Today I will be making two presentations to the Leadership Express series at the Midyear meetings of the National Association of REALTORS®. As I have for the last few years I will speak to the benefits of planning in hopes of encouraging, in this case, association leaders and managers to think and act strategically.
I’m using this appearance to take a bold step. For years my comments on planning have touched on the basics: what is planning, how do you do it, what is gained from it. I think I’ve taken some basic nuts and bolts material and distilled out some powerful insights: planning is not about process, it is about results; sustaining an organization’s mission is paramountly strategic, even more than vision; ultimately this is an extraordinary tool for achieving continued organizational improvement.
In today’s presentation I’m taking the discussion to a new level, what Tim Galwey years ago referred to as the “inner game.” Galwey realized that conventional coaching in tennis and golf often got in the way of both mastery and enjoyment of the games. I never met him, but I consider him to be a mentor and both his books occupy prominent spots in my bookcase.
For NAR’s leaders I hope to show the real value to be derived from planning: consistent and continuous leadership, more accountable and effective management and, a big deal for volunteer associations, better service to and involvement with members. These are big claims and, to be truthful, 300 plans ago when I started, I couldn’t have made these assertions with confidence. I have, however, seen it happen again and again… the very act of planning, quite independent of the plan’s goals and objectives, has a beneficial aspect on all aspect of the organization’s operations.
I first discovered this when I had the good fortune to work with school board members (directors) through the Washington State School Directors’ Association (WSSDA). Governing a public school district is a tough job and directors have to work through really difficult policy decisions in the most basic of legislative formats, a five-person school board. Chuck Namit, a friend and mentor, devised a great program to get good counsel to those boards and their directors. In working with boards I noticed a change in the directors, both individually and as a legislative body, as they worked through the strategic planning process in their districts. They actually got smarter.
The planning process’s emphasis on getting answers to questions did two things: it replaced opinion and myth with fact and it created an appreciation for data. And they did, in fact, get smarter. They learned a lot about their districts through the scanning process… realizing that the district’s many constituencies and stakeholders often had quite different opinions on a given issue and that it was the board’s responsibility to ask the questions and to listen to the answers.
The plan itself, of course, contributed to a broader perspective: a more strategic way of thinking and talking about district issues. Board members who had been part of the planning process started to pay close attention to the district’s mission, vision and values, thus creating a strategic context for discussion of problems. You could hear this new, broader perspective in the language they used.
I was surprised when I first saw this. I have, over the years, done lot of leadership development training and education. In all the hours of class and training room work I’d never seen people make such significant changes, not just in thought but in action. I watched these directors become better leaders. This realization was the inspiration for the thoughts I shared with the REALTORS® today. There are great, unexpected benefits to be gained from strategic planning. In my next posting, Monday, I’ll give more detail about the “inner game” of planning and share the reaction I received from NAR members.
To see the Powerpoint presentation I used at NAR follow these links: http://pnwconsult.com/NAR DC 2009 VO.pptx or http://pnwconsult.com/NAR Midyear 2009.ppt
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