Strategic Planning and Development Project Ideas
There is no ideal strategic planning model for every organization. Each organization ends up managing its own nature and model of strategic planning, usually by choosing a model and changing it as they go along in creating their own planning procedure. The following models provide a plethera of alternatives from which organizations might select an approach and begin to create their own strategic planning procedure. Take note that an organization might decide to integrate the models, e.g., using a scenario model to inivatively identify strategic issues and goals, and then an issues-based model to carefully strategize to address the issues and achive the goals.
The following models include: “basic” strategic planning, issue-based (or goal-based), scenario, and organic planning.
Basic Strategic Planning
This quite basic procedure is often followed by organizations that are quite small, busy, and have not done a lot of strategic planning before. The procedure might be implemented in year one of the nonprofit to get a sense of how planning is conducted, and then embellished in later years with more planning phases and activities to ensure well rounded direction for the nonprofit. Planning is usually done by top level management.
Organizations that start with the “basic” planning approach described above, often evolve to using this more extensive and much more efficient type of planning. The following table depicts a rather straightforward view of this kind of planning procedure.
Issue-Based Planning
Summary of Issue-Based (or Goal-Based) Strategic Planning
(Take note that an organization may not do all of the following activities every year.)
1. External/internal assessment to identify “SWOT” (Strengths and Weaknesses and Opportunities and Threats)
2. Strategic analysis to identify and prioritize major issues/goals
3. Design major strategies (or programs) to address issues/goals
4. Design/update vision, mission and values(some organizations may do this first in planning)
5. Establish action plans (objectives, resource needs, roles and responsibilities for implementation)
6. Record issues, goals, strategies/programs, updated mission and vision, and action plans in a Strategic Plan document, and attach SWOT, etc.
7. Develop the yearly Operating Plan document(from year one of the multi-year strategic plan)
8. Develop and authorize Budget for year one(allocation of funds needed to fund year one)
9. Conduct the organization’s year-one operations
10.Monitor/review/evaluate/update Strategic Plan document
Scenario Planning
This approach might be used in concert with many other models to ensure planners really undertake strategic thinking. The model may be useful, specifically in identifying strategic issues and goals.
1. Select many outside forces and imagine related changes which might influence the organization, e.g., change in regulations, demographic changes, etc. Scanning the newspaper for important headlines often suggests potential changes that might effect the organization.
2. For each change in a force, discuss three different future organizational scenarios (including best case, worst case, and OK/reasonable case) which could arise with the organization as a result of each change. Reviewing the worst case scenario often provokes strong motivation to change the organization.
3. Suggest what the organization could do, or potential strategies, in each of the three scenarios to respond to each change.
4. Planners soon detect common considerations or strategies that should be addressed to respond to possible external changes.
5. Select the most likely external changes to effect the organization, e.g., over the next three to five years, and identify the most reasonable strategies the organization can undertake to respond to the change.
Organic (or Self-Organizing) Planning
Traditional strategic planning procedurees are often called“mechanistic”or“linear,”i.e., they’re rather general-to-specific or cause and effect in nature. As an example, procedures usually start by conducting a wide assessment of the internal and external environments of the organization, conducting a strategic analysis (“SWOT” analysis), narrowing down to identifying and prioritizing issues, and then managing specific strategies to address the specific problems.
Another view of planning is similar to the creation of an organism, i.e., an “organic,” self organizing procedure. Certain cultures, for example, Native American Indians, might prefer unfolding and naturalistic “organic” planning procedurees more than the traditional mechanistic, linear procedurees. Self organizing requires constant reference to common values, dialoguing around these values, and continual shared reflection around the systems current procedurees. General steps include:
1. Clarify and articulate the organization’s cultural values. Use dialogue and story-boarding methods.
2. Articulate the group’s vision for the organization. Use dialogue and story-boarding methods.
3. On an ongoing basis, for example, once every quarter, dialogue about what procedurees are needed to arrive at the vision and what the group is going to do now about those procedurees.
4. Continually remind yourself and others that this kind of naturalistic planning is never really “over with,” and that, rather, the group needs to learn to conduct its own values clarification, dialogue/reflection, and procedure updates.
5. Be very, very patient.
6. Focus on learning and less on method.
7. Ask the group to reflect on how the organization will portray its strategic plans to stakeholders, etc., who often expect the “mechanistic, linear” plan formats.