What Strategic Planning Can Do… And What It Can’t.

or: When Strategic Planning Gets in the Way

In this column, Bob Greene, TSNE senior consultant, shares some thoughts on when strategic planning actually gets in the way of addressing priority organizational issues. These are topics key to his specialty of organizational development and other areas in which TSNE provides consulting services.

Strategic planning has been in vogue for several years in the non-profit sector. In part because many funders are requiring – and funding – it, and because, in many cases, strategic planning can be so valuable, it is now seen as vital for every nonprofit. At the right time and under the right conditions, strategic planning can indeed be just what an organization needs to move forward in a focused and effective way.

Yet strategic planning has also become an example of the old joke: “if you’re a hammer, every problem is a nail.” Strategic planning is often seen as a cure-all for numerous organizational ailments that it is not well-suited to help. In a previous Consultants Corner article, I described qualities of strategic plans that are useful for effective decision making. Unfortunately many a strategic plan is, as mentioned in that article, “primarily a list of good ideas (often in bullet-point format) that does not factor into ongoing board and staff decision making.”

Strategic Planning: When It Works

At its best, strategic planning helps a spectrum of organizational stakeholders come together and build consensus around a clear mission and strategic direction. Planning helps articulate what makes an organization unique in the “marketplace” of nonprofits – so valuable for developing the fundraising “ask.” And an often overlooked benefit of an adequate strategic planning process is providing data on an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as perspectives regarding community needs and trends.

In order to conduct an honest self-assessment, listen to community concerns, and make often difficult decisions about what to do and what not to do moving forward, there need to be several conditions in place, including:

• Excellent communication
• Good negotiation skills
• An adequate level of trust
• An absence of debilitating conflict
• A capable and engaged board
• Staff and volunteer leaders able to foster effective collaboration rather than try and control the outcome 

Ignoring the Deeper Organizational Issues

Strategic planning isn’t likely to work well in brand-new start-ups and organizations in emergency-room, “life-support” conditions. Planning requires time and effort, and stakeholder engagement, despite the often busy workloads staff and volunteers maintain. And strategic planning is not the best tool in many situations:

• Strategic planning is not the way to resolve deep and lingering conflict, develop an effective board, cope with an overly controlling founder or leader and other common nonprofit issues.
• Strategic planning will not suddenly save an organization that is sinking fast due to financial or other troubles.
• Strategic planning will not resolve serious deficiencies in operations, such as poor supervision, inadequate financial management, a culture of fear and antagonism, and leadership that lacks self-awareness of their own strengths and limitations.

Yet even where there are significant internal problems, organizations may press on with planning regardless, resulting in a plan that can be vague and superficial, adopting a “lowest-common-denominator” to achieve agreement. I’ve seen planning delayed and even derailed because the internal fissures are too great to step over. In these scenarios, the most pressing issues – which may be more important at the moment than the lack of a strategic plan – are not addressed. Planning, therefore, can get in the way of addressing the most serious organizational issues.

Hone Your Focus

Here are some ideas to make the most of planning or focus on what’s needed most:

• Don’t rush into planning without having an honest and searching conversation about readiness. Are there other issues that are vital to address first, which would then provide a more solid basis for strategic planning?
  
  
• Consider conducting an organizational assessment before committing to strategic planning. An assessment will identify organizational strengths and the most crucial areas for improvement – which may include the need for a strategic plan.
  And if strategic planning is called for, the assessment will serve in good measure as part of the situation assessment data-gathering that every planning process should begin with.
  
  
• Rather than immediately funding strategic planning in every situation, funders should consider supporting capacity building in two phases, with an organizational assessment first and a second phase to support working on one or more of the key issues identified in the assessment.
  
  
• If short-term planning is needed, even though the conditions for full strategic planning are not in place, consider briefer strategic thinking exercises to plan for a brief “bridge” period until a more full planning process can be carried out. For example, consider the questions regarding mission or do analyses of fit and viability as mentioned in the previous article, Do You Use Your Strategic Plan?

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Comments:

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Anonymous @ 7/20/2011 12:27:23 PM 

Thanks very much for this interesting column. I'm left wondering about who the key stakeholders are for creating an effective plan? And the level of participation that should be expected? Need outside consultants always be involved? Maybe this is fodder for your next article. :)

Anonymous @ 7/21/2011 3:16:39 PM 

Thanks for your questions. This article was not a how-to, so I'm not surprised you still have questions. And the answers will be different for different organizations. Those are the kinds of questions I discuss when consulting with planning clients or conducting a training. We take a collaborative approach to planning that involves key stakeholders. One thing a consultant can bring is experience with multiple planning processes and neutral facilitation skills. But no, an outside consultant is not always necessary. Contact me at TSNE, if you'd like, and we can chat about the specifics of your organization.
Regards,
Bob

Anonymous @ 9/17/2011 11:43:18 AM 

Bob,
Thank you so very much for your continuous coaching.

Willair

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