Challenges to Strategic Planning
The same challenges that face those who make New Year’s resolutions, challenge those who create and...
If strategic planning is, as defined by John M. Bryson, author of Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, “a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization (or other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it,” then who should be part of the process?
For an organization, the key decision makers in the strategic planning process will be the insiders or those who work for the organization. However, relevant information from outside of the organization should be gathered and analyzed. When creating a strategic plan for a function, which often crosses organizational or governmental boundaries, the key decision makers will be outsiders, or decision makers from multiple organizations. Often you will see multiple organizations, such as governmental or nonprofit entities, work together to strategically plan a function for a community, such as an economic development project.
To get the strategic planning process in motion, a person or group must initiate the process. The initiator must:
A Strategic Planning Coordinating Committee (SPCC) should be created, and the role, functions, and membership of the strategic planning committee should be clearly defined, and a commitment of resources necessary for proceeding with the strategic planning process should be given.
Ideally, the SPCC should focus on big-picture thinking and taking a long-range view. Therefore, members on the SPCC should be big-picture thinkers. Those who are too focused on the day-to-day functions tend to get “lost in the weeds” and are not best suited for the SPCC. The committee’s primary task is to formulate strategy, not define operations.
The SPCC should include:
The SPCC should respect the organization it serves, as well as everyone on the committee. They should have the ability to listen as well as talk, and be willing to discuss strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends. The members must be able to receive and deal with criticism and make hard choices in a constructive way. To be effective, the SPCC should be limited to around ten members, and each member should plan to attend to each meeting. Everyone on the SPCC needs to have airtime to speak. If the committee gets too large, a subset of voices may dictate the strategic direction.
Many ask if the executive committee or the board should be the SPCC. The board or the executive team should not be the SPCC. The SPCC should show adequate representation from upper management to middle management. Remember that those who are also implementing the plan should be represented on the SPCC. Remember that successful leaders of high-performing teams know that they do not need to make all the decisions. They recognize that a team itself can lead the group to high performance.
The SPCC should be a cross-section of individuals from both staff and board, as well as from various departments. While those on the board may have financial, legal, and business expertise, they may be removed from the day-to-day operations. Those individuals who participate in the day-to-day decision making may contribute a deeper understanding of the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Therefore, it is wise to have people on the committee with different vantage points.
Many nonprofits wonder what role the board should play in the strategic planning process. The board’s role in strategic planning should be to:
Therefore, since the board plays an integral role in setting the vision for the organization, the SPCC should contain members from the board. However, not all members of the board must serve on the SPCC.
Finally, many times an organization will engage a strategic planning consultant to help with the strategy planning process. If the organization does not already have a strategic plan or if the current strategic plan does not fully provide the goals, purpose, and road map for your organization, a strategic planning consultant can help immensely.
A strategic planning consultant has a wealth of information from working with a variety of organizations and can therefore lead an SPCC through the process effectively.
Time is always of the essence, and a consultant will follow their methodology for putting strategic plans together, thereby saving organizations a lot of time.
Consultants are impartial third parties. They have no hidden agendas, other than they want to do a good job to get referrals to get more gigs. Consultants can facilitate conversations and meetings and can ask the tough questions, while remaining impartial.
A consultant will help the strategic planning process stay on track. This is their priority.
Bringing in a consultant is generally cheaper than hiring an employee. Plus, once the consultant carries the organization through the strategic planning process, an existing employee can help manage the plan after the consultant’s work is complete. Also, remember the bullet above, time. Time is money. By having a consultant expeditiously carry out the strategic planning process, you save time, and that time can be spent on money making or money saving initiatives.
Instituting a SPCC and having a formalized process to strategic planning is key to success. In fact, according to a study done by Bridges in 2016, the failure rate of strategic plans fell from 90% in 2002 to 67% in 2016. The reason being is that implementation efforts are improving.
For a strategic plan to not fail you must have:
The strategic planning process never stops, and the SPCC can play a critical role in ensuring that a strategic plan succeeds.