Strategic and Project Planning‘Plans are worthless, but planning is everything’Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957

Bryan RoachChairmanCrime Stoppers Australia

Crime Stoppers International Training Conference - Barbados

What is Strategic and Project Planning? (For the Not for Profit [NFP] Sector)

Strategic PlanningThe process for defining strategy (direction) and decision making For Crime Stoppers, it’s answering: ‘What do we do?’

Project PlanningA discipline for stating how to complete a project within a certain timeframe, usually with defined stages, and with designated resources. It deals with:

Project Scope – work needed to be done to achieve a goal / objectiveProject Resources – people and cost of doing that workProject Schedule – time it will take to achieve milestones to complete that work

Strategic Planning!

Strategic Planning

Why strategically plan?Increasing pressure on NFPs to demonstrate capacity to use resources responsibly and strategically – no different for Crime Stoppers

Increasing need for NFPs to provide clear indications of results and how they have changed the lives of their target group

To ensure NFPs are accountable and that their processes are transparent

To think through the issues and risks, and to document what NFPs are doing, for whom, and why they are doing it

To encourage examination of established directions and strategies for contemporary relevance and results

Strategic Planning

To ensure and maintain public accountability, Boards of Directors must ask difficult questions and encourage discussion:

Do we need to change our mission?What is our target community and has it shifted its focus or needs?Should we abandon much loved programs that have outlived their usefulness and concentrate our resources elsewhere by doing something different?Is there enough capacity and commitment within our team to achieve our objectives?

Strategic planning is used for one purpose only – to help an organisation to do a better job.

Strategic Planning Successful strategic planning process must:

Be inclusive – involve all stakeholders – Board of Directors, and paid and volunteer staff, clients, sponsors, and the communityFocus on the vision and priorities in response to a changing environmentEnsure that members and broader membership across Regions, Nations through to the smallest jurisdictions, are all working toward the same objectives

The strategic plan is to document:Where the organisation is goingwhat it needs to do to get therehow it is progressing along the waythat a full account of the results it achieves will be delivered at the appropriate time

Strategic Planning

The Process (Conduct a SWOT Analysis):Conduct an Environmental scanPlot a Direction Develop a mission statementSet Goals / Objectives

Action Planning:Prioritise Activities (Develop Projects)Prepare for EvaluationPrepare Budgets

Strategic Planning Strategic Planning is a Process:

Strategic plan is not a monument, or an end in itself, but rather a means of achieving its purposeThose responsible must have flexibility and authority - to be creative and be able to respond to new developments:

Need to change previously approved / selected activities in the light of new opportunities or challengesNeed to remain aligned with the mission

Builds commitment and embraces public accountability:Engages with key stakeholdersIdentifies prioritiesEvaluates strategies

Project Planning!

How the Customer explained it

How the Project Manager understood it

How the Analyst designed it

How the Programmer wrote it

How the Business Consultant described it

How the Project was documented

What Operations installed

How the Customer was billed

How it was supported What the Customer really needed!

Project Planning What do you do if you don’t have a Project Plan?

Create one!NFP activities, events, campaigns, promotions are all projects:

no matter how big or small, projects must be fully considered – need:

ScopeResources (people and funding)Schedule

without a Project Plan the organisation, stakeholders, beneficiaries, the community may suffer poor outcomes

Project Planning A Project Plan can help to:

Improve communication with the community, our clientsIncrease the transparency of our own workHelp us to become more organisedHelp us to focus on the project goal (the successful end product) – so we don’t get lost along the way – use Milestones (Goals)

Milestones should be SMART:SpecificMeasurableAchievableRealistic andTime limited

Project Planning Conduct Planning

Identify your Milestones (SMART Goals)Describe the Tasks and Resources needed to achieve themDetermine the time needed to achieve them

Develop a schedule, calendar, or Gantt Chart to provide a graphical overview of:the planthe resourcesthe tasks in a given period of timethe budget

Is there life after planning?Yes – now you must deliver throughout the life of the projectKeep within the allotted time and budgetUse a Project Management Tool for complex projects

Biggest Mistakes You Can MakeOver Ambitious CommitmentLack of People ManagementIgnoring Trivial ProblemsLack of CommunicationPoor Time ManagementLack of Cost ManagementInability to Adapt to ChangesMisjudging User ExpectationsLack of LeadershipInability to say “NO”

Strategic and Project PlanningConclusion

Strategic PlanningThe process for defining strategy (direction) and decision making ‘What is it that we do?’

Project PlanningA discipline for stating how to complete a project within a certain timeframe, usually with defined stages, and with designated resources.

Questions?