You’re Planning the Trip Before You Pick the Destination

I’ve been in more rooms than I can count where a strategic planning conversation starts the same way.

We frame the vision. We tee up the discussion.

And within about 30 seconds…someone says, “We should start a newsletter.”

Another jumps in: “What about more regional events?”

Someone else is already halfway into how we’d structure a new program.

And just like that, we’re off.

Because in the excitement of the ideas, we forget to keep coming back to the real question:

What are we actually trying to build here?

It makes sense. People care. They’re close to the work. They see opportunities and want to contribute.

So the conversation turns into a brainstorming session.

Ideas start flying. Energy goes up.

And the group feels like it’s making progress.

The catch?

Brainstorming without structure doesn’t create strategy. It creates noise.

Because without intentionally keeping the vision and focus at the center of the conversation—every idea sounds equally important. Every suggestion gets airtime. And the loudest or most persistent idea often wins.

You can see it happen in real time.

Someone has an idea they really believe in.

They keep coming back to it. They add detail. They build it out.

But without shared focus areas to guide the conversation, the group starts to orbit around that idea…instead of stepping back to ask where, or even if, it actually fits.

That’s why I’ve started using a simple example in these conversations.

You don’t start with, “Let’s go to Disney World.” Even more than that, you don’t start with:

• which airport we’re flying out of,

• whether we should wait until the kids are older,

• which characters we want to see,

• or how many days we’ll spend in Magic Kingdom versus Epcot.

(I mean, that part is fun. But that’s not the point.)

Because all of that only makes sense once you’ve answered a more basic question:

Is this the kind of experience we’re actually trying to create?

Start higher.

Vision: A happy, healthy family.

Then narrow it down - what kind of experiences get us there?

Memorable time together.

Now you have a focus area—a way to define what that vision actually means in practice.

And then you can ask:

What are some ways we might create that?

Now Disney makes sense.

Not as the answer—but as an answer that fits.

Most groups don’t have a shortage of ideas.

They have a missing step.

They haven’t defined the few focus areas those ideas are supposed to support—because they haven’t paused long enough to build them.

So they skip ahead.

They plan the trip before they pick the destination.

They build the itinerary before they decide what kind of experience they want to have.

And they end up with a lot of activity that doesn’t add up to meaningful progress—or sustained results.

If you want a simple reset for your next planning conversation, try this:

• What are we actually trying to create? (vision)

• What are the few focus areas that get us there?

• Does this idea support one of those focus areas?

If you can’t answer that last question clearly, or if you have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to justify your “yes,” it’s not time to build the idea yet.

This doesn’t need to be complicated.

You’re usually talking about 2–4 focus areas. Not 12.

The goal isn’t to shut down ideas. It’s to give them a place to belong.

Because when every idea gets airtime, strategy gets lost.

But when the focus areas are clear, the right ideas get stronger—faster.

And yes—planning the trip is the fun part.

But if you start there, you might end up with a perfectly planned experience…that was never the right destination to begin with.