By Natalie J. Armstrong,
www.MarketingMediation.com

Strategic planning has been the subject of universal acclaim but has been comparatively unsuccessful for neutrals. The reason lies in 10 certain truths about neutral practice strategic planning.

It is difficult to find a mediation or arbitration practice that has not made some attempt at strategic planning. Indeed, most practices have devoted hours and dollars for consultants in strategic planning efforts. Yet, when viewed in the cold light of actual achievements, it seems that few practices would rate the strategic planning process as truly successful in achieving the practice’s objectives.

Why has the process of strategic planning, which has been the subject of such universal acclaim been so comparatively unsuccessful in many practices? I believe there are ten inescapable truths about practices’ approach to strategic planning that make the process harder and less rewarding than it should be.

1. Practices often have trouble identifying their core business objectives. It sounds silly to say a neutral doesn’t know why he/she is in business, yet many resolutionists struggle with this core issue. In any business the primary objective is to make money. But when mediators come to work, a whole new set of cultural values come into play which may or may not be compatible with profit objectives.

If a practice’s culture espouses the willingness to do anything, including the subservience of all family and personal interests in the ruthless pursuit of profit, strategic planning is easy. It is equally easy if a neutral places volunteerism as its foremost objective, and profit, if any, is viewed as a pleasant by-product. Few, if any practices are so polarized in their perspective. Instead, the objective of most practices is an acceptable mix of profit and culture. For some practices this may not even be an issue. But for most practices, without coming to grips with this mix, it is virtually impossible to do any form of effective strategic planning.

2. Strategic planning is all about defining a vision and creating a road map to realize that vision. Vision and, therefore, strategic planning is by its nature personally driven process. Neutrals, after seeking reasonable counsel and input from as many sources as possible, make critical decisions about what they want to do and the basic strategies necessary to accomplish those objectives. Then the resolutionist either has to pursue those objectives alone, or turns to his or her consultants or management team and says okay, how we are going to accomplish our plan’s goals.

3. Mission statements are a waste of energy and enthusiasm. Without question mission statements have a value in strategic planning to the extent that they clarify the practices objectives and values. But too many practices spend too many hours trying to draft the definitive mission statement and, when finished, publish the statement and think they have accomplished something. In most cases, what they have accomplished is to sap the energy and enthusiasm out of the process with what turns into a meaningless exercise. It would be far better to spend half an hour picking five or six statements that represent the practice’s core values and vision, especially as they deal with the issues of culture and those things they are not willing to sacrifice to achieve increased profits.

4. Strategies and tactics are confused. It is both the beauty and the curse of the neutral mind that it constantly wants to identify the next action step. For this reason neutrals usually want to skip discussion of strategies and move immediately to tactics.

The strategic planning process is a disciplined way of thinking about planning which forces the planners to consider the optional means of achieving an objective. For example, early on in a strategic process it would not be unusual for a mediator to suggest that a good profitability strategy would be to open an office instead of working from home. If a practice’s strategy is to increase revenues from existing clients who have interests in coming into a professional office, then a tactic might be to open an office. But to immediately jump to opening an office without going through the process of clarifying the strategy often leads practices down dangerous and expensive paths.

5. Planning involves precluding options. Neutrals, especially business neutrals, are in the business of maintaining options for their clients and they bring that mindset to the strategic planning process. But often the truest measure of the success of a plan’s implementation is not what the neutral does, but what he or she decides not to do.

The simple logic is that any business has a finite amount of resources to bring to bear on their plan. Resources involve not only money but include time available and sometimes even such abstract issues as the amount of change that a neutral can tolerate and the amount of political capital the resolutionist has available to implement initiatives. To use those resources to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities means that, by definition, fewer resources are available to implement the plan.

Does that mean that the plan can never be changed to take advantage of opportunities? Of course not. But, neutrals must recognize that diversions from the plan sap resources and, therefore, the benefit of the diversion must be weighed against the risk of not fully implementing the plan.

6. Not enough planning effort is spent studying compensation and the distribution of that compensation. Neutrals don’t spend enough time thinking about how much money they need to make. Compensation requirements should be broken down into three components. A neutral can’t just take into account what they need to support themselves. Too many practices short-change themselves by accounting for their tax obligations and short-term / long-term savings.

7. The obvious is often overlooked. Strategic plans often get so involved in sexy issues of new offices and exotic practice areas that they overlook obvious problems. The basic blocking and tackling of practice profitability improvement is serving clients with good work, working hard, charging appropriate fees, watching costs, maintaining necessary leverage and all the other issues covered in Practice Management 101. The first step in any strategic planning process should be a self appraisal of how a practice is doing on the basics.

8. Neutrals are not only accountable for implementing the plan, but providing the services which make the plan necessary to begin with. It can be an overwhelming endeavor to mediate all day, and then manage and market a practice at night.  Determine which tasks can be outsourced and then find competent consultants to take on those tasks.

9. Plans are too aggressive. Once bitten by the strategic planning bug, some practices attempt to implement so many diverse strategies that if a neutral devoted their full time efforts to implementation for five years, the objectives could not be achieved. Aiming high is one thing, but a resolution practice only has so many resources.

10. Objectives are not measurable. The test of a strategic plan’s objectives is whether a neutral can look at the plan a year or two later and determine whether they have accomplished anything. Unfortunately objectives such as improve the quality of our client base are meaningless if the mediator or arbitrator doesn’t define what represents a quality client and create a metric to measure comparative quality over time.

Having said all this, practices are unique entities in which a corporate style of management, much less strategic planning may not be realistic. Practices must operate in the environment of what is culturally and politically possible. But, to the extent that a resolutionist can avoid even a few of these terrible truths, the likelihood of producing a plan that can be implemented will be tremendously enhanced.

Natalie J. Armstrong is the Founder and Managing Director of Golden Media, a marketing and consulting firm dedicated to promoting the resolution industry. She is the author of The Essential Guide to Marketing Your ADR Practice and speaks internationally on business development and the successful marketing strategies of the conflict resolution industry. More ADR Practice Development articles and information about Ms. Armstrong and Golden Media can be found at www.MarketingMediation.com.