Working with your board and key staff, we facilitate the development of the organization’s strategic plan. First, your organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values are discussed by the group and reconfirmed or rewritten if necessary. Next, we will examine your organization’s current Situation, and the internal and external factors that are impacting it.
After developing a clear understanding of where your organization is, your team will reach consensus on the organization’s Aspiration, what you expect of your future. Then, based on the above work, your group will develop the Strategy necessary to employ to attain that goal.
Your team will identify the key components of that Strategy and the actions required to implement them. These key components and actions will be your team’s Tactical Plan, and most likely, become the basis for your organization’s functional/committee plans. Accordingly, they will be assigned to the appropriate member of the group. Attainable goals are set and measurement criteria agreed upon.
Finally, organizational alignment is achieved as each staff member shares the developed strategic plan with his or her own team. If necessary, those teams will follow a similar, though shortened process to align their work with goals of the organization. They will identify key actions required on their part to reach the stated organizational objectives. Team and individual goals will be set and corresponding measurement criteria agreed upon.
The Elements of a Strategic Plan -- Our Definitions
Mission
Why we exist; what we do.
Land trusts protect and preserve open space.
Hospitals provide high quality and compassionate patient care.
Vision
How we picture the world after we’ve done our job.
“No child or family goes to bed hungry.” — Feed the Children
“To leave a sustainable world for future generations.” — The Nature Conservancy
Values
What we hold dear; what’s important to us.
Integrity, excellence, and compassion are common, yet rather cliché, non-profit values. Environmentally responsible, workplace flexibility, and diversity and inclusion are becoming more common. “Greenpeace has no permanent friends or foes” is a particularly unique core value.
Situation
Where we are.
A multitude of analytic tools have been developed to determine an organization’s current situation. Whichever technique is employed, all the internal (strengths, weaknesses, etc.) and external (economic, legislative, etc.) factors that can affect an organization must be determined and understood.
Aspiration
What we want to be; where we see ourselves in the future.
Too often, objectives are developed without first looking at where you are, resulting in unrealistic ambitions. Your Aspiration must be achievable.
Strategy
The competitive advantage(s) we can exploit to achieve our aspiration.
Per Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School, “the essence of strategy is choosing a unique and valuable position rooted in systems of activities that are much more difficult to match.” The Red Cross’s disaster relief is second to none. The Salvation Army reaches the masses with simple red kettles. The United Way partnered with corporations to encourage employees to contribute millions to their causes.
Tactical Plan
The roadmap necessary to implement our strategy and achieve our goals.
What are the critical elements required to execute our strategy? What actions are required to implement those critical elements? Who is chiefly responsible for each? What are the key milestones in their implementation? How do we measure our success? Functional plans, including Development, Service and Outreach, Accounting, Staffing and Human Resources, etc., are developed and aligned. Clear, measurable, and attainable goals are set and agreed upon.
Alignment
Everyone understands the objective and is working towards the same goals.
Plans often fail because employees the objective of the organization isn’t communicated and rewarded; instead functional and personal goals take precedence. Shared objectives, when measured and rewarded properly, lead to better results.
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