This study employs a hermeneutic phenomenological method to explore strategic planning in higher education through the lived experiences of deans at a public research university. The literature on strategic planning in higher education documents inconclusive findings on the success of strategic planning to effect improvement in the management of higher education. This study presents the voices of those who have practiced strategic planning within a setting of higher education, and reflects on the meaning of their lived experience. The research question addressed by this study is "What is the lived, human experience of strategic planning in higher education?" Data were collected via two interviews with fifteen deans. Hermeneutic phenomenological methods were used to analyze deans' descriptions of their lived experiences of strategic planning. The interpretive framework of hermeneutic phenomenology provides a unique lens through which one systematically can examine highly variable and context-bound phenomenon for insights and meaning beyond individual accounts. This analytical method demonstrates a new approach to move the literature past the general accounting of planning processes toward a deeper understanding of how the planning process is experienced by those within an institution who often are charged with leading and effecting transformational change. The findings include three themes regarding planning in higher education: (1) Metaphors of the Planning Process; (2) Planning as Craft; and (3) Planning as Locus of Control. The results of this study suggest that academic leaders are involved integrally and continuously in strategic thought and a variety of interpersonal interactions throughout the planning process. Results also suggest that the unique aspects of the organizational culture of the academy may have the effect of increasing the complexity of the planning process such that planning in higher education may not follow a simple stage model but perhaps is a continuous dynamic with parallel developments along internal and external tracks.