Flavor Marriage and the Strategic Plan

Update for all you soakers:

I was just on the Food Network web page for my go-to granola recipe (Alton Brown's, natch), when I saw a comment that made me laugh. The idea here should be familiar.

The first step to the recipe calls for the usual separate combinations of dry and wet ingredients before you mix them with each other. One commenter helpfully lets us know that he likes to leave the dry oats and nuts alone for a while after initially mixed, "to let the flavors marry, if you will."

I will NOT.

OK, so this is just a fundamental misunderstanding of how cooking works. Dry + wet + time (+ heat, typically) produces flavor marriage. Your oats aren't talking to your cashews because they're in the same BOWL for an hour. That's what syrup and/or honey and/or cooking oil is for, not to mention the oven.

But it charmed me even as it tickled my condescending side. Because this is a narrative of doing nothing while feeling like something is happening. This is the kind of wasted time I've been trying to talk about.

Recently I was challenged to define instances that fit the soaking metaphor, and failed. The concept is easier in the abstract: planned inaction raises the question of whether lack of action is truly strategic or a cover for -- lack of a better plan, say, or insufficient motivation.

Apply this towards literally any goal you have. For example: I have a career vision -- and it's easy to think "I should get more experience and training before seeking a new role." This is a sensible stance if I am actually doing the seeking of more experience and training, and if that is really what I need. It could as easily be what I am telling myself so as to avoid the hard work of a.) actually learning new things, b.) updating my resume, c.) figuring out what to do for a living, d.) seeing what kind of jobs are out there, etc.

Sometimes general strategies lack specific action plans. You do nothing but assume that things are still chugging along, just because time is.

Then some time goes by, and you're pretty much still where you were.

This is my fundamental problem with what passes for strategic planning, particularly in Higher Education. Ben Ginsberg says that strategic planning is neither strategy nor plan, but "a substitute for action."

The problem is definitional. A strategy is a set of principles for guiding future action. A plan is a set of actions that you are doing or need to do. Making a plan that is strategic is wise. But there are certain criteria that are necessary for it to be an actual plan: "A plan typically presents concrete objectives, a timetable for their realization, an outline of the tactics that will be employed, a precise assignment of staff responsibilities, and a budget."

In Higher Ed, strategic plans tend to take on the language and motive of "vision statements," which articulate goals you hope to meet.

Your goal is not your plan. And having a goal without a concrete plan will not move you closer to achievement.

Taking time to plan is essential, but the more resources devoted to planning, the less actual work that's being done. Planning for planning's sake can kill the whole endeavor altogether.

At least soaking your dishes will make eventual washing easier. But leaving your oats alone with your nuts? It's a plan, I guess, but it's not very strategic.