Plan Like There Are No Rules
One of the greatest benefits of my nearly three decades in the Army is that I served with some extraordinary problem-solvers. The best of these problem-solvers possessed superb planning skills that had been forged in complex military operations, not all of them successful. One that stands out was in the Spring of 1980, Operation Eagle Claw: a heroic, although unsuccessful and costly, attempt to rescue American hostages held in Iran. The disastrous outcomes of this operation are due in part to a flawed plan that was developed with self-imposed constraints and a lack of inter-service coordination. As a result, this generation of leaders established a personal tenet to “plan like there are no rules”. This principle stood as a reminder to not build defects into plans with arbitrary constraints that aren’t linked to intended outcomes. Constraints and limitations tend to happen naturally, effective planning does not. Businesses of all sizes would benefit from understanding how to “plan like there are no rules.”
How Planning Typically Happens
When asked, most organizations will describe their planning process largely in the following way: establish objectives, define supporting tasks, identify needed resources, set a timeline, determine how results will be measured, communicate the plan and begin execution. When followed, this process will have reasonably good outcomes. However, most organizations don’t actually plan as described above. One set of supporting business functions that is plagued consistently with poor planning is marketing, communications, advertising and business development.
Nearly every planning conversation I’ve had with a marketing communications professional goes something like this.
Marketing: I have great news! I have my budget for the year, and I am ready to do my planning.
Me: That’s awesome, what are your objectives?
Marketing: Well, I think we’d like to run fewer print ads than last year and focus more on digital. I’m looking at twice-monthly e-blasts depending on the price, segmented only to key decision-makers.
Me: Ok, sounds like you’ve identified some tactics, what would you like to achieve with these e-blasts and what business outcomes are they supporting? Have you defined the key decision-makers for each of your product categories?
Marketing: We need to get as many opens as we can with the e-blasts, like CEO, presidents and maybe VPs. I’ll have to check on the business outcomes and get back to you if that is important. Can we move ahead with planning in the meantime? We need to roll this out in a month from now. What’s the cost of an e-blast?
Before I’m accused of being harsh with marketing professionals, this is not intended to lay the blame at their feet. The above dialogue is often an indication of constraints that have been placed on them in the planning guidance they received from their leadership: the same kind of constraints that led to the outcome of Eagle Claw.
Better Planning Guidance Leads to Better Plans
The maxim “plan like there are no rules” doesn’t imply a chaotic, lawless activity, but rather a planning process that is free of illogically conceived constraints that lead to poor plans, disappointing results, and leadership wondering if marketing and communications activities are worth the cost. The problem most often can be traced back to the initial guidance for the planning process. So, what is good planning guidance?
Large organizations conduct more formal planning processes that are often initiated by written guidance. In small organizations, planning can be as simple as a brief conversation between the manager and subordinate team. Either way, if planning guidance is not intentionally developed and thoughtfully delivered, things can go awry. The challenge is to provide enough direction to facilitate planning without overly constraining planners and stifling their ability to solve problems or fully pursue market opportunities.
Leadership Provides Purpose, Direction, and Motivation
Since my first formal introduction to leadership over 40 years ago, I’ve been reminded countless times that leaders provide purpose, direction and motivation. With these three leadership imperatives in mind, here are some things to consider when offering annual planning guidance to your marketing and communications teams.
Purpose
Clearly articulate the business outcomes for the plan that you are asking the marketing & communications (M&C) team to develop. Go ahead and re-read that last sentence. Despite of how obvious this is, inclusion of this vital component in M&C planning guidance is rare. Successful businesses have goals, define them in a quantifiable way with M&C. Consider M&C activities as enablers of your entire business development process, not just lead generators. Here are examples of communicating purpose:
Our goal is to grow revenue by 18% over the next year, that is an additional $1.8 million.
With this level of growth, we expect to surpass the three competitors in this space who are currently ranked above us in annual revenue.
We expect this growth to come from three product segments, e.g. A, B & C, and new customers in North Carolina, Texas and Colorado.
The M&C plan will be key to our growth and success for the year. Put the best thinking into this and don’t withhold any ideas in this planning stage.
Leaders will also want to mention new products, product phase-outs, and research and development initiatives.
Direction
Offering direction is when the artful application of leadership is most needed, striving to offer enough direction without eliminating valuable courses of action that your team will offer. Leaders must know their teams and provide direction that is commensurate with their abilities. Consider using this process for real-time professional development and work more closely with your team in areas for which you desire improvement. Here are some examples of communicating direction:
The intent is to have a plan approved by me no later than October 15th so that we can begin executing on Jan 1st.
Schedule hour-long check-in meetings with me 6 and 2 weeks before October 15th. Have the CFO and VP of sales in these check-ins too.
Coordinate with the CFO as soon as you have defined your initial budget requirements. I will make the final budget decision in our second check-in meeting.
Do not plan for any additional department hires, consider outsourcing any work you cannot handle internally. You may also try to identify experts in the company who could become key communicators for the things that will help us grow.
I’d like you to also include a size of market analysis for product segments A, B & C in North Carolina, Texas and Colorado. During our first check-in, be prepared to confirm, or refute, the value of these markets toward meeting our annual goals.
The advertising portion of the plan should use media partners who can provide business intelligence as part of our advertising activities. I want to use this year to better understand everyone involved in making the decision to buy our products, the most important criteria they use and the objections of those who choose our competitors.
Include ideas on how we can better integrate marketing, communications and sales to help prospects as they advance through the sales funnel. We need to be more agile in our business development efforts. Develop methods to measure progress throughout the year in ways that help us understand correlations between marketing activities and sales. Plan for quarterly updates with company leadership and propose the agenda at the check-in that is 2 weeks before October 15th.
The final plan should be a single course of action that prioritizes the activities that most directly support our annual growth objectives.
Motivation
If you are attracted to the art of being an effective leader, offering guidance within the context of this third imperative can be the most personally rewarding. This is when you describe what success will look like at the end of the year. Define what success will mean to the organization and to the members of the M&C team. Here are some things to include:
Our M&C plan for the year will be a critical component of our success.
If we hit our growth goal of 18%, we will be able to add an additional manufacturing line, expand our R&D work and hire additional employees including three marketers, one of them being a dedicated content developer. We will also increase our 401K employer match by 2%.
Additionally, marketing, communications and sales will be functionally integrated, making us more agile in helping our prospects to understand our value.
There was no absence of conviction or commitment from those involved in Operation Eagle Claw. Given the arduous conditions, the mission execution was nearly flawless. However, guidance from the highest levels of our government constrained planners unnecessarily and irrationally, leading to catastrophic outcomes.
Experience tells me that planning is rarely done effectively, especially for marketing communications in support of business development. The responsibility for this shortcoming, when it exists, often lies with the company’s senior management and the solution can be achieved when leaders provide purpose, direction and motivation as they offer guidance to their planning teams.
At Mungadai, we love to work with companies that want to ignite their growth by planning like there are no rules. We can also help leaders communicate guidance more clearly by applying purpose, direction and motivation. Contact us and we promise the conversation will be valuable.