Why five year business plans are better backwards (and with a Tardis)

Looking in to the future is never easy – there's always something you didn't bargain for lurking around the corner. As my late and extremely layed back father used to say, "Well old boy there really is no point worrying about things, because invariably you are worried about the wrong thing."

In my experience pulling together a business plan for anything more than the next six to twelve months is fraught with similar pitfalls and I've rarely seen a five year business plan which worked out the way it was intended. And vision statements are more often than not gobbledygook. One of the challenges is looking forward; human beings are simply not very good at it and as you move further and further out along that timeline it gets harder and harder.

However, what I discovered about twenty years ago is that we are all much better at looking backwards. Now to be honest I can't quite remember where I came across 'Visioning' but over the years I've moulded it in to what worked for me and my clients, and it goes like this.

Take today's date three years hence (five is too much), so October 22nd 2016 and write a short paragraph describing your company on that day. This description should of course be aspirational but also realistic, although if you feel you can achieve world domination that should go in there. You then need to ask everyone involved in the 'Visioning' session to imagine we have a Tardis at our disposal and can whisk ourselves forward to that day.

"Ok here we are 3pm on October 22nd 2016 and this is what the company looks like. It looks pretty good doesn't it? So how did we get here? What did we do? What decisions did we make along the way? What key milestones jump out? What happened?"

I'm sure you're getting the idea.  You then need to start working your way backwards to today's date and the very meeting you are sitting in. Now there don't have be entries for every month and it very much depends on the nature of the business but usually I find there are something like six to eight entries a year.

Sound too simplistic to you? All I can say is give it a go. The human brain works in mysterious ways and I have seen far more companies achieve their goals by looking backwards than by desperately groping forwards.