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In this series on strategic planning, my goal is to outline principles that inform the development of a strategic planning process.  The first principle is that agencies need to connect the planning process and their organizational culture.  The second principle is that strategic planning must be tied to a clear and specific agenda in order to be beneficial.  In this post the principle of momentum and process is introduced.

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Previously I used the illustration of a new Executive Director of a nonprofit agency who had inherited a series of iterative yet similar strategic plans from her predecessors.  As she and I spoke about these plans it became clear that her need was to create momentum and process for the board and staff around the existing strategic plans rather than creating a new plan. The fallacy of many strategic planning processes, I suggested, is that many agencies treat strategic planning as “an event” or “a product” rather than seeing strategic planning as the launch point for a process that requires momentum and long-term engagement.

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Consider how many strategic plans are developed.  Senior management or the board of an agency decides that a strategic plan needs to be created (typically tied to a three or five year planning cycle). So a retreat is scheduled at some off-site location and everyone is convened.  The goal is to spend a period of time engaged in a facilitated process involving many pages of easel chart paper. Events like these range from an irrational 4 hours to a more rational span of a couple of days. Usually a small team or an external consultant then digests the proceedings and puts them in the context of a document that is launched a couple of weeks later.  The written plan often contains goals and objectives and in some cases maybe even a workplan.  However, it is precisely at this point where more than one strategic plan dies.  The reason for the death is that “the event” is over. When the plan arrives on the desk or in the email box of the staff members, any momentum created in the planning retreat has long since been consumed by the day-to-day work and the plan becomes just one more “data point” competing for time, energy and attention. Raise your hand if this description resonates with you.  Whoa, look at all those hands.  Okay you can put your hands down. How can the process be different?

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As the two previous posts suggest, reflective thinking is required before embarking on strategic planning.  By considering how the strategic planning process will support and reinforce an organizational culture and by focusing the process on a clear strategic agenda, an agency has already set in motion a dynamic that will produce a different kind of strategic plan.  The third reflection that will give a different energy and life to the plan is to carefully consider how your agency will create an “implementation environment” for the plan.  This should not be hard to do because a strategic plan has the embedded DNA of motion and action in the goals, objectives and workplan. While strategic planning is typically based on an assessment and collaborative planning (such as a retreat) an agency needs to also create an intentional process that empowers staff members and provides resources to support the plan implementation.  Here are three ideas for creating process and momentum for strategic planning.

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Share Leadership before the Process: Too often strategic planning is a function owned by the senior staff and/or agency board.  I have observed this even in organizations that otherwise have an egalitarian management style.  Incremental change can be managed narrowly but strategy is inherently a broad, systems-level level function that must be shared.  As the authors of  Forces for Good: The six practices of high impact nonprofits, eloquently observe, that only by giving power away and empowering others do groups develop networks and movements large enough to catalyze widespread social change. One way to create a model of shared leadership is to involve the entire team in the pre-planning process.  Using an appreciative inquiry model or another deliberative dialogue process, all stakeholders should be drawn into the circle of leadership and as the process is planned everyone has a voice and understands that s/he has a stake in the success of the planning process.

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Creating a Shared Space: One powerful way foster momentum and process is to create and facilitate “shared space,” where everyone involved has a place to “gather” and “contribute” to the implementation of the plan.  For example, a couple months ago I was at a meeting at the offices of a small and nimble nonprofit agency.  While the space was cramped one large wall had a large 4’ X 6’ dry erase board that had a series of performance metrics packed with visual tracking diagrams such as a thermometer and a pie chart color coded by month.  The board captured the major operating principles of the agency’s strategic plan and the entire team could update, annotate and collectively track progress towards the goal.  For larger organizations and distributed teams technology might play a significant role (here’s how).

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Resource the Process:  A third idea for helping to create momentum is to fully resource the implementation process. I have seen more than once a company pour a lot of resources into the front-end of the planning process by such things as hiring consultants, hosting off-site planning retreats and developing four-color glossy published documents at the end of the plan but then expect the plan to remain a living, animated document without any additional resources.  Resourcing the implementation of the strategic plan is important to the plan’s success. At a minimum, resources need to include: a) time for staff to devote energy and effort to the implementation process, b) additional staff training or other professional development related to plan implementation, c) creation of feedback loops, and 4) the designation a process facilitator.  Without the time, knowledge, tools, and a facilitator with the authority to keep the team focused, engaged and supported then strategic planning runs a high risk of being a “product” or “event” rather than a process that significantly advances the agenda of your agency.

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Aligning strategic planning with your organizational culture, defining a clear and compelling agenda, and creating structures to support the implementation process are three principles to consider before implementing a strategic plan.  The next post in this series will close the loop by discussing the principle of accountability in strategic planning –  who is accountable, to whom, and for what?

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As always, your comments are welcome.

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