More than 35 local society leaders attended “Imagineering Your Future,” this year's Strategic Marketing Workshop held during the 93rd Annual Meeting in San Francisco. At the six-hour, information-packed session, Larry Walker, president of The Walker Company, a Lake Oswego, Oregon-based health care management consulting firm, explored the ways psychoanalytic organizations could develop both a practical, progressive, and purposeful vision and a strategic plan to achieve that vision. As a demonstration, Richard Lightbody presented Cleveland's successful strategic planning experience.
While most local leaders and executive directors recognized the value of long-range thinking and planning, it was noted that the realities of the present often seemed like insurmountable barriers to taking on the challenge of effective strategic planning. I posed the following questions to Larry Walker following the Meeting.
Q: Exactly what is strategic planning?
A: In many respects strategic planning is like the process of psychoanalysis. It requires research and introspection, a willingness to confront problems and issues, and a strong desire to move forward to a better state. Recommendations and solutions are evidence-based, and in many cases the remedies for problems are obscured by a lot of “clutter.” In its purest sense, strategic planning is simply a process through which an organization defines its desired future position (the vision), conducts a diagnosis (examination of the environment, trends and issues, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and determines a course of treatment (strategies, objectives, and action plans).
The key to success is to develop an approach that ensures a more successful organization in the future. Success requires participation, commitment, and an understanding that as change occurs (and it will), so, too, should the plan be built for change. Planning should not be rigid and unbending. It should be viewed as a roadmap to the future, with many possible routes, detours, and construction holdups, all leading to an ultimate destination.
In many respects strategic planning is like the process of psychoanalysis. It requires research and introspection, a willingness to confront problems and issues, and a strong desire to move forward to a better state.
Q: Many of our local societies are in trouble. Our numbers of patients and trainees are declining. Shouldn't we stop talking and do something?
A: Yes and no. It's important to explore difficulties, disagreement, major issues, and challenges, but it's only productive when it results in some positive action. The critical action step to take now is to come to a consensus about the reasons for the decline, define the change desired, and determine the strategies (which may be difficult or unpopular among some who are entrenched in the ways of the past) necessary to overcome the decline.
Q: When our own members are disagreeing, how can bringing in someone who doesn't understand our issues possibly help?
A: Internal strife and infighting are precisely the situations that create the need to seek outside help. A qualified, experienced outside resource can bring independence, new perspectives and ideas, and organizational skills. These assets will contribute to an objective examination, and clear, unbiased recommendations for change that may diffuse infighting, and focus all stakeholders on the goal of building a better, stronger organization.
Q: Often our problem isn't planning, it is money. How would paying another professional help?
A: A fundamental decision has to be made: Do you value your psychoanalytic organization? Does it contribute to your success? Is it important for it to flourish, not only today but for future generations? If the answers are “yes,” then is it worth investing now to help ensure a better organizational future? The key is to use the right outside resources in the right manner. A good professional will work collaboratively with you to custom-develop a purposeful process with meaningful outcomes at a manageable price. It can be done.
Q: Organizational structure and governance are volatile issues in our organizations. How can we be sure that opening up these issues won't create more problems than it solves?
A: Opening the issues might initially surface even more problems, which should be viewed as a positive, not a negative. The unsurfaced problems may not be apparent, but that doesn't mean they don't exist—they simply haven't bubbled to the surface. Good planning should enable that to happen in a controlled, proactive, and solution-focused way.
Q: Finally, what have you observed about us from the few hours you have spent with us?
A: Based on questions, reactions, and brief conversations during breaks and following the workshop, I found the participants to be bright, insightful, and inquisitive, with a healthy sense of practical skepticism about the value and purpose of strategic planning. Most health care professionals are not fond of structured processes, and they typically have little patience for the details of strategic planning. They intellectually grasp the importance and value of planning, but they are sometimes hesitant to undertake a comprehensive process due to a lack of experience, a
Glenn Good, Ph.D., is on the faculty of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute and of the Wayne State School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry. He is chair of APsaA's Committee on Strategic Marketing.
fear of loss of “control,” comfort with the status quo, an unwillingness to involve an “outsider” in influencing organizational change, and a hesitancy to invest the money required for a successful effort. Some simply lack belief that defining a vision for the future and committing to a plan to achieve it is better than going along day to day.
That brings me back to my initial comparison of psychoanalysis and strategic planning. I'm sure that many individuals have the same kind of fears and skepticism when they begin analysis. But with a proper approach, a willingness to confront difficult issues and the right time and attention, their lives improve. Organizations are the same—psychoanalysts who have seen firsthand the positive results of their own work should be able to see a parallel for their psychoanalytic organizations.