strategic planning that works

Part One: Overview

Strategic Planning That Works

Cause & Effect Inc. www.ceffect.com2

“Most of our problems upon this planet .. Have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.”

Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor

under Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

1st woman appointed to a US presidential cabinet

Cause & Effect Inc. www.ceffect.com

3

What it is

What’s involved

The five elements of strategic thinking

A look at a few cases

Topics


Other

This is a taste, not the whole meal

Ask questions


What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.

(From Alliance for Nonprofit Management adapted from Bryson's Strategic Planning in Public and Nonprofit Organizations)


Classic Strategic Plan

Mission: Purpose Vision: Transformational aspiration Values: Guidelines for behavior and decisions Organizational Profile & History Critical Issues and Strategies Service/program Goals and Objectives Management Goals and Objectives Critical Benchmarks Budget and Revenue Forecasts


Classic Planning Process

1. Get Ready

2. Articulate the Mission, Vision and Values

3. Assess your current situation

4. Develop Strategies, Goals and Objectives

5. Create the Written Plan


Another way to view the process

1. Get ready

2. Identify starting assumptions

3. Conduct research

4. Digest and Analyze

5. Make decisions

6. Plan for implementation

7. Analyze and adjust


Strategic vs. Long Range Planning What’s the difference?

Long Range Planning – Future is sufficiently reliable to develop a

methodical plan of action Strategic Planning

– Future is dynamic and often unpredictable – Need to grasp an understanding of the changes

and create the flexibility to respond


But what is “strategy?”

A strategy is typically an idea that distinguishes a course of action by its hypothesis that a certain future position offers an advantage for acquiring some designated gain. -- wikipedia


At the heart of strategic planning is STRATEGIC THINKING


What is Strategic Thinking?

A way of thinking that includes five elements:1. Systems Perspective2. Intent Focus3. Intelligent Opportunism4. Thinking in time5. Hypothesis driven

Jeanne Liedtka, Executive Director, Batten Institute, University of Virginia, Darden School of Business, formerly with Boston Consulting Group


1. Systems Perspective

Used with permission of its creator, Thomas Mandle


Think “ecosystem” Consider Mental

Models What are your

Interdependencies? Look inside and without Where do you

Cooperate? Compete? Geographic


What’s in your system?


Systems Analysis (research)

Gather data: community, clients, demographics History Focus groups, surveys, etc Key informant interviews SWOT, Assets/Needs, internal and external Environment: e.g. social & cultural, legal & political,

environmental, competitive, technological Benchmark


2. Intent-focused & intent driven

Direction, discovery, destiny VISION

– Directional– Aspirational– Emotional– Sizeable stretch


Two-sides of a Nonprofit’s Vision

Societal Vision:– Clean and healthy bay that people cherish and

enjoy Organizational Vision

– Dynamic, responsive environmental advocacy organization, with the political clout and financial vibrancy that comes from widespread community support


3. Intelligent Opportunism

Openness to new experience Requires input from all levels Emergent strategy Evolving


From Margaret Wheatly Leadership and the New Science

“Innovation is fostered by information gathered from new connections; from insights gained by journeys into other disciplines or places; from active, collegial networks and fluid open boundaries.

“Innovation arises from ongoing circles of exchange, where information is not just accumulated or stored, but created. Knowledge is generated anew from connections that weren’t there before.”


4. Thinking in Time

“Having seen the future that we want to create, what must we keep from the past, lose from the past and create in the present to get there?”

Charles Handy, author of Age of Unreason and Age of Paradox


5. Hypothesis Driven

Hypothesis Generation – What if...?

Hypothesis Testing– If ... Then

Includes inductive, deductive and abductive reasoning

Creative and critical


Ultimately, Strategic Thinking is a desired way of being

Embedded throughout the organization

Next actions captured in strategic planning


Strategic plans are guaranteed to sit on the shelf when they fail to integrate ongoing strategic thinking


Strategy Making: Liedtka

Strategic Thinking:Disrupting Alignment

Strategic Planning:Creating Alignment

Current Reality

DesiredFuture


Leaders and Strategists see

BIG PICTURE

OPERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS


Making mindful change

Focus is power Expectation shapes

reality Change is painful


What strategic planning is not

An attempt to make future decisions– All decisions are made in the present – They are the best action at this point in time &

under these circumstances Linear & Fixed

– Systemic, circles back, may feel like a roller coaster

– Constantly in need of reevaluation


CASES


Land Trust: 1999 plan

In first 10 years: Slowly preserved 300 acres of

land Success measured in members

and community awareness Volunteers & 2 part time staff Given large grant & told “to do

something”

Strategic Plan Decisions Set real objectives for acres of

land saved Strategy to hire Executive

Director who could raise significant funds and get properties saved

TODAY 1,855 acres under their

protection, 4,424 total acres among all agencies

Highly respected, professional land trust providing support to other local trusts


Community Development Corporation: 2005

Situation 27 years old Shifting focus from housing to lead

paint removal to microenterprise to housing, driven by funding

Most recent Executive Director had alienated many of the key players in community – unable to access needed capital funds for housing

Significant property acquisition without funding to pay for it

About five board members remaining

Strategic Planning Process mattered – Created alignment on mission, vision,

constituents, programs, values, critical assumptions, livable neighborhood criteria

Created measurable goals & objectives Executive director leftResults New ex. director + new staff Dramatic shift community perceptions Completed phase one of neighborhood

project to community accolades Expanded include neighborhood

organizing Grew the board Discussing strategic partnerships and

possible mergers


Latino Service Organization

Situation Grew from small neighborhood

advocacy organization to $1.1 million social service provider in literacy, health, child care, youth programming – state funding dependent

Executive Director led, uninvolved board

Experienced funding ups and downs, major community foundation grant for Executive Director position running out

Strategic Plan Process Engaged key audiences: staff,

board, funders, providers, clients Created community outcomes:

direct services, behavioral change and systems change

Built ownership by getting feedback & next steps with stakeholders

Approved by Board & embraced with excitement by community foundation

Started gap analysis to begin internal alignment

WHEN...


Latino Service Organization (continued)

Executive Director resigned Board faced with large funding gap, by emergency furnace

replacement, loss of some state funding Led to major staff layoffs New Executive Director hired Strategic Plan abandoned


Moral

For strategic planning to work, You need a compelling vision of change The way The will AND the leadership to make it happen


Courage

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!By W.H. Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951):


QUESTIONS?


Thank you

Part Two:

Tools, Tips and Solutions


Gayle L. Gifford, ACFRE

President of Cause & Effect Inc, Gayle is a respected consultant, provocative writer, and creative strategist with a lifetime of experience working, volunteering, & consulting in the nonprofit sector.

Gayle is the author How to make your board dramatically more effective, starting today and, Meaningful Participation, an activist’s guide to collaborative policy making and co-author of Bringing a Development Director on Board.

Gayle holds the advanced fundraising credential ACFRE. She has an M.S. in organization and management from Antioch University New England. She has taught at Simmons College in the Masters in Communications Management and teaches at Brown University in the Masters in Public Humanities and Cultural Studies program.


Cause & Effect Inc. can help you make a difference in the world by creating the internal change that will strengthen your governance, improve your programming, build stronger relationships with your constituencies, or boost your revenues. We’ll work with you on Board development and training, organizational development, strategic planning, group facilitation, public engagement, program development, organizational communications or fundraising.

Contact us at: 401.331.2272, [email protected] or [email protected]

www.CEffect.comGayle L. Gifford, ACFRE or Jonathan W. Howard

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]