It’s about that time again—the time for strategic planning. ACCP’s strategic plan drives the College’s activities and initiatives, many committee and task force charges, and resource allocation, and it essentially determines the direction of the College, usually for 3–5 years. Therefore, the development of a new strategic plan is critically important. As important as strategic planning is to ACCP, the development of a new strategic plan has traditionally been an arduous and lengthy process. In the past, I might have said that I look forward to the process of strategic planning in the same way that I might look forward to a root canal, a letter from the IRS, or another Colts’ playoff loss. But—this is no longer true.

In the past, the process for strategic planning required about 18 months to complete and included numerous meetings, substantial travel, and considerable member time and organizational resources. An important part of this process has been obtaining input from ACCP members, through focus groups, member surveys, and small planning groups. Overall, although arduous and time-consuming, this process has served the College well, resulting in clear, well-directed strategic plans that have enabled ACCP to serve its members, the profession, and, ultimately, the patients that ACCP members serve. However, change is occurring much more quickly than ever before, and strategic plans, no matter how well conceived, can suffer from diminished relevance almost instantly. In the current environment of rapid shifts and overnight transformations, the elements of a strategic plan developed over 18 months could already be obsolete before the plan is completely formulated and implemented. Clearly, the process for developing the next strategic plan must be streamlined and accelerated. In addition, because of the rapid fluctuations in health care delivery, scope of professional practice, and other factors, it is clear that designing 5-year plans—and revising them only every 5 years—is no longer adequate.

In view of these observations, ACCP is embarking on a new, more streamlined process for strategic planning. Rather than intermittently (i.e., every 4–5 years) devoting 18 months or so to the development of a new plan, the process for strategic planning will be continuous. This uninterrupted process of strategic planning will allow ongoing environmental scanning and swift response to rapidly emerging critical issues for the organization. Of course, this approach will continue to incorporate member input, which remains critical to the success of any ACCP strategic plan. With the help of the Bernard Consulting Group, which has facilitated the creation of ACCP’s strategic plans in the past, an approach involving continuous and iterative strategic planning has been developed. This continuous process will truly make ACCP’s plan a “living” document, swiftly revisable in response to rapidly emerging critical issues and changes in health care or pharmacy practice. The new process for planning will allow more time for plan implementation and monitoring and will require less time for plan development. The implementation of this new strategic planning process will occur in January 2011. I’ll update you with more details about the College’s strategic planning in the coming months.

During the initiation of a new strategic plan, and particularly the initiation of a new process for continuous strategic planning, it is appropriate to give some thought to ACCP’s direction and determine whether the College is working on the most important activities and initiatives. In particular, this is a good time to assess whether the focus of the organization is sufficient and appropriate. In other words, it’s time for the College to identify its “hedgehog.”

Now, before you conclude that I’ve gone off the deep end or taken too many sharp blows to the head (which may nevertheless be true), allow me to explain. In his book Good to Great, author Jim Collins describes what he calls the “Hedgehog Concept.”¹ Citing work by Isaiah Berlin,² who uses an ancient Greek parable to divide people into two groups—foxes and hedgehogs, Collins describes a concept around this story. Briefly, the parable describes a fox hunting a hedgehog; each day, the fox circles the hedgehog’s den, waiting to pounce. Seeing his opportunity, the fox attempts to attack, with little strategy or planning. And, each day, the hedgehog simply curls into a sphere of sharp spikes, defending against and foiling the attack; the fox never learns that his unfocused and scattered approach repeatedly fails, and the hedgehog consistently and successfully deploys a focused approach to self-defense. Applying the fox and hedgehog parable to people, Berlin says that foxes “are scattered or diffused, moving on many levels,” and never “integrate their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision.”^1,2 However, Collins notes that hedgehogs “simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything.”^1,2 As applied to businesses or organizations, therefore, Collins’ Hedgehog Concept is “a simple crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles: (1) what you can be the best in the world at, (2) what drives your resource engine, and (3) what you are deeply passionate about.”¹ Identifying a Hedgehog Concept allows companies and organizations to focus their core activities and appropriately allocate member, staff, and financial resources to the activities most important to the organization.

So, what is ACCP’s hedgehog? Before initiating its new, streamlined strategic planning process, ACCP will devote some time to identifying its hedgehog by carefully considering three specific questions. What can ACCP be the best in the world at? What drives ACCP’s resource engine? And what is ACCP deeply passionate about? Yes, ACCP plans to spend some dedicated time during the next few months identifying its hedgehog. This concept will then be used to focus and direct ACCP’s new, streamlined, continuous strategic planning process.

As we move forward with strategic planning, we will need your input, particularly regarding the critical issues and objectives you believe are particularly important to ACCP and our patients. Watch for an upcoming survey in May that will request your input on these key questions. And, as always, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or call me at (317) 613-2315, ext. 306, with your suggestions or questions.

References

1. Collins J. Good to Great. New York; HarperCollins Publishers, Inc: 2001.
2. Berlin I. The Hedgehog and the Fox. Chicago; Elephant Paperbacks: 1993.