I had the great fortune to take a trip to Ireland earlier this year with a few friends. After seeing just a small part of the country (Dublin) over a decade ago, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to explore more of this enchanting place.

The trip did not disappoint. Ireland is magical - the people, the history, the landscapes, the Guinness (😊)!

Now, as I am preparing for a strategic planning initiative with a new client, I am thinking back to that trip. Maybe it’s just my consulting mentality, but I realize there are many parallels between how we approach strategic planning and how my friends and I approached planning our Ireland adventure.

Mission and Vision

Strategic planning starts with a clear definition of mission and vision. When our travel group of four started discussing this trip, we had to come to agreement on what we were trying to accomplish. Did we want to see as much of the country as possible? Were we trying to soak up the local culture? Was our focus going to be on present-day Ireland, or did we want to dive into its past? Was there more interest in nature or man-made phenomena?

In the end, we agreed upon a little bit of all of the above, deciding to focus on two-thirds of the country, balancing old with new, favoring local experiences over tourist sights, and enjoying being both inside and outdoors.

Values

Values define the principles that guide the way we behave. Fortunately, our group had previously traveled together internationally, so many of these norms were already established. However, we made a point to have conversations about balancing “go” time with downtime, how to satisfy both individual and group desires, philosophies around spending money on the trip, and many other small things that could have escalated into bigger issues had we not all been in agreement.

‍Goals

Goals describe the high-level outcomes you wish toa achieve. Our travel group felt it was important to not only spend time in the Republic of Ireland, but Northern Island as well. We balanced time in cities (Dublin, Belfast, and Galway) with smaller towns (Cobh, Killarney, Kilkenny, Dalkey). We agreed to try to visit a mix of tourist sights (Guinness Storehouse, Titanic Museum, Temple Bar, Bushmills Distillery), historical structures/experiences (Blarney Castle, Kilkenny Castle, Kylemore Abbey, Kilmainham Gaol), outdoor wonders (Killarney National Park, Gap of Dunloe, Giants Causeway, Cliffs of Moher, Aran Islands), and local pubs and restaurants (The John Hewitt, Ulster Sports Club, Roe & Co Distillery, Connie Doolan’s, Anchor Bar, Monroe’s Tavern, The Quays, Crane Bar, Sean’s Bar, and more!).

Strategies

Strategies are the specific plans you implement to achieve the desired goals. Our strategies included:

• Walk whenever possible (we averaged around 18,000 steps per day)
• Stay in each town at least two nights
• Use local transportation – trains and trams –when in cities
• Rent a car to explore the country
• Limit ourselves to no more than two planned activities in a day to allow for spontaneity
• Take time to relax each day (most often in a pub)
• Be open to trying new food and drink options
• Wander into places of interest, especially churches and parks
• Get as close to nature (and animals) as possible
• Don’t hurry
• Only ask for a single check, using Splitwise to capture expenses and settle up

Another important strategy is that we agreed to make peace with missing a few places (Waterford, Cork, Dingle, Derry, Donegal) and sights (Rock of Cashel, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge) that seemed interesting but were not possible due to time or weather constraints.

Just like any plan, there were some hiccups, last minute changes, and minor disagreements, but having agreement on our Ireland trip mission, vision, values, and goals helped us work through them. If you have a chance, I highly recommend you spend some time in the Emerald Isle. I will definitely go back soon!

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Staci Barfield is a Senior Advisor with Armstrong McGuire who specializes in organizational design, organizational assessment, organizational strategy, strategic planning, succession planning, leadership development, and executive recruitment. Learn more about Staci and check out her other musings in her bio. Learn more about strategic planning in this short video.