Strategic Planning Implementation - The Dangers of Planning to Plan

One of the things I worry about in strategic planning is the tendency some people have to want to write action plans that result in plans. If something is big and complicated enough, it might require a plan to plan, but sometimes this is just a smokescreen for a bigger issue. Is the team avoiding making a decision for some reason? Is planning to plan a way to avoid conflict? Or is planning easier than the actual work involved in reaching the real objective? Make sure you address these questions squarely whenever you are confronted with an action plan step that starts with "Plan...".