What Is Strategic About A Strategic Plan And Who Cares?
What is it about the phrase “strategic planning” that makes eyes glaze over? Maybe people don’t really know what is involved and they feel overwhelmed. Maybe they’ve participated in the process before, and nothing changed. Or maybe this is just one more thing to do when they already have too many responsibilities. To create some understanding, let’s start with the bottom line:
- A strategic plan is a roadmap to the future. When deciding on programming or funding or staffing, the strategic plan should be your guiding light.
Strategic planning is an active process where stakeholders decide how to advance the mission of the organization to best serve their community. It’s about making hard choices about where to focus limited time, money, and human resources. The planning process includes board members as well as staff.
Before I work with a client on a new strategic plan I ask these questions:
- When was the last strategic plan done?
- Were the goals achieved?
- What happened that you did not plan for?
- Are the board and staff ready to commit to doing the work to create a new plan?
- What is your budget to support this work?
- What is your timeframe to complete the strategic plan?
Creating a well-thought-out strategic plan takes time and dedication to the process.
- It must be aspirational and grounded in reality with a focus on organizational growth, internal capacity, financial health, and specific program priorities.
- It is finite. It’s for a specific length of time, usually three years.
- And it moves the agency forward by answering the following questions: What are the specific tasks we need to accomplish to achieve our goals? How much staff and money do we need over the next few years to fulfill our mission?
- The final product is a detailed document with assigned owners, metrics, and milestones.
To get back to the basics, to plan means to decide to do something in the future. This includes intention – having a clear goal or purpose in mind and preparation – to work out the steps needed to reach the goal. Strategic means looking toward a long-term plan or design to achieve a major goal or goals.
The National Council of Nonprofits has a brief article on strategic plans and links to several resources: https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/running-nonprofit/strategic-planning-nonprofits
At DMGroupConsulting, our goal is to help you achieve your goals. Schedule a free 30 minute consultation.
