Have you ever wondered why your organization’s strategic planning process never seems to cross the finish line?
Sometimes organizations struggle with completing their strategic planning process and producing a final strategic plan that can guide the organization’s decisions and activities for the next several years. If you’ve experienced this or are uncertain about how to avoid a long and arduous strategic planning process, consider the suggestions below about how to tackle strategic planning efficiently and successfully.
Have a Plan for Drafting the Plan
Your best protection from a lengthy and unproductive strategic planning process is a clear and well-defined methodology for your planning process. Taking the time at the start of the process to consider your information needs, stakeholder engagement strategy, and key roles and assignments will pay off in the long run. It’s important to both establish a realistic and disciplined timeline for the work and then stick to it. One person should be accountable for overseeing the process from conception to conclusion and have the authority and resources to see it through. This plan will inform your resource allocation, inspire you messaging, and drive the time and attention of your staff and leaders for a number of years, so be sure to give it the time and attention it requires.
Listen, Debate, Decide, and Move On
Because the plan will establish the organization’s road map for the foreseeable future, there is likely to be a meaningful debate about key elements of the plan. This is healthy and productive. Decision-making in nonprofits should be a balanced process of listening, debating, and reflecting. A strategic planning process will ideally engage diverse voices from across your team to gather varied perspectives and foster a culture of healthy debate. However, once a decision is made, the focus should shift to action. Lingering too long in the decision phase can stall projects and lead to missed opportunities. Identifying a leader or facilitator who can guide the team from discussing to doing is invaluable in maintaining momentum.
Don’t Try to Include Everything in the Strategic Plan
Strategic plans are about strategy—making choices and bets on what actions, changes, and programs are truly critical to addressing the current environment, deepening your impact, and moving your organization closer to its vision. They cannot and should not include every program, activity, or action. Trying to ensure that every person or team adds their work projects to the plan will ensure that it is unwieldy, overwhelming, and uninspiring. Instead, focus on those high-level enterprise-wide aspirations and goals and help your staff and stakeholders see themselves reflected in them.
Build in Flexibility and Ongoing Review
The nonprofit sector is dynamic, with shifting donor interests, regulatory changes, and changing community needs. By building flexibility into your strategic plan and establishing regular review periods, you can adapt your plan’s initiatives and tactics as circumstances evolve, ensuring that the organization’s actions remain relevant and impactful. Consider scheduling regular reviews of the strategic plan to assess progress against goals and make necessary adjustments, keeping the plan and your team agile and responsive.
Seek Out an Experienced Partner
Bringing on board a skilled strategic planning facilitator can be immeasurably helpful in navigating this process. A consultant with expertise in strategic planning can offer valuable insights, facilitate deeper discussions, help maintain focus, and serve as an accountability partner. A skilled interviewer and facilitator can encourage candor, encourage robust conversations, and help surface common goals, challenges, and aspirations. Their perspective and experience can help you craft a strategic plan that is not only completed in a timely manner but is also robust, actionable, and aligned with your organization’s mission.
With these strategies, your journey from drafting to doing not only becomes possible but inevitable. By embracing these principles, you’ll not just be completing a plan, you’ll be setting the stage for real, impactful change for your organization and your constituents. Let’s make the next steps you take be as impactful and inspiring as the mission you aspire to achieve.
