Strategic Planning
How do you center your strategic plan in daily work when everything changes, everywhere, all the time?
Have you ever been on a road trip with no agenda, no plan, no map? Just a group of friends exploring the world, stopping wherever the whim strikes them? The joy is in the journey, not the destination.
That’s an exciting, exploratory approach. For individuals, friends, fun. Not necessarily the best approach for an organization or business. Strategic planning is critical to organizational growth and success. You need that road map to guide you, to keep the destination in mind.
Recent years have highlighted the importance of having a plan, but ensuring that it is an adaptable plan. When the world changes, you need to be able to shift with it, without being mired in “following the plan.”
Strategic planning has often used a 3-5 year planning model, incorporating feedback from a variety of stakeholders, to create overarching goals and objectives, as well as outlining specific activities for staff to tackle during that time. For some, this is exactly the right course of action.
You shouldn’t buy a house, a car, heck even a pair of jeans based on what “fits” someone else. You want, need, and deserve the house, car, jeans, plan that fits you and your life or work.
Before hiring a strategic planning facilitator, consider what you want at the end of the process. Do you want a 3-5 year plan with details about programs, processes, specific activities? Do you want something to guide the next year, that you can revisit every year to check that you are on track for a longer vision? Do you want a hybrid that gives you checkpoints for the next year, while also offering the 3-5 year vision? Do you want something that focuses on how you will make the community different in the distant future?
After experiencing a variety of planning processes as staff, Executive Director, and board member, I have found staff capacity and size combined with board engagement to be the key factors in which plan works best for an organization.
My personal preference is a strategic plan that focuses on how you will change the community if you truly achieve your mission. Start with that question, dream big.
From there, consider the key areas that build that future. What does that success look like for all stakeholders?
Once you have that vision, is the board engaged enough to be an active participant, to function almost as additional staff to achieve those goals? Or will the day to day work fall on staff? What is the overall capacity? Can you tackle five new programs at once? Can you make significant changes to internal processes quickly? It may be more beneficial to leave the day to day details – what programs are changed or launched and on what timeline, what new processes are implements and how quickly – to staff. The director and staff know what they can handle, let them set the pace once the board has established the umbrella plan.
Plans should be the basis for board meetings, consistently discussing the plan and how various organizational work is (or is not) moving things forward. Plans should also be reviewed annually in my opinion. This allows leadership to review and adjust the plan to adapt to current events early and thoughtfully.
I’m also a big believer in a one page strategic plan. Something that can be front and center in daily work. Something that can be read, re-read, and read again whenever decisions need to be made. Priority should be given to things that move the strategic plan forward.
Contact me if you would like to talk more about my approach to strategic planning and if it would be a good fit for you.