content of a well-used strategic plan describes five things: 1) in 10 words or less, the purpose of the organization (mission); 2) its desired future state (vision); 3) a few high-level approaches for changing the course of the organization (strategies); 4) a very few measures that reflect the extent to which the organization is moving toward its vision (indicators); and 5) a few principles that should guide day-to-day behavior (values). These five elements are important; what you call them is not.

HOW THE PLAN IS DEVELOPED MATTERS

Often in an effort to be inclusive in strategic decision-making, we doom future use of strategic...