March 14, 2007
Law Firm Planning Gone Wrong
The “plan” must be to change the “plan”! Strategic plans are based on assumptions, and assumptions are inaccurate temporary estimates about the future.
The inaccurate character of assumptions is why planning must be a continuous process. Through that continuous process of changing the plan as the future gets nearer, successful organizations are distinguished by doing the “right things”.
I often wondered why so many consultants to the legal community tend to discredit the value of strategic planning. Rob Millard’s post titled Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure sheds light on the reason. It is because too many law firm leaders they deal with see the “plan” as the end product. It isn’t. It is the planning process, not the plan, that leads to success. Strategic planning is a way of thinking—strategic thinking. The plan must be to change the plan!
The need to continually change the plan is the reason that I emphasize that the tangible product of strategic planning, “the plan”, should consist of words, phrases, and sentences, not paragraphs, pages, and chapters. It is a living document that coordinates and shapes an organization’s actions and decisions and that is changed by those actions and decisions in reaction to an unfolding future. Taking a line from the Pirates of the Caribbean, “It is more of a guide than an actual code”.
Periodically, the organization must come together and revise the guiding product. They must come together to agree on revised assumptions about the future, to identify the changes in the opportunities available to the firm, and to adjust or reaffirm the law firm’s goals. They must agree on the key strategies the law firm will rely on to achieve those goals. Then they must set out the programs and responsibilities for implementing the tactics in support of the agreed upon strategies
Rob Millard wrote: “All too often, I find myself facing blank stares from clients [law firms] who want me to help them to only craft a plan that will lead them to greatness. This is only possible where the future is certain. Which, of course, it is not.” His point is clear. If you unwaveringly pursue a plan based on inaccurate assumptions, you will eventually implement the wrong strategy—you will successfully fail.
Rob Millard’s blog is The Adventure of Strategy. He is part of the Edge International consulting group. For more on this subject, you should also read my previous post, Strategic Planning Will Not Predict the Future, But It will Prepare the Law Firm for It, which referred to an earlier and also insightful post by Millard.
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