Every Good Idea Doesn't Belong in Your Strategic Plan

One of the hardest lessons I learned as a destination marketing organization (DMO) CEO was that a good idea can still be the wrong idea for your organization. Destination marketing organizations attract ideas. Someone wants the DMO to sponsor a new festival. A community organization proposes a partnership. An elected official has an idea for a new event. A board member suggests a program they saw in another destination. A local business wants help promoting something. Most of these requests come from good people with good intentions, and many of the ideas are genuinely worthwhile.

But worthwhile doesn't necessarily mean strategic.

As a CEO, I always found saying yes easier than saying no. Yes builds goodwill. It makes people happy. And it makes us appear collaborative and responsive. But every yes has a cost. It requires money, staff time, attention, meetings, emails, follow-up, and, perhaps most importantly, organizational energy. Eventually, enough small yeses can pull an organization away from its larger priorities. That's why I believe one of the CEO's most important responsibilities is protecting the organization's focus.

When an opportunity comes along, I think we should ask several basic questions. Does this support our mission? Does it advance one of our strategic priorities? Will it generate meaningful value for visitors, partners, or the community? Do we have the resources to do it well? And perhaps the question we don't ask often enough: If we say yes to this, what are we saying no to? Resources are finite. Staff capacity is finite. Even the CEO's attention is finite.

Mission creep rarely happens because someone deliberately decides to abandon the organization's strategy. It happens gradually. We add one program, then another sponsorship, then another committee responsibility. None seems particularly burdensome by itself. Before long, staff members are spending significant portions of their time on activities that have little connection to why the organization exists. The strategic plan should help prevent that.

I don't believe a strategic plan should simply be a list of everything a DMO hopes to accomplish. It should also provide permission to say no. When a request falls outside established priorities, the CEO should be able to explain respectfully, "It's a worthwhile idea, but it isn't where our organization can make the greatest contribution right now."

Saying no doesn't have to damage relationships. Sometimes we can connect someone with another organization better suited to help. We can offer advice without taking ownership or support an idea without funding it. We can explain our priorities and leave the door open for future collaboration. People may not always like the answer, but most will respect an organization that knows its purpose and consistently follows it.

Boards have an important role here as well. A board should not measure its DMO by how many projects it touches. It should ask whether the organization is accomplishing the things that matter most. CEOs need boards that understand that focus isn't a lack of ambition. Focus is what makes meaningful accomplishment possible.

Leadership isn't simply deciding what your organization will do. Sometimes the harder, and more important, decision is determining what it won't do. Every community will have more good ideas than any DMO can possibly pursue. The courage to say no protects the staff, the budget, the strategy, and ultimately the destination itself. Because a strategic plan isn't really a strategy until it forces us to choose.