"All plans should be burnt"

"All plans should be burnt"

Recently the managing Director of a client organisation was presenting their strategy to the senior managers. He started by openly admitted that he got the phrase "All plans should be burnt" from me and said he would do the same.

However, as there were smoke detectors in the room, he had to rip the strategy up rather than burn it. So he did.

The reason I say, "All plans should be burnt" is very simple.

People are making decisions on a day to day basis that influence the strategy. Thy do not refer to plans every 5 minutes. They rely on what is in their heads.

If the organisation's strategy and plans are in people's heads, then people act on them and they get executed. In this case it is safe to burn them as the plans have served their purpose of communicating the strategy.

If the plans are not in peoples' heads, then they are being ignored, are a waste of time, and might as well be burnt.

So all plans should be burnt.

Of course auditors don't like this, but what does that matter. If they want to find out whether the strategy is understood and working, they can do the same as anyone else. If a strategy is sitting on a shelf it is not being implemented. Go and ask those who should be implementing it.

Phil Jones
Author "Communicating Strategy"