Three Elements of Purposeful Strategic Planning
“Ready for your next strategic planning session?”
Some might cheer with anticipation, but many others might groan in frustration at the idea of strategic planning. On one hand, it’s incredibly valuable to have a vision for the organization’s future and to see how everyone can contribute. On the other hand, being stuck in a session with a few particularly vocal contributors, a lot of big ideas, and limited direct experience can be painful during the plan creation and for the following years during implementation. Some of these negative experiences can create a love/hate relationship with strategic planning.
At C1C, we focus our approach to strategic planning on how to find the best possible goals to strive for and indicators to measure success.
No matter where you fall, strategic planning can be incredibly valuable to build consensus among stakeholders and to guide an organization into the future. At C1C, we focus our approach to strategic planning on how to find the best possible goals to strive for and indicators to measure success. We’ve listed three tips below to help organizations go through this planning process “strategically.”
Try to focus on “today” and not just “tomorrow.” It is important to recognize that a strategic plan should represent and guide your everyday work. If the plan is too focused on new ideas or future iterations, then its goals and actions are not likely to represent the ongoing work that is critical to executing your organization’s mission today. So, for example, perhaps a couple voices in the session might push the plan towards their idea of “the next big thing.” This can make sense if there is consensus and balance with other goals; however, it can also mean that the plan might fail to represent core mission activities. Leaving core activities outside of a strategic plan in turn risks that they might be overlooked in resource allocation, de-emphasized due to limited capacity, or omitted as key performance indicators for the organization. Moreover, thinking about the future is incredibly important for strategic planning, but we must keep in mind that visions for the next 5-10 years will often change and morph as they develop. Core activities are often more stable and certainly deserve to be represented in a plan to guide day to day work. So, finding that balance between focused goals for “today” with aspirational goals for “tomorrow” is critical to successful planning.
Center the planning on employee input. Simply put, the people doing the work should also be doing much of the planning. They have the expertise and insights to ensure that proposed ideas are realistic, within scope, and won’t spend resources reinventing the wheel. Employees are also be able to provide feedback on barriers and capacity in ways that a leadership team or board might not. Additionally, strategic plans often include some sort of timeline or prioritization of work. Timelines can often become less useful without perspectives of those who will actually execute the work. Once a deadline is missed or prioritization is misaligned, then the whole plan risks becoming irrelevant or outdated. Further, if organizations use the plan to evaluate success, then employees should have a say in how they define success. You might also use this process to encourage employees to push their own boundaries in a meaningful and collaborative way. So, including and truly using employee voices in the planning process and as the plan is implemented is key for success.
Set realistic goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). Strategic plans risk collecting dust on the shelf unless organizations can use them as a realistic roadmap to guide their work. Building from the first two tips, realistic goals should reflect where the organization is today and should be based on employee experiences. For a plan to be motivating and aspirational, it is key for employees to see how their daily work contributes to it in a meaningful way. For example, it is hard for employees to feel they are making progress on the strategic plan if they’re being measured against critical actions that are too far in the future or goals that are outdated because the long-term vision has changed. To set realistic goals, be mindful of your starting line and find specific key performance indicators that are a few paces out (but not at the finish line). More proximal KPIs provide greater short-term direction and facilitate engagement with the strategic plan and progress over time. At first glance, proximal KPIs might not seem to fit with the long-term horizon of a 5-year plan; however, we encourage organizations to examine and update their KPIs on a quarterly basis to reflect their progress, acknowledge ongoing changes to the landscape, and re-align on next steps. This strategy helps to support ongoing use and engagement with a strategic plan as a living document.
Each of these three tips can help to create a strong strategic plan with the best possible goals for your organization to measure success. If you would like additional support with strategic planning, feel free to reach out!