Focus?

One thing I’ve learned about business is a lot of meetings are held just for the sake of the meeting.  In addition, many focus groups are held to appease  funding requirements 0r create the appearance of caring about what others think. Strategic planning, a popular business phrase and concept,  is something that often takes place as a result of focus groups and management meetings and can take months and many meetings to complete.

I understand the importance of meetings. Without them, when would I practice my cursive? Focus groups are important too – they provide an opportunity to have work events catered. Strategic planning, however, I don’t entirely embrace. I’ve participated in several and, in most cases, have enjoyed the opportunity to gripe with coworkers and/or reconnect with old friends/work acquaintances.

When I was recently asked to facilitate a strategic planning, I replied, ‘yes,’ hung up the phone, and muttered, “shit!” I am the last person who should be in charge of such activity. I get derailed, encourage debates (about everything, but in this case, about vision v. mission), and, put simply, don’t focus. Surprisingly, after almost eight hours of facilitating, we completed a strategic plan in which their vision became their mission (Or did their mission become their mission? I can’t remember), and they had no more than five easily obtainable goals. In addition, we completed the process with an hour to spare.

The latter was the most important because, as it started to get closer to five, I started to focus less and less on the planning and more and more on the cars leaving the parking lot to go home. This became my driving force, literally, for finishing with an hour to spare. I would have ended sooner, but we had break food coming and it was really good – strategic planning I can totally embrace.