17 Guidelines for Effective Strategic Planning Process

1. It should be a people more than a paper process.
2. It should be a learning process for all managers and employees
3. It should be words supported by numbers rather than numbers supported by words.
4. It should be simple and nonroutine.
5. It should vary assignments, team membership, meeting formats and even the planning calender.
6. It should challenge the assumptions underlying the current corporate strategy.
7. It should welcome bad news.
8. It should welcome open mindness and a spirit of inquiry and learning.
9. Is should not be a bureaucratic mechanism.
10. Is should no become ritualistic, stilted or orchestrated.
11. It should not become be too  formal, predictable or rigid.
12. It should not contain jargon or arcane planning language.
13. It should not be a formal system for control.
14. It should not disregard qualitative information.
15. It should not be controlled by "technician".
16. Do not pursue too many strategies at once.
17. Continually strengthen the good ethics is good business" policy.