Set the statement
The Baker management team started the process by setting a purpose, vision and a set of values. Basically, it was a foundation to build off of when creating the statement of strategic intent.
“Another place where people often get in trouble in this type of exercise is that they go to the substance too fast,” Mallory says. “When you get into the nitty-gritty substance of something too quickly, oftentimes, people start arguing about it. They get very, very concerned because they think, ‘Oh my god, we can’t say ‘a,’ ‘and’ or ‘the’ there, it has to be ‘and,’ ‘or.’ They get into wordsmithing almost immediately.’”
To avoid jumping into the details immediately, start with a base. Mallory and his team asked the questions: Why does the company exist? What does it want to become? What does it stand for?
Using the newly defined purpose, vision and set of values, they created a 37-word statement that explained what the company wanted to be in five years.
“We had read some academic research that a statement of strategic intent should have about that many words — that is not important,” Mallory says. “It’s the discipline of being able to run the process, to be honest with the process and walk away from it with a relatively concise statement that everybody in the room truly had some piece of.
“This becomes very important — the statement of strategic intent is not by any means a step-by-step plan to accomplish that aspirational or stretch goal. You couldn’t possibly anticipate, effectively at least, the steps it would take to get there all at once. Many people fall prey almost to the notion of trying to predict the future in these planning exercises. What you’re really trying to do is put processes in place that enable you to constantly improve your decision-making in the present.”
In determining the statement of strategic intent, you need to declare how many years it will take you to meet your goal. Mallory and his team discussed it at length. What it came down to was one year was too short to accomplish a large, stretch goal and the 10-year range was almost illusionary.
They went word by word, writing the statement. To make the process easier, they used a flip chart that allowed them to rip off paper and crumple it up if they went down the wrong path or to tear off a sheet, circle the part they liked and tape it to the wall if there was a point they didn’t want to forget.
“In a classic sense, it was a consensus-building exercise,” Mallory says. “You start with the principles rather than the specifics. You agree on the principles and then you begin to develop some more specific language around the principles. You vigorously test the assumptions each step of the way, giving Tom, Dick and Harry ample opportunity to disagree, to derail the conversation.”
If you come to a conclusion in a relatively short period of time, that’s a good sign you didn’t set your expectations high enough. At the same time, that stretch goal needs to be achievable.
There is a basic set of questions to ensure each aspect of the statement is the direction you want to head. Mallory found himself asking: Is this insane? Is it realistic? What is the probability of assembling the human and financial resources necessary to do the job? What in the company’s background or history leads us to believe we can have the particular skills in this area? If we don’t have the skills, what would it take to get them?
