Strategic planning is the process whereby an organization defines its strategy, or direction, and then makes decisions on scheduling, priorities, resource allocation and expected outcomes. A good strategic plan will also include actions for guiding the implementation of the strategy and a method that will allow accurate measurement of the actual results attained. For many organizations, strategic planning is a daunting process, and once the plan is completed, little attention is paid to effectively implementing the plan and measuring its successes and/or failures.
A good strategic plan requires input from everyone who will be affected by its requirements. Board members, management, staff and often, key clients should all be consulted when determining where a strategic plan should go. All actions contemplated by the plan should respond in some manner to the organization’s mission statement, goals and objectives or other guiding documents. If an action is not directly related to why an organization exists, it should probably be left out of the strategic plan.
Finally, a strategic plan is a living document. It should be the guiding light for the organization’s daily activities, and should be reviewed regularly to determine if the strategy is still relevant, if adaptation is required to account for changing internal and external changes, and if progress on the actions in the plan is taking place.
Often, organizations will contract an outside facilitator to guide the Board through the strategic planning process. This is beneficial because the facilitator has no vested interests in any part of the operation, so they can be objective in asking questions and directing discussion to get to the heart of the material contained in the plan. The facilitator may help conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis with key parties to determine a baseline from which the strategic planning session can take place and give direction to the discussion leading up to creating the plan.