Why strategic plans fail

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I did an Internet search for "why strategic plans fail," and was presented with one post that purported to contain the top five reasons and one post that contained 37 reasons. The latter was a blogger who said that he was asking his clients to give him more reasons so that he could have 50 reasons. Perhaps I'm oversimplifying this subject, but I am of the opinion that there are two main reasons why strategic plans fail. This assumes that the plan is sound in the first place. The first reason is that no one is responsible for achieving the goals and the second reason is that there is no accountability. If I had to add a third reason, it would be that the environment has changed.

Speaking of strategic planning, I'll be conducting a workshop presented by the Stennis Institute of Government on "How to facilitate a strategic planning retreat" on Thursday, September 3, in Jackson. More information about that at the Stennis Institute Web site training page.

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