Definition of a Strategic Plan
It happens every couple years. As much as the DMO’s Board Members are nodding in unison as I, early in our workshop, explain the difference between a “Strategic Plan” and the “Marketing / Business Plan,” somebody pushes back when they receive the draft.
These well-meaning Board members believe the Strategic Plan they have just created is designed to direct staff…but, the plans we help create only include staff in a support role when it comes to community outreach (and occasionally locating some industry research the Board would struggle to find on its own).
A Strategic Plan is the Board’s Action Plan. The Marketing / Business Plan is the professional Staff’s Action Plan. The Board can no more professionally sell or market the destination than Somali Pirates can design a Starship. And yet, many believe they can…or, at least, help.
Now, let’s be clear on what I mean by a Board’s ability to move the needle and produce measurable results in marketing the destination. By approving a solid Marketing / Business Plan (designed by its professional Staff), the Board can have an impact on the growth of the Visitor Economy (one in which it should find a degree of pride). Board members can even help the cause by referring potential group clients to Staff for their pursuit. But, by and large, most DMO Board members, as dedicated as they are, simply don't know how this all works.
Just as DMO pros most likely don't know how to perform the jobs that their Board members hold.
Indeed, a Board’s over-reach into tactics can often have disastrous results. As we’ve shared with countless audiences across North America, “conventional wisdom,” when it comes to destination marketing, is often completely wrong. Success requires a DMO pro that lives Destination Marketing every day...not a Board that meets (at most) monthly.
Author of "Thanks for Coming in Today,” Customer & Employee Experience Expert Charles Ryan Minton recently told this story on the Author Hour podcast:
“As a young manager, seeing it for the first time, I was panicked. My immediate response was to go in the kitchen and try to help, so I threw on an apron and jumped on the back line and was grabbing tickets and just absolutely made it a hundred times worse.
"Because these guys, they had a rhythm; they had a system. I’m not a cook, but I felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m the manager on duty, I have to help this.’
"I ended up doing so much damage.
"It got to the point where, finally, the guys were, like, ‘You need to go, you need to get off the line.’ And, in that moment, I was very frustrated. I felt like they should want my help.
"I realized, I can’t help if I don’t know exactly what to do. I have to be okay with not knowing exactly what to do. There are things in every situation like that one, where you can help and not be the expert in that particular area.
"I can help with the wait staff and help them clean tables or get on the other side of the line and get trays of food ready to go out to the dining room…or there’s a giant pile of dishes that were piling.”
Today’s DMO Boards? They can help by opening doors for the organization and the destination. By serving as destination and organizational advocates. By celebrating the DMO in their conversations with peers, business associates and community leaders. By being ambassadors and emissaries of good news and community-forward optimism.
To be sure, professional Staff can (and should) do this, too. But, their time can be better invested developing stories of the destination, building deep relationships with industry partners and being a trusted advisor to clients that are capable of bringing group business to town. Their professional proficiencies and experience enable them to do these things efficiently and well. With no disrespect, most Board members cannot claim an equal or higher level of such mastery.
That’s why the best Board members need to focus on working from their strengths. And, if the Board has been modeled properly, that prowess should be in their ability to individually and collectively wield influence…because, beyond the ability to represent industry and community points of view, the best Board members possess the ability to, as Seth Godin wrote, spread an idea-virus. To socialize an idea. To influence public policy and entrepreneurial exceptionalism.
Which is why the best Boards need a Strategic Plan that they can work, while professional staff executes the Marketing / Business Plan.
Because there’s a lot of work to do…and not enough of us to do it. Better to deploy our champions in the most efficient way than waste assets and time by doubling up.
N’est-ce pas?