Episode 167 From Static Plans to Living Strategy Strategic Planning With Mike Burns

Описание: What happens when a billion-dollar CIO decides the nonprofit world deserves better strategic planning tools? You get StratSimple — and one of the most honest conversations about strategy, leadership, and AI you'll hear this year. Mike Burns spent over two decades driving organizational transformation, including serving as CIO of Benco Dental. In 2023, he co-founded StratSimple, an AI-powered platform built to make high-quality strategic planning accessible to nonprofits and consultants who've long been priced out of the game.

In this episode, Dr. John Dentico and Mike dig into the critical difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning, why the five-year static plan is officially dead, and how AI is reshaping what it means to truly listen to your organization. They explore why leaders fail to operationalize their plans, the irreplaceable role of human facilitators, and why "context engineering" is the real skill of the AI era. If your organization has ever confused activity for strategy, this conversation is your wake-up call.

0:00 — Meet Mike Burns: From Army Brat to AI Strategist
2:30 — Why Nonprofits Are in an Existential Crisis Right Now
4:30 — The Death of the Five-Year Plan — and What Replaces It
6:15 — Strategic Thinking vs. Strategic Planning: A Critical Distinction
10:00 — Leadership as Process, Not Position
13:00 — The Fence Company Story: What a Salesperson Saw That the CEO Missed
15:00 — How AI Enables Real Listening at Scale
17:30 — Context Engineering: The Skill That Actually Matters
20:00 — Nonprofits Have Competitors — Whether They Like It or Not
23:00 — Why Having a Plan Means You're Just at the Starting Line
27:00 — Process Mapping, Deming, and the Power of the How-To
32:00 — Empowerment, Delegation, and Letting Go of the Seesaw

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