You are either just starting or in the middle of creating a strategic plan for your organization, and you want to ensure it's the best possible. Well, you're in luck because I've got some tips for you:
First things first, get ready! To create an effective strategic plan, you need to have all the information you need to make meaningful decisions. This means preparing a broad picture of your current situation and not just relying on what you already know within your organization. Get feedback from employees, clients, consumers, partners, and suppliers. Gather financial and client trends, and compare your organization to others with a similar mission or service delivery scope. Usually, the staff and planning consultant is best suited to gather and prepare this information. This 360-degree view will help you determine what your organization does well and identify opportunities for the future.
Once you're ready, it's time to start meeting. The most effective use of a planning committee is to have an initial meeting where the timeline and planning process is reviewed and agreed upon. After that, hold the planning retreat, where you get the collective input and ideas that inform the committee's work. Then, the committee meets twice to four times to bring the plan together.
Allow time for big-picture thinking together. Don't try to squeeze big, strategic discussions into a half-day retreat. Effective leadership requires time management to ensure your team gets the most out of your meetings. Carve out a day and a half for your kick-off planning session whenever possible. If that's impossible, use regularly scheduled team and/or board meetings to prepare everyone for a full or half-day session. Add an extra hour onto your regularly scheduled board meeting, or re-structure several of your board agendas for presentations on stakeholder feedback, financial and service trends.
Ask the hard questions. This one can be hard, but it's essential. Ask yourself and your team what you need to stop doing to move forward. Are there any "Sacred Cows" that need to go? If you could only focus on one or two things, what would they be? Does your organization need a new structure? What assumptions are holding you back?
Focus on what really matters. You don't need to develop big, hairy, audacious goals if they're unrealistic. Instead, figure out a handful of strategies that will make a big impact if you commit to them and allocate resources accordingly.
Create an open and free discussion environment, no matter what someone's position is in the organization. It can be tough to lead planning sessions as an insider, so consider hiring an outside facilitator. This allows for challenging assumptions and sacred cows and encourages active participation without any one person dominating the conversation.
Don't set your plan in stone. Good plans are flexible and adaptable to changes in the marketplace (remember when COVID hit?). So don't be afraid to make changes to your plan as necessary.
Keep it simple and clear. I like plans that don't get too detailed. Every plan should have goals, key actions, and accountabilities. But, try to avoid getting bogged down in multi-year operational activities, deadlines, and assignments. I recommend having a one-year operational plan that's prepared by your staff to go along with the initial strategic plan.
Make strategy a habit, not just a one-time event. Establish a practice to work on your plan and maintain a routine around implementation. If you don't, it's all for nothing and it's just a waste of everyone's time. One way to do this is to create a strategic agenda for your leadership meetings. This agenda should use your strategic plan to help you plan your meeting agendas and set aside time to review your performance achievements (I recommend doing this quarterly and at least twice a year). Focus on accountability for results, lessons learned, and changes that need to be made.
Have fun! Strategic planning is a great way to build unity among your board and team. Use your planning time also to build relationships. Plan your icebreakers and team activities around your planning goals. For example, you could create a fun quiz based on key facts about your organization. It's a great way to reinforce important information with board members and can help educate newer board members.
We hope these 10 tips help you. If a professional facilitator would make a difference, please contact us to learn more.