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A strategic plan, at best, is a road map between your dream and reality. At worst, a strategic plan is a forgotten booklet on a dusty bookshelf. Therefore, it is essential for every social leader to master the art of productive strategic planning. I have facilitated lots of powerful strategic plans. So, let me share my secrets with you.

My Rules for Strategic Planning

KISS it – Keep it short and simple. Otherwise, no one will read, or understand, your strategic plan.

Make it collaborative – Engage your employees, volunteers, clients, community stakeholders and Board of Directors in drafting your strategic plan.

Keep it between 3 to 5 years – The world is changing so fast, planning beyond the next 3 to 5 years might be a waste of time.

Your Strategic Plan

First, Understand your Current Situation

These analyses don’t need to be included in the text of your strategic plan. But, they are crucial to figuring out your organization’s future direction.

Context

As a group, review the context your organization is working in. What is happening in the world? How are your stakeholders’ lives changing? Identify important trends that may affect the course of your work in the next few years.

Your Financials

Analyze your organization’s financials to understand how you are spending and generating money. How much do you invest in serving each of your clients? Does it vary by type? What are the costs associated to the things you do or want to do? Where does your income come from? What are the trends? In my experience, few social leaders really understand their financials at this level.

Vision

Your vision is a short-hand version of your dream. It describes your dream for the world. It is your “why?” as a social leader. The vision is usually a brief sentence. But, it can also be a picture or a short poem. The important thing is that it connects and inspires you.

Mission

Your mission is a concise sentence describing what you do to achieve your vision (ie. your dream). Do you provide a service? For whom?

Values

Your organization’s shared values are the driving force of your culture. What do you believe? What is important to you? Usually, this is a list of words or phrases.

Organization

How is your organization structuring itself to conduct its mission? Describe whether you are organized by programs or functions or geography. Is your group very hierarchical or are there very few managers? This section normally features an organization chart and some explanation of the relationship between your Board of Directors, employees, volunteers and stakeholders.

Theory of Change

Your theory of change is, in essence, how you think your dream can actually happen? Who has the power to make it happen? How do you influence those people who can make it happen? Although many experts make this very complicated, I like to boil it down to a short sentence or diagram.

Your theory of change should be reflected in your mission. For example, let’s say your dream (ie. your vision) is full legal rights for transgender people. And, let’s say your theory of change states “Laws change when passionate voters pressure local legislators on an issue”. Then, your mission should probably focus on making voters passionate about full legal rights for transgender people.

Business/Operation Model

While a business model is a classic in corporate circles, it is also a useful concept for social leaders. Simply put, it describes how your organization spends, as well as generates, money and resources. It is the idea that makes your efforts financially sustainable. Your business model should be tied to your mission and consistent with your values.

If we continue the example above, your business model might be “We spend money producing and distributing educational material on transgender rights for voting adults in our area. We generate money (to pay for that) by providing paid training sessions on transgender rights to corporations, universities and law schools. We also generate money through an advocate member program.”

Focus Areas/Initiatives

This section lists your organization’s core initiatives and programs.

General Goals

What are your top goals or objectives for the next few years? These goals, preferably less than 5, reflect your way to further your mission during this strategic plan period. I like to include a short qualitative description of each goal, as well as a numerical measure of its success.

Strategies (for Each General Goal)

The final section of your strategic plan features strategies to accomplish each one of the goals you defined above. Which actions will you take to make a goal a reality? I normally put these in a table of no more than 10 items. For each, write a brief descriptive phrase, define a person responsible, a metric to measure its success and the year when the strategy will be implemented.

Including each strategy’s implementation year will let you know which strategies to include in your next annual Operational Plan.

Need help with strategic planning training or facilitation? Contact me!

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