Why Write a Newsletter on Long-Term Strategy?
The potential of long-term strategic planning to change the world is being lost. Let's fix this.
Welcome to JumpLeap Long-Term Strategic Planning. If you haven’t read it already, check out the About page.
You may be reading this post wondering if long-term strategic planning is obsolete. Perhaps the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world of the 2020’s has rendered it stale, out of touch and a relic of a more stable era?
But somewhere, maybe in the back of your mind, perhaps you also suspect that something important is being lost. Almost as if the baby were being thrown out with the bathwater.
Consider that long-term value in all its forms (for-profit and non-profit) does not get created without particular elements being in place. While short-term value takes care of itself in human organizations, long-term value is quite easy to destroy.
Just witness what’s happened to Fortune 100 companies from 1924. Or to the adverse impact we are having on the planet, which became worse when we weren’t looking.
Given this tendency, we at JumpLeap are on a mission to bring about interwoven short/long-term strategic planning in every organization. We’ll talk about it, examine the underlying principles, contrast it with business as usual, and share copious evidence of its value.
If you belong to a for-profit, you will find help in bringing this approach to your organization, perhaps for the first time.
But if you belong to a non-profit, you may already have some agreement around the long-term objectives of your organization. These typically involve a much wider audience.
Your challenge is a bit different: how to translate BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) like the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of 2015 into results.
Our work in these areas stands as our contribution to current and future generations.
Welcome to the JumpLeap group of newsletters, mini-books, videos and podcasts. As you may know, we’re doing a retrospective study of our most useful 50+ interwoven short/long-term strategic planning projects. Each covered a time-horizon of 15-30- years and took place in the last two decades.
What have we discovered? Well, the timeframe you choose for your strategic plan is all-important, for example.
So are the techniques you use. For example, a sound long-term plan is not the same as a short-term plan plus a few years. Instead, organizations use specific tools to define strategic plans which surpass business-as-usual and beat competitors.
They do scenario planning, backcasting, strategy mapping, snapshot building, target-year-setting, group facilitation, plus more. Our clients know these as elements of the EndPoint Method.
On this journey, you’ll find a community in which you will meet others of like mind, so you won’t feel alone at any time. Join us with a paid subscription and you won’t miss any of the most important content, including the private Mini-Books which each take a deep dive.
Enjoy your stay,
Francis Wade
Chief Agitator and Instigator