General Eisenhower said that plans are worthless but planning is essential. I wouldn’t go quite that far—written plans can be useful as long as they’re used, too—but I can identify with his sentiment. A common challenge for many businesses and associations is planning that heightens the likelihood of success (but doesn’t require too much time or effort).
We believe that a good process can help sort through the noise. Remember the Grinch crying out in the Christmas classic: “The noise! Noise! NOISE!” Some of our clients have come to us feeling this way. They hear about AI and CX and DS and ABM and wonder what is what.
The answer is that, while some much-publicized concepts may be useful, some are just hype…others apply more to huge organizations than growing ones…and still others distract attention from more worthy pursuits.
The key is to take a concept that may be puffed-up (doesn’t “Big Data” sound, um, big?) and boil it down to the essence (getting data, evaluating it, and doing something useful with it).
We’re having more conversations with clients who don’t want to fall back on the “Ready. Fire. Aim!” approach to planning. They want a proven process that yields a practical, achievable plan. And tunes out the noise.
