Strategic Planning Flashcards

In a strategic plan, what is the role of leading indicators compared with lagging indicators?

Answer: Leading indicators signal future performance and allow earlier course correction

Leading indicators are predictive measures that allow action before final outcomes (lagging indicators) are known.

A coach helps a leader map who has high power and high interest in a new strategic initiative. Which tool is being used?

Answer: Stakeholder analysis grid

A power/interest stakeholder grid identifies whom to manage closely, keep satisfied, keep informed, or monitor.

Which approach best reflects 'Blue Ocean Strategy'?

Answer: Creating uncontested market space by offering new value that makes competition less relevant

Blue Ocean Strategy, by Kim and Mauborgne, seeks new market space rather than fighting in saturated 'red oceans.'

After a strategic plan launches, what is the coach's most valuable ongoing role with the leader?

Answer: Holding the leader accountable to commitments and facilitating reflection on progress and adjustments

Coaches support execution through accountability, reflection, and adaptive learning without taking ownership of decisions.

A client confuses goals with strategy. Which statement best clarifies the difference?

Answer: Goals describe desired outcomes; strategy describes the chosen approach to achieve them

A goal is a target outcome, while strategy is the coherent set of choices for reaching it.

Which practice helps a leadership team identify weaknesses in a strategic plan by imagining it has already failed?

Answer: Pre-mortem analysis

A pre-mortem, popularized by Gary Klein, asks teams to imagine failure in advance to surface hidden risks.

A coach asks a client, 'What would have to be true for this strategy to succeed?' What is the main purpose of this question?

Answer: To surface and test the critical assumptions underlying the strategy

This question, from Roger Martin's approach, exposes assumptions that must hold for the strategy to work.