During our quarterly planning sessions, my leadership team gets completely derailed by debates over the latest AI tools and capabilities instead of focusing on our actual strategic planning. How do we structure our planning sessions to keep technology subservient to our high-level business goals?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your quarterly planning session is designed to set the strategic direction of the business, not to review software demos. When technology debates take over, your leadership team is focused on the how instead of the what and the why.

To fix this, shift your leadership behavior. Stop trying to tell your people which exact tools to use. Your job on the leadership team is to articulate a clear vision and strategic plan on the V/TO®, then empower your teams to figure out how they will achieve those goals with AI assistance. Keep the technology discussions strictly confined to your Issues List.

If an AI tool is critical to a strategic initiative, enter it as an issue, IDS® it, and resolve it by assigning a Rock to explore it outside of the meeting. During the session, force the team to focus on the high-level metrics on your Scorecard and the execution of your 1-Year Plan. Keep the conversation focused on business outcomes, such as capacity, throughput, and client satisfaction. By keeping technology subservient to your strategic goals, you ensure that your team stays aligned and focused on building a scalable, exit-ready business rather than chasing the latest digital shiny objects.