Strategic planning typically starts with excitement and high expectations. A group chooses a great facilitator, sets the date of the meeting, and anxiously awaits the planning process. That magical date comes, and there’s a feeling that this time, the plan is really going to make a difference.

Then the leadership spends five hours wordsmithing a wieldy mission statement that no one cares about. Then someone decides it’s time to discuss what the new website will look like. Still, another member decides the conference dates are all wrong.

While the first step should be thoughtful envisioning, most people – even seasoned leaders – can default to the minutiae. It’s easier.

Let’s just put it out there: Most plans fail. Why?

Because they weren’t REALLY strategic plans at all. They merely resemble a list of really good goals with no really good explanation or instruction on achieving them.

Does this sound familiar to you? Wouldn’t you rather walk out of the planning sessions knowing in your gut that you’ve got success just waiting around the corner? You don’t have to have the usual experience described above. You can have the real thing.

So, how can strategic planning be done right?

Strategic planning is critical to the future of any organization—but you must be aware of potential barriers to your success, and how to eliminate them. While there are countless factors that plan into the all-too-often demise of the strategic plan, the most consistent contributors fall into four general areas: