What would a more Feminist Approach to Strategic Planning look like?
Recently, I was asked a simple question by some consultant colleagues at Kore Global “What would a more feminist strategic planning process look like?”
As we know, traditional strategic planning processes are often grounded in a patriarchal and capitalistic view of the world and need repair.
The question forced me to step back and consider more broadly, how can we transform the process? I decided to start by documenting what I’ve intuitively known and practiced for years… a focus on mindset, connection and inner reflection in planning is needed.
Let’s take a closer look.
An intellectual process
The first sign that the strategic planning process is grounded in the patriarchy is this.
It’s an intellectual process.
For decades, strategic planning has been governed by thought.
Business leaders, on a quarterly basis, get together to analyze and solve the prevailing problems of the day. They rely on data, feedback, and reasoning to cast the direction of their company.
And this approach is, more or less, the same across industries.
Why?
It’s the trusted approach. A business staple where there’s no room for emotions, intuition, or mindset. An analytical exercise where the winning approach is built on logic. With no further input.
Consider the most common part of the strategic planning process. The S.W.O.T. analysis. This analytical tool is relied on heavily by companies of all sizes. And it’s built entirely on the idea that you can reason your way to all solutions.
Review the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your organization. Formulate a plan. Call it a day.
But we know that’s not how life works.
Analysis is not as objective as we think
The S.W.O.T. analysis, and the rest of the strategic planning process, are built on an incorrect assumption. The assumption that analysis is objective. Free from bias.
In reality, the mind does not work that way.
What we think of as objective analysis is, in fact, influenced by our own mindset, trauma, pain, and a myriad of other mental and emotional inputs. It’s also influenced by our own internalized beliefs about gender, the patriarchy and capitalism.
To ignore mindset is to ignore an entire part of what makes us human.
But mindset factors are harder to quantify, so they get pushed aside in favor of facts and figures.
We label emotions and intuition as “feminine” and “not part of business,” shoving aside a critical tool all of us use to make decisions and stifling our creativity.
We’re limiting the process
This approach also reduces the possible outcomes of the strategic planning process. We limit the process to what our minds can come up with.
Because our minds are built for safety they love clear and concise maps. They crave the low-friction path and the warmth of acceptance. This can be a good thing, making sure businesses aren’t taking undue risks. But it also leads to groupthink and other maladies of a safety-first mindset.
A common safety first mindset is an over-reliance on technical solutions and strategies to solve complex challenges. Technical solutions are more tangible. Safe. More certain.
And let’s face it, uncertainty is scary. It triggers the safety protocols in our brain, leading us to prioritize the familiar. It’s no surprise, then, that strategic plans often woefully underestimate the impact of unforeseen events.
The thinking and logical approach also fails to recognize that the real root of many of the problems the world is currently facing are not technical. They are disconnection, lack, scarcity and fear. In reality, our current mindset has led to the challenges we face and only when we shift our mindset by learning deep listening and doing our own inner work can we address them effectively.
A more holistic approach
We can start to transform strategic planning processes by valuing the wisdom of the heart and intuition, stillness and connection. Integration of heart and mind. A blending of analytics and going inward.
Here are five simple recommendations:
First, leaders need to value and prioritize self reflection and intuition. The practice of self reflection and exploration of who we are as individuals, our values and how we contribute to the world we wish to create must be at the core of any strategic planning process. This can be achieved using meditation and storytelling practices. Understanding your story, where you’re coming from and how you feel about it will inform where you’re going.
Second, leaders need better tools to help them embrace the unknown. Uncertainty is part of the cycle of life. Being afraid of the unknown won’t make challenges go away. Instead, leaders should be empowered to build uncertainty into their plan. When leaders understand how their own mind works, and have mindset tools to navigate their own uncertainty, fear and self doubt, they can make more space for innovation and creativity in their organizations.
Third, teams need space to create a vision of the best possible future. What we focus on and give our energy to is what we create more of. Yet the dominant paradigm continues to be problem analysis and problem fixing. Instead, strategic planning should be grounded in strengths based approaches such as Appreciative Inquiry and draw on visioning tools so teams can connect with a shared positive vision of the future.
Fourth, leaders must take into account the human side of work. At the core of every strategic plan, there should be a people plan. How will you care for your people throughout implementation? How will you build and grow relationships? How can relationships be transformational rather than transactional? Don’t ignore this. Most of us have been trained to lead and work with others in highly technical ways that often prioritize outputs over relationships and self care.
Finally, at the core of all of this, leaders and teams need mindset training and coaching. Mindset coaching helps leaders to be more connected to their own inner wisdom and creativity and break free from self doubt, overthinking, fear, hustle culture and norms that are grounded in the patriarchy and capitalism. This allows them to change the way they think, feel and act and expands what’s possible.
Interested in more?
In the coming months, I want to dedicate more time to this topic of strategic planning. The process is broken, grounded in the patriarchy and capitalism. And it needs repair.
I want to dive deeper, looking at other parts of this business tool. And, ultimately, surface a new roadmap for conducting the strategic planning process.
If that’s something you’d be interested in, please follow along here.
And, in the meantime, take a look at my other work on mindset
Also keep an eye out for additional in depth research on feminist approaches to strategic planning by Kore Global