Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is a formal process for considering exactly where an organization stands; then determining where it wants to go and how it will get there (typically over the next three to five years) by asking questions about what the organization does, for whom it does it and how it can excel; and finally synthesizing the answers to these questions in a “strategic plan” document.

Organizations typically call upon us for help in structuring and facilitating their strategic planning process and preparing their strategic plan document for one or more of the following reasons:

• The organization has not engaged in formal strategic planning before.
• For a variety of reasons, previous strategic planning was not deemed to be successful.
• There appears to be a wide range of ideas or concerns among organization members about strategic planning and current organizational issues to be addressed in the plan.
• There is no one in the organization who members feel has sufficient skills to facilitate the strategic planning process.
• No one in the organization is committed to facilitating strategic planning for the organization.
• The organization’s leaders believe that an inside facilitator will either inhibit participation from others or will not have the opportunity to participate fully in the planning themselves.
• The organization’s leaders want an objective voice, that is, someone who is not likely to have strong predispositions about the organization's strategic issues and options.

 We use a variety of perspectives, models and approaches to structure and facilitate a client organization’s strategic planning process, depending on the organization’s preferences, size, culture, environment and planning expertise.  Goals-based planning, the model we use most often, starts by focusing on the organization’s mission, vision and/or values and then setting goals to work toward the mission, next developing strategies for achieving the goals, and finally formulating action plans (who will do what by when using what resources).  Our issues-based planning model often starts by examining issues facing the organization, then developing strategies to address those issues, and finally specifying action plans for executing the strategies.  Our intuitive planning model might start by articulating the organization’s vision and values and finish by delineating action plans for realizing the vision while adhering to those values.

Some of the strategic plans we help clients develop are scoped to one year, many to three years, some to five to 10 years, and a few to 20 years.  Some of our clients’ strategic plans include only high-level information and no action plans, while others are five to eight pages long and still others are considerably longer.

The strategic planning support that we provide typically includes designing, facilitating and documenting the results of one or more planning meetings and helping senior managers decide whether, when and how to implement the planning group’s recommendations.  These meetings are usually attended by members of the organization who have formal authority or ad hoc responsibility for formulating, adjusting or making recommendations concerning the organization’s overall mission, vision for its future, statement of values, key strategies, implementation goals, operating objectives, tactical activities and performance metrics.

We also help organizations synthesize strategic and operational business plans by interviewing their internal and external stakeholders individually or in small groups.  Experience has taught us that the planning process invariably produces a better product when we can convene at least one face-to-face meeting of a critical mass of the organization’s governance officials and/or key stakeholders.  When properly facilitated, this meeting format gives participants an opportunity to offer their proposals (in response to specific questions posed by the facilitator), build on each other’s ideas, and develop a sense of personal commitment to the organizational strategic plan that ultimately emerges from the collaborative process.

• Training or briefing the planning team
• Facilitating the team’s thinking and group dynamics
• Guiding the team through the planning process

In all of these roles, we help the planning team focus on ensuring that a plan reflecting the organization’s mission, values and priorities emerges from the collaborative process.

Training or Briefing the Planning Team. In this role we use an interactive approach that allows the planning team to explore the planning process fully as it applies to them and their organization.  We regard it as part of our instructional role to: educate the organization’s leadership team about planning concepts and methods; educate those who will brief the organization’s employees on the planning process; participate in the employee briefings (when and as requested); and encourage the organization’s leaders to ensure that the briefings occur.

Facilitating the Team’s Thinking and Group Dynamics. In this role we make inputs as necessary on planning methodology to surface, illuminate or clarify the substantive issues which are being (or should be) raised.  We also make whatever interventions are needed to ensure that: important issues are not avoided or overlooked; all participants are appropriately involved in the planning discussions; consensus rather than compromise is the primary method of decision making; necessary group norms of openness and constructive confrontation develop; the group process enhances rather than blocks the development of an effective plan; and the group strives to develop a plan that will provide the vision, focus and accountability necessary for shaping and realizing the organization’s preferred future.

Guiding the Team through the Planning Process. In this role we strive to ensure the quality of the process and the cogency of the resulting plan by helping the planning team to move systematically through the essential steps of the planning process.  Often this means that we do one or more of the following: guide the team in establishing a realistic timetable for its work; facilitate several of the team’s planning sessions; ensure that the team prepares for its next session by identifying what needs to be done prior to session and who will do it; press strongly for some tangible product to be produced and widely circulated early in the planning process (to demonstrate that something important and productive is under way); and conduct and feed back to the team the results of organizational assessment interviews and stakeholder satisfaction surveys (when necessary and appropriate) to initiate, inform or advance the planning process.

Our strategic planning facilitation role also requires that we help the planning team to think very carefully about the plan implementation phase, and to structure a plan that ensures there will be an affirmative response to each of the following strategic management questions:

Is our plan actionable? Occasionally, the planning team generates a lot of ideas, commits them to paper and calls the exercise strategic planning even though no actions or measures of progress are put in place. Without specific assignments to individuals, due dates and measurable objectives, the plan may turn out to be little more than a wish list. No strategy is worth much until it is implemented. As part of our facilitation role we help the planning team to translate their strategic ideas and initiatives into measurable components and discrete individual activities.

Is everybody doing their part to execute the plan? Someone must follow up to ensure that managers and employees actually execute the plan. Individuals sometimes say they will work on strategic initiatives but then go back to their everyday roles and spend all their time on tasks that are more immediate and tangible. As part of our facilitation role we help the planning team ensure that the strategic plan includes enough follow-up oversight as well as rewards and consequences to put real accountability into the individual action assignments.

Is the plan moving us toward our overall goal? At the other end of the spectrum, some organizations manage to get a lot of things done but become so absorbed in tactical details that they lose sight of the overall goal or strategy.  As part of our facilitation role we strongly encourage (and often remind) the planning team to revisit the planning process and reassess the quality and workability of the overall strategy on a regular basis. From experience we know that the best strategy for an organization does not just happen at a particular planning retreat; it usually evolves over time through a sustained repetitive cycle of reflection, planning, action and feedback.

back to top