Although strategic planning is intended to enhance decision quality, many organizations experience a stall not due to insufficient foresight, but because of but excessive planning. This article explores how the principle of diminishing returns applies to strategic planning, introducing the Strategic Diminishing Returns Curve (SDRC), a framework that. This framework enables leaders to assess when planning effort begins to erode rather than enhance
execution readiness.

Drawing from behavioral decision theory and strategic
leadership literature, the SDRC models how the value of planning declines across three zones: High Returns, Diminishing Returns, and Strategic Stall. A companion diagnostic tool allows
real-time assessment of planning effectiveness.

The SDRC distinguishes itself from constructs such as planning fatigue or strategic inertia by quantifying the nonlinear relationship between effort and value, identifying the tipping point beyond which additional planning undermines progress.

Leaders can use the SDRC to calibrate strategic effort, prevent planning
overreach, and apply zone-specific interventions that protect momentum and enable timely
execution.