Strategic Planning

Planning with a Pyramid

Strategic planning allows an organization to make fundamental decisions or

choices by taking a long-range view of what it hopes to accomplish and how it
will do so. A strategic plan is built on a thorough analysis of the organization’s
existing structure, governance, staff, program or service mix, collaborations,
and resources (financial, human, technical, and material). This analysis is vital
because it allows an organization to perceive which of its above aspects it must
change in order to achieve its goals. A well-developed strategic plan serves as a
blueprint for making these changes because it describes the following:

WHAT IS STRATEGIC PLANNING—OR, PUT ANOTHER WAY, WHAT ARE THE

ELEMENTS OF A STRATEGIC PLAN?
• A strategic plan is an overall defined course of organizational action for a set
period of time that guides day-to-day decision-making and activity;
• The plan examines and reflects an organization's values, current status, and
environment—and it relates those factors to the organization's desired future
state, usually expressed in five- to ten-year time periods.
• The plan defines how resources will be used given timelines and handles
(which are means by which an organization can leverage resources or realities);
• The plan is based on both the organization’s internal environment and the
external action field in which the organization operates;
• The plan is both a reaction to, and a tool for adapting to, environmental
changes and creating an organization's future within its changing
environments.
• The plan is aimed to achieve specific goals and objectives.
• The plan is evaluated by whether or not it achieves specific events or
milestones.
• The purpose of the plan is to help the organization capitalize on its strengths
while minimizing its weaknesses, and to take advantage of opportunities and
defend against threats.
Difference between strategic and operational planning
Strategic Planning Operational Planning
􀂨 Long-term (usually 5-10 years) 􀂨 Short-term (1 year or less)
􀂨 Focuses on future achievements 􀂨 Achievements or targets annual
and conditions

􀂨 Weighs a series of alternatives 􀂨 Planned activities represent choices

before making already
fundamental choices made;
alternatives are not considered
􀂨 Usually integrates several 􀂨 Tend to focus on one unit or
functions, related set of
levels, components simultaneously
activities
􀂨 Integrates strategies for resource 􀂨 Resources for implementation
usually
mobilization with activities
(sustainability plans) already
􀂨 Usually requires ratification from identified
􀂨 No formal action or ratification
required
governing structures

WHAT IS THE INCENTIVE TO ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN STRATEGIC PLANNING?

• In the simplest terms, a strategic plan can help improve everyone’s
performance.
• A strategic plan cannot only refocus a sense of purpose, but can stimulate
future-oriented thinking based on a shared sense of mission.
• Collaboration between members of an organization is more effective when
everyone is working with the same set of assumptions and toward the same
goals.
• Visioning, planning, and setting goals have consistently proven to be positive
influences on organizational performance.
• Strategic planning can help an organization think through the difficult choices
imposed by limited budgets.
• But if there is no genuine internal commitment to the plan, and no intention
to implement it, strategic planning is a waste of time and energy.
• So strategic planning is for those who are willing to be honest, who want to
focus on accurately assessing capabilities, and who are committed to
influencing and creating a successful future for themselves.

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING?

• As a process, strategic planning involves an orderly sequence of activities,
each vital to the success of the whole process.
• The activities include:
1. Assessing the external environment
2. Assessing the internal environment
3. Developing a vision or mission for the future
4. Developing goals and objectives to reach that future
5. Implementing the plan
6. Measuring progress and revising the plan
• The external and internal assessments provide a realistic base on which to
build future plans.
• The vision or mission identifies the organization's purpose and its desired
future state.
• Consensus building is an important part of these phases.
• Once there’s consensus, the practical steps necessary to reach the desired
future state—the goals and objectives of the organization—can be
identified and implemented.
• Evaluation and revision occur at the end of the planning cycle, but may occur
at any stage within the planning process.
Strategic Planning Process

• The most basic question to ask before starting a strategic planning process is
whether to develop a strategic plan.
• The question of whether or not to develop a strategic plan may be based on
answers to the following questions:
1. What purpose will the strategic plan serve?
2. How will it help the organization?
3. Will it be better than the system we use now?
4. Are those in leadership positions committed to strategic planning?
5. How much will it cost in terms of time and personnel effort?
6. Who should be on the planning team?
 7. Does anyone have experience with strategic planning?
8. Do we think we can do it?
9. Are we willing to make decisions about our future?
10. Will we actually use the plan?
11. What overriding crises would inhibit our ability to plan?
• If the answers to these questions support the development of a strategic
plan, then the process can be initiated.
• The planning design frequently calls for a small team to direct efforts and
develop the written document, but input should come from the entire
organization and possibly its organizational allies, so that each member has
a stake in the process and outcome.
• Building the planning process entails asking and answering a number of
questions—to wit:
1. What would you do to build ownership of the strategic planning process,
so that the plan developed would be supported?
2. What groups would you engage in the planning process?
3. How would you deal with groups or individuals that were likely to be
uncooperative or disruptive?
4. Assuming that the plan identified a number of strategic alternatives and
options, how would approach the problem of choosing among them?
5. How would you develop criteria for choosing and plan for training to
enable people to choose?
• Team members should work well together, be committed to the process, and
be respected by their peers.
• Whoever leads the planning team should understand planning well enough
to help others through the process.
• If this is a first-time experience for everyone involved, outside expertise may
be useful to provide an initial orientation or a jump-start.
• The organization's leader need not be a formal member of the planning
team, but leadership and support for the planning process, including
implementation, should be clear from the outset.

THE FIRST STEP IS ASSESSING THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT.

• Competition and conflict are factors to be considered in the external
environment, particularly when one considers that the adoption of any
social legislation or policy invariably creates individuals and organizations
that regard themselves as “winners” and “losers.”
• Some more naïve members of social service and educational organizations
think they’re outside of the arena of competition and conflict, but that’s not
the case.
• The competition and conflict over limited funding is clear, and the turf
problems frequently encountered between social service organizations
fundamentally represent competition for clients.
• The methods for gathering information about the external environment
include in-house workshops, planning committee discussions, surveys,
interviews, the key informant technique, community forums, the charrette
process,1 and the Delphi technique.2
• Typical questions posed during an external assessment for purposes of an
organizing or lobbying campaign might include:
1. Who are the major organizational players in our action field?
2. Are the demographics of our action field changing and, if so, how, and
how will those changes affect the organizational players?
3. What are the implications of today's social, political, and economic trends
for the future of the action field players?
4. Which organizational players are likely to become our allies, what’s our
understanding of their ideologies and interests, and what’s our
assessment of their resources?
5. Which organizational players are likely to become our opponents, what’s
our understanding of their ideologies and interests, and what’s our
assessment of their resources?
6. What are the likely responses of third-party players?

THE SECOND STEP IS ASSESSING THE INTERNAL ORGANIZATIONAL

ENVIRONMENT.
• We might start with our organizational history:
1. How would you learn about an organization's history?
2. How would you resolve for yourself conflicting versions of the history?
• We might then go on to inventory our organization's resources—its assets
and liabilities:
1. How would you take such an inventory?
2. How would you learn about the past year's strengths and weaknesses?
3. How would you get people who distrusted you or your sponsor to
cooperate in giving you information or access to it?
• We would certainly review any existing strategic plan—goals, methods,
players, successes and failures--and how it came into existence.
• We would want to determine the value-base and ideology of the
organization:
1. In what kinds of documents might you learn more about the
organization's values and ideology?
 2. What other sources might you use?
• Effective organizations embody an organizational purpose, direction, and
culture fostering leadership development.
• Some organizations, especially non-profit, can become so immersed in the
day-to-day functioning of activities that the activities become ends in
themselves, disconnected from their original purpose.
• In practice, members may also come to have differing views and may, in fact,
be operating within very different frameworks.
• What’s seen as a source of strength by one may be identified as a weakness
by another; one person's critical issue for the future may seem extraneous
to another; an organization's stated purpose—what it can and ought to
do—may seem clear and viable to some members, and outmoded or
irrelevant to others.
• It is not uncommon for an organization, especially a non-profit organization,
to lose its sense of mission and purpose.
• Yet the values of the organization, and especially of its leaders, have a direct
impact on what can and cannot be accomplished.
• These values are the centrepiece of the organization's culture, not only
defining what can be done, but also providing the setting that affects the
behaviour of individual members.
• Reaching organizational consensus on identified strengths, weaknesses,
purpose, and capacity is one of the greatest challenges of internal analysis.

• Internal assessment questions might include:

1. What purpose do we serve?
2. What do we believe in?
3. What are our strengths and weaknesses?
4. What resources are available to us (e.g., people, funds, credibility, allies,
third-party recognition, etc.)?
5. What internal issues must be addressed?
6. How do we interact with the community?
7. Whom do we serve?
8. What needs do we meet?

THE THIRD STEP IS DEVELOPING AN ORGANIZATIONAL VISION OR MISSION

FOR THE FUTURE.
• There are several approaches to developing this vision.
• The desired future state can be expressed philosophically in terms of the
belief system capable of moving the organization into the future, and
 practically in terms of what the organization wishes to accomplish, in the
future.
• For small to medium-sized non-profit organizations, either a scenario or
critical issues approach to future visioning may be useful.
1. In the scenario approach, several alternative images of what the
organization will be like in the future are developed and rated in terms
of their fit with the organization's mission, the community needs, and
financial feasibility—and these are discussed with members of the
organization and the best fit is selected, tested, and refined.
2. The critical issues approach focuses on the challenges facing the
organization—so critical issues are identified and prioritized, with
possible solutions listed for each.
• As a best solution to each issue is identified, the organization's strategy for
the future becomes clear.

THE FOURTH STEP IS DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

TO REACH THE FUTURE.
• Who, what, when, where, why, and how is not only the mantra of journalists,
it’s also the guideline for developing goals and objectives.
• And, the future vision of the organization—the why—is the guiding force in
their development.
• Specific goals—what’s to be achieved—are identified to help move the
organization from its current state to the desired future state.
• Goals may be sequential for any planning period, from six months to multiple
years, with a completion date specified for each goal.

• The objectives may be considered action steps, the accumulation of

accomplishments necessary to satisfy each goal.
• Objectives answer the questions of who is responsible, what specifically will
be done, how and where it will be done, and when it will be completed.
• The goals and objectives are the essence of the strategic plan.
• The plan builds from a statement of the current situation to a description of
the desired future situation, with a schematic of how that future is to be
achieved.
• Section headings may include:
1. Current Environments
2. Future Needs
3. Organizational Mission and Purpose
4. Goals for the Future
5. Action Plan to Meet the Future
 6. Assessment and Revision of the Plan
• The strategic plan should be the organization's guiding spirit, providing a
shared sense of direction and purpose.
• It need not identify every step in the process; that can be left to the
implementation plan.
• The plan, however, must be commonly agreed upon and in place before day-
to-day activity can have meaningful implementation.
• What are the criteria for evaluating strategic alternatives when there are
differences of opinion among members of the planning team?
1. Which of the alternatives best draws on the organization's present and
likely future capabilities?
2. Which of the alternatives is most likely to fulfill the known desires of
those who own or charter the organization?
3. Which of the alternatives is likely to produce the most organizational
mileage?
4. Which of the alternatives best reflects what the organization's leadership
really wants to do?
5. Which of the alternatives does the least to foreclose future options?
6. Which of the alternatives is likely to cause the least disruption or need
for major reorganization?
THE FIFTH STEP IS IMPLEMENTING THE STRATEGIC PLAN.
• Implementation shifts the organizational focus from developing the strategic
plan to acting upon it.
• This occurs not only at the upper leadership and management levels of the
organization, but also within each unit of the organization.

• The status and progress of the strategic plan becomes a subject of regular
discussion at weekly staff meetings, quarterly workshops, and annual
leadership retreats, and it becomes the primary means of continuing
commitment and coordination.
• As a part of the implementation process, organizational leaders and senior
staff incorporate the plan in their day-to-day activities, particularly in regard to
their supervision and training responsibilities.
• The plan is put into a presentation format that allows for ease of examination
and modification.
• The plan is continuously updated, because the degree to which it is regularly
modified through honest and accurate self-examination, environmental
assessment, and stakeholder participation will likely determine the ease or
difficulty the organization experiences when implementing the plan.
• Implementation may require greater specificity in the objectives, a detailed
description of the steps that must be taken in each unit in order to reach the
organization's long-term goals.
• Implementation can also serve as a strategic management tool, providing
both a framework for leadership and staff development and a solid basis for
evaluating progress and performance.
THE SIXTH STEP IS EVALUATING PROGRESS AND REVISING PLANS.
• In fact, evaluation and revision—of both the planning process and
achievement of its goals and objectives—are required at every step of strategic
planning.
• If continuous evaluation and revision have been an integral part of the
process of developing the plan, formal evaluation and revision following
implementation are unlikely to involve major changes.
• The later in the planning process a major revision occurs, however, the
greater retrenchment necessary.
• Strategic planning requires a broad base of information; it involves
stakeholders in order to develop consensus around a future vision for the
organization and the specific steps or activities necessary to reach that future.
1. With faulty information or lack of consensus, there is an insufficient base to
support the future vision.
2. Thus, evaluation and revision must begin with the first steps of developing a
strategic plan to ensure an adequate base for further development.

• Additionally, the environment is not static during the development of a

strategic plan.
• Revisions may be necessitated by events or changes in leadership or staff,
funding patterns, or other factors.
• As a process and as a method of management, therefore, strategic planning
requires flexibility—the ability to adapt and revise as conditions change.
• The expression we use in the world of macro social action is that “Planning is
everything—plans are nothing”—which means what?
• To a significant extent, the overall effectiveness of the strategic plan to
achieve its objectives and goals is taken up at annual meetings of
organizational members through presentations of the leadership.
• In the genre of grassroots and public-interest lobbying organizations, these
annual meetings are the times when leaders are elected, and thus they are
ideal settings for accountability on the effectiveness of the organization’s
strategic planning.