Strategic Planning

A Methodology for �Organizational Excellence

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Carlynn D. Nichols, LMSW

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic Planning

A successful strategic planning process will examine and make informed projections about environmental realities to help an organization anticipate and respond to change by clarifying its mission and goals; targeting spending; and reshaping its programs, fundraising and other aspects of operations.

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Strategic Planning

A strategic plan is a tool that provides guidance in fulfilling a mission with maximum efficiency and impact. If it is to be effective and useful, it should articulate specific goals and describe the action steps and resources needed to accomplish them.

Strategic Planning

• As a rule, most strategic plans should be reviewed and revamped every three to five years. 

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• A successful plan is, by definition, a usable plan–one that informs the organization’s activities as well as its long-range view, and one that yields meaningful improvements in effectiveness, capacity and relevance.

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Strategic Planning

Planning must be Inclusive …

• The strategic planning process should include an opportunity for all board and staff to come together and analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) facing the organization. 

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Strategic Planning

Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats…

• The SWOT analysis helps everyone focus on key priorities.
• The strengths and weaknesses are internal – how is the organization positioned, what are the internal challenges and what are the areas where the organization shines? Board and staff may be considered a strength as well as the organization’s reputation and history, and weaknesses could be capacity, infrastructure etc.
• Opportunities and threats are external. Opportunities may be new program areas; new funding; and community collaborations.
• Threats could be government regulations; the economy; or competition.

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Strategic Planning

• Strategic plans do not predict the future. The strategic plan proposes future action steps but cannot predict exact implementation activities out into the future. The plan will, however, take into account the business elements of operating a nimble nonprofit and help guide future resource development and deployment. 

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• You may find yourself in two years realizing that what was thought to be very important is less so and that something else has come in from left field, which was totally unexpected. You need to be flexible and designing a process whereby you check in every six months will allow for nimbleness. 

A LIVING DOCUMENT

Strategic Planning

A Living Document

Make the plan operational by attaching time lines, assigning responsibilities to people and creating a budget.

• A clear and comprehensive grasp of external opportunities and challenges.
• A realistic and comprehensive assessment of the organization’s strengths and limitations
• An inclusive approach
• An empowered planning committee
• Involvement of senior leadership
• Sharing of responsibility by board and staff members
• Learning from best practices
• Clear priorities and an implementation plan

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Mission and Vision

Mission

• Why does the organization exist?
• What is the reason for being?

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Vision

• How will your community be changed, and made better by what you have done?

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Values and Beliefs

• Core values means the shoulds and shouldn'ts of the company. What is the organization at its core? What are the most important principles that should guide its every action and decision?

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• Developing four to five core values is important to company identity and culture, but they shouldn’t be manufactured. Don’t create new values and attempt to implement them at the company later. Instead, look for what is already present. Everyone involved may have an idea of what these values are; and putting them in writing will solidify them.

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• Purpose is another consideration, and it goes hand-in-hand with core values. Why does the organization exist? What’s its point? Getting a clear understanding of purpose and values is the first step toward creating strategies and plans.

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INTENTIONAL FOCUS

Identify your BHAG

Big Hairy Audacious Goal

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Every business needs a big hairy audacious goal, or BHAG, as coined by the great business thinker Jim Collins. This is the Everest the organization will climb over the next 10 to 30 years. The goal can be qualitative or quantitative, but it should be measurable.

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This huge goal serves as a major motivator for everyone in the organization -- it gives the whole team something to work toward. The BHAG is where the company sees itself down the road, so all plans and strategies should work toward getting it there.

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TCC BHAG

To be recognized As the Best Children’s

Service Provider in the Nation

(October 2008 – September 2023)

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Qualifiers

Research and Evaluation

Growth

Outcomes

Best Place to Work

Philanthropic Funding

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Hedgehog Concept

• What you can be the best in the world at (and, equally important what you cannot be the best in the world at). If you cannot be the best in the world at your core business, then your core business cannot form the basis of your Hedgehog Concept. This basic understanding goes far beyond core competence. A core competency does not guarantee that you can be best in the world at it. Conversely, what you can be the best at might not even be something in which you are currently engaged.

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• What drives your economic engine? Most of the good-to-great companies discovered a single driving denominator as profit per x, which had the greatest impact on their economics. For social sector, instead of economic, resource engine – which is broken into three parts as time, money, and brand.

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• What you are deeply passionate about. The good-to-great companies focused on those activities that ignited their passion. The idea here is not to stimulate passion but to discover what makes you passionate.

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Hedgehog Concept

Key Elements

Goals

• These are outcome statements that define what an organization is trying to accomplish, both programmatically and organizationally.
• Goals need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

Metrics

• You cannot manage what you do not measure.  
• Making people accountable is impossible without measurement. 
• Without metrics it is impossible to forecast your future.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Strategies and plans need to be measured in a way that makes sense for the organization. Key performance indicators and critical numbers should line up with the brand promises, and brand promises should reflect the core values and purpose. Everything must be aligned

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TCC Strategic Plan

• BHAG
• Qualifiers
• 3 Year Focus Areas
• 1 Year Initiatives
• Quarterly Rocks

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STRATEGIC DISCIPLINE

Strategic Discipline

• Priorities
• Meetings Cadence
• Execution

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Strategic Discipline: Priorities

• Knowing what to focus on is critical

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• Where and what do you put your energy toward? Is it one of the Four Decisions; People, Strategy, Execution or Cash?

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• Once you determine what it is, you need to make it your One Thing. To the exclusion of all others you must concentrate on this. In doing so not only will you achieve it, you will drag other important priorities with it toward accomplishment.

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• Your One Thing is the equivalent of the blitzkrieg military strategy, placing all of your forces at the enemy's weakest point. Make sure it is the proper priority and that your time and resources are well invested.

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Strategic Discipline: Meetings

The MEETING RHYTHM is the heartbeat of the organization. Like Jazz, which is improvisational, a great company must master the underlying discipline to allow for excellence.

• Huddle
• Weekly Meeting
• Monthly Meeting
• Quarterly and Annual Planning Meetings

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Strategic Discipline: Meetings

Monthly Management Meeting.  Half-day to Full-day meeting to learn and collaborate and address one or two big issues requiring several hours of effort.

• The Monthly Strategic is the most interesting kind of meeting for leaders, and the most important indicator of a company's strategic aptitude. 
• It is the appropriate place for big topics, those that will have a long-term impact on the business. 
• These issues require more time and a different setting, one in which participants can brainstorm, debate, present ideas and wrestle with one another in pursuit of the optimal long-term solution. 
• Each strategic meeting should include no more than one or two topics and should allow roughly two hours for each topic. 

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Quarterly and Annual Planning meetings.  One to Three-Day off-site to establish the next quarterly or annual theme.  Set the strategic direction for the year and beyond.

• The Quarterly Off-Site Review is an opportunity for team members to step away from the business, literally and figuratively, to reassess a variety of issues: the interpersonal performance of the team, the company's strategy, the performance of top-tier and bottom-tier employees, morale, competitive threats and industry trends. 
• These can last anywhere from the better part of a day to two full days each quarter.

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Strategic Discipline: Meetings

Daily Huddle.  5–15-minute meeting to discuss tactical issues and provide updates.  Saves needless email exchanges. Answer these questions: “What’s up today?” “What could prevent me from having a great day?”

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Weekly Meeting.  60–90-minute discussion to review progress on the quarterly priorities and tap brainpower on one or two main topics.  Keeps priorities top of mind.   Start by sharing good news, then review priorities and discuss gaps in progress.  Spend most of the time on one or two topics.

• The Weekly Tactical is what most people have come to know as staff meetings. These should be approximately an hour in length, give or take 20 minutes, and should focus on the discussion and resolution of issues which effect near term objectives. Ironically, these work best if there is no pre-set agenda. 
• Instead, the team should quickly review one another's priorities and the team's overall scorecard, and then decide on what to discuss during the remainder of the meeting. This will help them avoid wasting time on trivial issues and focus only on those issues that are truly relevant and critical. 
• The key to making these tactical meetings work is having the discipline to identify and postpone the discussion of more strategic topics, which brings us to the third kind of meeting. 

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Strategic Discipline: Execution

Break your BHAG down into a 90-day focus.  Choose a quarterly theme to rally everyone around what’s most important right now.

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• What’s the single most important thing going on in our business in the next 90 days that we want everyone to be aligned on?
• Everything needs a number – a determined outcome that is tracked by a key performance indicator.  If you’re not measuring it, it’s not going to get done.

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TCC 90 Day ROCKS

• Complete and Implement a Revised Procurement Process.
• Ensure Outcome Measurements are Implemented and Included in an Outcomes Dashboard Available to all Leadership and Management Team Members.
• Develop the Short-Term (12 month) Campus/Off-Campus Plan.
• Design/Create a Staff Recognition and Appreciation Program.

Contact Information

• Carlynn Nichols, LMSW

Chief Clinical Officer

313-262-1193

cnichols@thechildrenscenter.com

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References

• Harish, Vern (2002) Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
• Collins, Jim (2010) Good to Great
• Lencioni, Patrick (2004) Death by Meeting
• Harish, Vern (2014) Scaling Up
• Allison, Michael (2015) Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide for Dynamic Times
• Kirst-Ashman, K., and Grafton H. Hull Jr. (2014) Generalist Practice with Organizations and Community, 6th Edition

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