Strategy first…

The world around your organization moves quickly.  Donors change direction, economies grow and shrink, new governments open opportunities, communities change – is your strategic plan reflecting that?

Most organizations have some version of an operational plan pretending to be a strategic plan. These put actions into order, states who is in charge of doing what, and results in a completed task or output.

Very useful… but not strategic.  A strategic plan asks questions like:

• What are the trends, both internal and external?
• What will our service or product users expect from us in the future?
• What key stakeholders should we know to fill relationship gaps?
• What skills do we have now, and what skills will we need in the next 3 to 5 years?
• What information do we need to start gathering to get critical insights into key areas that pose opportunities or challenges?

Each organization is different, and I’ll work with you to determine what needs to be researched and explored so you can make informed decisions.

…action second

At the end of the day, your organization still needs to achieve something.  I’ll work with you to show how your operational plans can feed into your strategic plan, and can even work with managers to help it all snap together.

Let’s leverage your greatest assets

A lot of strategic planning happens behind closed doors.  While this can make sense for some sensitive decisions, it does keep staff disengaged, and puts a lot of pressure on the people around the table to know every facet of the organization.

I’ll work with you to get the mix right.  Consider how inviting insights from staff at all levels, your service users, customers, suppliers, donors, etc., into well designed processes could help compile an accurate picture of your organization.

Let’s connect

Send me an email and let’s explore how thinking strategically can help.