The Ultimate Case Study: Refreshing Our Strategic Plan with StrategyBlocks

I have long advocated for the importance of dynamic strategic planning, a process where the “Strategic Plan” constantly evolves through contributions from many individuals, combining top-down “deliberate planning” and bottom-up “emergent planning.” This approach ensures the plan never stagnates and remains current. However, there are times when a major refresh is needed, and we at StrategyBlocks recently experienced one of those moments at the start of our financial year. It’s only natural that a company creating technology for strategic planning and execution, and advising clients, uses its own software to plan its strategy. So I wanted to share the adventure of the strategic planning process at a strategic planning company.

Act 1 | The Opportunity – Why We Needed to Refresh Our Strategic Plan

We are an agile enterprise, but we wanted to go further down that path, formalizing the way we look at our business. Certainly not a radical restructure, just a different perspective. We aimed to drive planning into agile teams, defining six Growth Plans to achieve our Vision and Mission, each supported by Key Initiatives and Strategic Projects. Coincidentally, we released a major new version of StrategyBlocks with AI ideation and planning a few months ago, making this an interesting test. “This is our chance to be the ultimate case study,” I thought.

Act 2 | Building the Foundation – Aligning Our Vision for Strategic Planning

Step one was to take a step back. Our vision and mission hadn’t changed, and our fundamental purpose remained the same, so much of the preparatory work was already done. We understood the macro market environment, the various stakeholder interest groups, our capabilities, and the criteria for success. This was an adjustment to the plan, not a complete replanning exercise. However, since it altered our business view, the executive team needed alignment. It was agreed that our Growth Plan progress would become a key part of our corporate governance.

Act 3 | Strategic Design with StrategyBlocks – Templating Growth Plans for Efficiency

We decomposed the vision into Growth Plans, modeling each plan in StrategyBlocks’ Ideas, our ideation module. We used a high-level consistent structure as a template, describing our go-to-market strategy, market engagement, key partners, delivery, and product development. This structure was designed and made available in the StrategyBlocks Library. Now, whenever we want to create a new plan, we have a prebuilt model to start with. The template is then customized to address the specific needs of each growth plan.

Act 4 | Leveraging AI in Strategic Planning – Using StrategyBlocks Ideas

As I mentioned earlier, artificial intelligence is now a fundamental component of StrategyBlocks ideation. We created an extensive catalog of Context Documents, including websites, academic studies, our own research, and our current StrategyBlocks plan, which reduces the potential for duplication. While we were confident about the path ahead, AI provides an opportunity for strategic testing—perhaps there are opportunities we may have missed. For each plan, StrategyBlocks’ AI suggests which Context Documents offer the most value, allowing us to experiment using the AI Temperature control (higher temperatures generate more creative and less predictable ideas). For one Growth Plan, it suggested three projects we had already decided would benefit our customers, but it also suggested three we hadn’t considered. Of course, we can’t do everything, but I have seen clients successfully using StrategyBlocks Ideas as a “parking lot” to ensure they are not lost, giving us a store of future projects.

Act 5 | From Ideas to Action – Collaborative Strategic Execution Using StrategyBlocks

Before publishing the 6 Growth Plans from Ideas into the Blocks Value Tree for delivery, Ideas has a few more tools in its toolbox. We need to assign resources and assess the demand on their time. This may require shifting project timelines and reallocating responsibilities to manage bottlenecks before they occur. We need the input of those people so we can open the ideas up to multiple collaborators. Most importantly, you can link metrics to an idea; we want to clearly connect the work to be done (the output) with key performance indicators (the outcome). While AI will suggest this strategic linkage, we must consider carefully what long-term success truly looks like.

Act 6 | Key Learnings From Our Strategic Plan Refresh

When I look back over the process, there were some eureka moments:

1. Templating frameworks saves a lot of time, both now and in the future.
2. Involving others is beneficial; more heads are better than one, and it encourages buy-in.
3. AI is powerful, but it’s not everything. AI-created content must pass through human hands before it is published.
4. Give the AI as much context as you can and spend time modeling scenarios.
5. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, always consider the outcome and make that link.

Strategic planning does not have to be a prolonged, time-consuming, exhaustive experience. For me, whether it’s our business or I’m working with a client, it is an energizing journey. It all starts with taking a step back. To paraphrase the great author Michael Gerber, enjoy working on your business, not in your business.