Strategic planning is traditionally a dreaded affair. Days of meaningless corporate speak and internal competition usually fail to result in something inspiring or exciting that a team can get behind.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this episode of Finding Gravitas, Jan shares her top five tips on how to break the bygone corporate mold so you’re prepared to authentically lead your next strategic planning meeting.
When we think of strategic planning, our mind likely conjures images of dull conference rooms and PowerPoint presentations loaded with meaningless corporate phrases. And then there’s all the politics and the gamesmanship — the atmosphere of competition in the room speaks volumes.
At the end of the day, you may come away with strategic goals to “improve revenue and profitability” or “diversify your customer portfolio.” But what does that even mean?
“This is supposed to be a strategy meeting, where you're outside of the day-to-day, you're not in the weeds, you're thinking onward and upward. And you're thinking about where to take this company next. That's what strategy meetings are for,” says host and founder of Gravitas Detroit Jan Griffiths.
The truth is, we’re still trying to fit this mold of a bygone corporate age that just doesn’t work. When the people in the room are too afraid to be judged for proposing a potentially great idea, the creativity and innovation we hope will come from strategic planning are subdued.
The automotive industry is never going to meet the lofty goals of moving toward more electric and autonomous vehicles if we keep running strategy meetings like this. “It's time to step up and change this process to imagine what it could look like in an authentic leadership culture,” Jan says. Yes, strategic planning meetings can be rewarding, exciting, and inspiring for you and your team. And they should be.
In this solo episode of Finding Gravitas, Jan shares her five biggest pieces of wisdom for how to improve your approach to strategic planning and rally a team around your goals.
Themes discussed in this episode:
📽️ What she does: Jan is the co-founder and president of Gravitas Detroit, an organization dedicated to cultivating authentic leadership by providing courses, workshops, speaking events, and more. She is also the host of The Automotive Leaders Podcast (formerly, Finding Gravitas Podcast).
Timestamped inflection points from the show
[4:32] The grace of Steve Kiefer: The mission of this podcast is to drive a more authentic version of leadership in the automotive industry. Jan’s prior guest, Steve Kiefer of General Motors, embodied that mission by offering his time to come on the show.
[7:52] The dread of strategic planning: None of us look forward to the politics and competition that mark strategic planning. What are the consequences of this competitive environment on yourself and your company?
[11:33] Strategic planning — what is it good for?: Let’s be real: the outcomes of these meetings are...
