Funny, I was talking about the value of stories here just last week, and that got me thinking. Stories are at the core of business planning, in a sense. You imagine a future and calculate the steps to make that happen. From vision to strategy to steps, and then you’re planning. I posted Use Stories to Make Your Business Planning Real this morning on the American Express OPEN Forum in John Jantsch’ marketing channel there. The key is:
With business planning, you don’t just tell the stories of the past, you also create and develop the stories of your future. Look ahead with your plan, control your destiny, and drive it in the right direction. Go from vision to imagination to focus and step-by-step concrete measurable activities.
The full post is at Amex OPEN. 
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In many ways, planning is very much like telling a story over and over again. Every time a story is told, the details change slightly; a detail is added here or dropped there. Over time the story evolves and sometimes becomes a completely different tale then what it was intended to be when you first heard/told the tale.