High-dollar consultants have all kinds of planning paradigms. In my consulting business I have seen a common paradigm. I call it the Honeymooner's strategic planning paradigm [TM]. This paradigm has four phases:
- The Kramden Phase.
- The Norton Phase.
- The Trixie Phase.
- The Alice Phase.
The Norton phase is represented by Ed kinda pulling on his sleeves, bending his elbows and generally making a big fuss over things until Ralph says: "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT!!!" This is equivalent to all those meetings and committees and letter writing.
The Trixie phase is when Trixie offers some concrete proposal like: "We could have a bake sale to raise money for film." This of course fails miserably.
The Alice phase is when, in the midst of "vision" and denial and impossibility, Alice saves the day by pulling her mad money out of a sock to pay off the $400 camera rental that accrued during phases 1, 2 and 3. Of course the grand Kramdonian vision is never realized.
