Rethinking Strategic Planning Part II: New Roles for Planners

Abstract Given the conclusions of Part I, what should be the roles of planning, plans, and planners with respect to strategy making? Around that process (which remains the responsibility of line management) rather than inside of it is the conclusion offered here. So called ‘strategic planning’ really amounts to strategic programming , designed to operationalize the strategy an organization already has, rather than to give it a strategy in the first place. Then plans likewise line up after strategy making, as media for communicating and devices for control. And planners, besides concerning themselves with such planning and plans, when they are necessary, have other important roles to play: as finders of emerging strategies, as analyst who feed important information often overlooked by line managers into the strategy process, and as catalysts who encourage strategic thinking and strategic acting , not strategic planning.