Strategic Planning

What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is the process of determining: (1) what your organization intends to accomplish, and (2) how you will direct the organization and its resources toward accomplishing these goals over the coming months and years. Such planning usually involves fundamental choices about:

  • The mission, goals, or vision your organization will pursue
  • Whom you will serve
  • The organization’s role in the community
  • The kinds of programming, services, or products you will offer
  • The resources needed to succeed – people, money, expertise, relationships, facilities, and so forth
  • How you can best combine these resources, programming, and relationships to accomplish your organization’s mission

Strategic planning is often distinguished from another kind of planning – operational or short-range planning. Operational planning is what non-profit organizations do when they develop yearly work plans and budgets. Operational plans are usually narrower in scope than strategic plans and focus on a shorter period – for example, one year instead of three or five. Both kinds of planning are useful. Strategic planning can be used to chart the longer-term direction and goals for your organization. Operational plans can then be developed to show how, in the coming year, your organization will move toward the future described in its strategic plan.

Finding the Fit

How does an organization determine the best course for the future? One key is to find the fit among three forces – your mission, outside opportunities, and capabilities.

  • The mission of your chapter – what you intend to accomplish, your overall goal and the reason that you exist. SCTE•ISBE’s mission is “Providing technical leadership for telecommunications industry and serving its members through excellence in professional development, standards, certification, and information.” Your chapter’s mission is to carry this out in your local area.
  • Opportunities or threats your chapter faces – related to the resources and needs of the people you serve, competitors, allies, or other major forces that will influence whether you succeed or fail.
  • Your chapter’s capabilities – the resources or competence that you currently have or can develop.

How to Develop a Strategic Plan

Each chapter has a distinctive situation and style. You should use a process that fits your chapter’s organization and context. Below is a description of the Wilder Foundation model, which outlines five basic steps. These steps can be adapted and modified to fit your group.

Step 1: Get Organized

The first step is to organize the planning process. The step usually includes deciding that strategic planning is appropriate at this time; selecting a person or a team to keep the planning on track; determining what people and groups will be involved; deciding if you need an outside facilitator; outlining the planning steps; and getting consensus to proceed.

Step 2: Take Stock (situation analysis)

In Step 2, chapters often review their history and current situation and then begin to identify future possibilities and choices. From this analysis, your chapter will identify the most critical issues of choices concerning your future.

Step 3: Set Direction

In Step 3, leaders determine the best future direction for the chapter, then develop a draft of the strategic plan. This usually includes the mission, a vision or overall approach for accomplishing the mission, and specific goals for moving the chapter in the direction envisioned. Some plans also include more detailed information related to future meetings, offerings, and resources.

Step 4: Refine and Adopt the Plan

The next step is to refine and tune up the draft plan. In this step, the first draft – if it seems generally on target – is sharpened to increase the likelihood of successful implementation and ensure broad-based commitment.

Step 5: Implement the Plan

A good plan needs good implementation. In Step 5 the chapter implements the plan, periodically monitors progress, makes adjustments, then updates the plan yearly.

The most important things to remember when going through this process is to design a planning process that you can realistically complete and to stay focused on the most critical issues and concerns.

Taking Stock

List the Chapter’s Core Strengths:

List the Chapter’s Weaknesses/Opportunities for Improvement:

Out of the above list, select 2-3 main opportunities for improvement to focus on:

1.

2.

3.

Set A Direction

For each item, specify 2-3 steps that can be taken to help achieve that goal. Assign people to be responsible for helping to achieve those goals and deadlines for each task.

Goal #1:

Action Item / Players Involved / Proposed Deadline

Goal #2:

Action Item / Players Involved / Proposed Deadline

Goal #3:

Action Item / Players Involved / Proposed Deadline