The intensive and detailed process of building a business strategy requires considerable discussion and sustained focus on issues. It is necessary for those involved in leading the process to be able to air issues thoroughly, feel comfortable to disagree constructively and demonstrate commitment to organizational and group goals to complete a successful plan (one directed toward solving the critical issues that will be fully owned and supported by all of the group members). The assumption is often made that selecting a team of "experts" in major business areas is all that is required, save for an agenda of discussion. Yet, all of the research on group problem-solving demonstrates the fallacy of failing to pay attention to the dynamics of group formation and involvement. Indeed, we could select via the LIFO Method, group members who would be wholly incompatible and incapable of successfully completing their task, despite their technical excellence and the best of intentions. In contrast, it would also be possible to select a group who could work well, utilize ideas, create synergistic proposals and achieve consensus with ease and comfort. Individual goals and values may prevent the possibility of a productive effort (e.g. an individual who desires only to impose his ideas rather than listen to others' or work with them in a collaborative fashion!). Process, itself, can facilitate or inhibit effective discussion. Is there opportunity to become acquainted with each other, to identify the potential contributions each can make, to assign roles according to special talents and interests, to recognize special ways of expressing and understanding concepts, etc.? Will everyone have equal opportunities to provide their views, to raise their questions and to explore facts, information and proposals in detail (if needed). How will the group know when issues have been resolved, responsibilities assigned, actions followed up etc.?
Planning groups have to blend a number of considerations: concern about the future - a long range perspective of identity, values and goals (Primarily, an S/G emphasis), the review and assessment of vast amounts of information, the identification of needed data and the integration of knowledge in an organized and focused manner (C/H emphasis), decisiveness, focus and thrust of energy toward resolving issues, the identification of opportunities, the willingness to innovate and risk, to confront and deal with opposition and counter competitive strategies, (C/T emphasis), the understanding of customers - needs, preferences and how to communicate with them (A/D emphasis). The most productive planning groups either have such elements strongly represented in their composition or have identified their lacks and made plans to compensate for them (checklists, consultants, reliance on outside expertise, etc.). Usually, most groups have a central modality of orientation. It is important for all members to share that, either as a Main or Back-up aspect as well as to be widely represented in the other areas. This assures a commonality of communicative emphasis as well as a sense of "belongingness" to the group.
It would be recommended that any new group or group whose members have not had to work in an interdependent way work through a special process that focuses on the ability to work as a team. For this, the LIFO Team-Building process (See LIFO Team-Building Applications for a detailed outline of this methodology). Uniquely, the LIFO Method helps build a positive climate for identifying, understanding, respecting and appreciating differences in perception, thinking, learning, evaluating, decision-making, feeling, valuing and goals that allows the productive leveraging of those differences during the strategic planning process. Group members can identify roles and processes required to assure discussions stay on the track and produce desired results. (See accompanying table for some illustrations of how the different orientations relate different phases of the strategic planning process in a model devised by the Growth Management Center, Truckee, California).
How should group discussions be conducted? How long? What will be covered in each discussion? Who should participate and how consistent should the membership be? How will new and absent members be treated, informed and accepted? How can the group best use the resources (tasks divided, procedures modified, preparatory work distributed and analyzed, etc.)? Who will be the best person or persons to coordinate the planning efforts between meetings and to assure reports and documents are completed on schedule? These and other issues have to be discussed (if not settled) early. The LIFO Method provides vital information to assist in answering these questions.
How will plans be communicated - to whom? How will involvement be created to encourage commitment and dedicated execution of plan requirements? How will meetings be helped if process issues emerge (conflict management, failures to attend to the basics, to acknowledge the differences that do exist, etc.)? The LIFO Method provides a concrete and non-blame finding framework for devising solutions to these problems.