The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. ~Tony Blair

I do a lot of strategic planning facilitation and I cringe every time I read an article that includes a percentage of strategic plans that fail. The failure percentage cited is almost always at least more than half if not the vast majority. So of course many authors and consultants have written articles suggesting reasons why so many plans fail. I have my own theory.

My theory begins with the quote from Tony Blair, that the art of leadership is saying no. I have found that too many leaders allow their strategic plans to evolve into a lengthy to-do list, without actually stating what the organization (or team or individual) is going to say no to. That should translate into a short list of truly strategic goals. My definition of strategic centers around what the organization (or you, the individual) will do differently. What the organization will truly prioritize as the “must-do’s” or “must make happen” within a specific timeframe.

The illustration I’ve included here is exactly what I’m talking about. This is taken from the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling. Organizations (or individuals) who have 2-3 goals will achieve those goals with excellence. As the number of goals increases, our ability to actually achieve those goals with excellence declines, rather dramatically. So, those strategic plans with more than four goals (including an overload of sub-goals) that look impressive on paper, actually have little likelihood of going anywhere.

The diminishing returns on goal achievement is due to what’s included in parenthesis in the illustration, “in addition to the whirlwind.” The whirlwind is everything we still need to get done on a weekly or daily basis in order to stay in business.

Personal example, I have a lengthy list of things I’d like to fix/change in my home. Right now, none of it is getting done. By the time I get my weekly cleaning, etc. done (the whirlwind), I look at that long list and as the authors of The 4 Disciplines say, “when confronted with so many goals the team members will stop listening let alone executing.”

Chris McChesney says, “There will always be more good ideas than capacity to execute.” That means, “the art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes.” As a leader, what will you (personally and organizationally) say no to, so that you can achieve your 2-3 wildly important goals?