When organizations ask me to help them with planning, I ask the organization's managers, staff and board members to tell me what they want to change. This leads to a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. As we talk, the nature and amount of change desired gradually emerges. So also do the values and character of the organization. But, in every instance, the process is driven by the amount and nature of the desired change.
Implicit plans exist in the minds and guts of people.
Implicit plans are the real guides for all but our most complex actions, because we turn first to our memories when we need to know what to do next. Explicit plans are documents. They are usually rather dry and intellectual, containing little of the emotion and richness of their implicit counterparts. And since they are a shadow of the real plan, they need to be used with caution. Further, the process of writing a plan helps us identify gaps and disentangle issues.