Issue management is not the same as strategic planning
It’s a mistake to conflate issue management and strategic planning, explains Issue Outcomes’ Tony Jaques. They are not the same, nor are they two parts of the same process.
If it’s your job to manage issues, you might have been asked: Isn’t issue management really just an extension of our existing strategic planning?
It’s a good question, because issue management is basically a tool for analysis and planning. It’s also true that issue management and strategic planning need to be well integrated. Yet it’s a serious mistake to think that issue management is the same as strategic planning, or that they are simply two parts of the same process.
Strategic planning focuses primarily on identifying opportunities and threats to products and markets, while the emphasis of issue management is on identifying and addressing issues and concerns in the public arena which are not typically addressed in the marketplace. Or put another way, strategic planning is about achieving business success, while issue management is largely about issue response and crisis prevention in order to make business success possible.
“In fact American communication guru Robert Heath…” is British.
Either read his work more widely and deeply or just check LinkedIn before penning an article.
Love the picture too. Clearly the issue outcome was the despair of being stuck in a transit lounge.