Why Plan?
Planning means that your organization will:
- Provide services that meet the community’s changing needs
- Anticipate financial or funding changes
- Establish a process for ongoing operations
- Enable the board and staff to make proactive rather than reactive decisions
- Help the board, committees and staff to develop a consistent understanding of their roles and responsibilities
- Establish a framework for relationships with government and with other agencies
- Provide the community with an understanding of the work of the organization
- Create a basis for evaluations
Principles for Planning
Keep in mind the following principles when planning:
1. Participation in the planning process significantly increases commitment to the final product.
2. The leadership of the organization must demonstrate its ongoing commitment to the plan in a
consistent and visible manner.
3. If an activity is to be undertaken, it must have a “champion”: someone who is committed to
seeing that the activity is implemented.
4. The plan must be consistent with the values of the organization; commitment to the plan is
based upon a consistency of values.
5. The plan must provide challenging yet reasonable assignments. These should be delegated
with sufficient authority to permit independent work and accomplishment.
6. In order to generate momentum for implementation, some action to achieve the mission, vision,
and strategic goals should begin before planning is formally completed.
Planning and Monitoring
Planning, monitoring, and evaluating are part of an integrated process. Regardless of their board model, all boards must plan for the future of their organization and take steps to implement their vision. Thus, the fundamental role of the board in relation to planning and monitoring is threefold:
1. Create and continually reshape the mission of the organization.
2. Develop goals that will move the organization towards its mission, as part of a strategic plan.
3. Monitor how effectively the organization is achieving its strategic plan.
Boards, especially collectives or working boards, may choose to undertake planning that involves more steps than the ones listed above.
Strategic Planning Process
When conducting strategic planning, organizations used to consider a 10-year timeframe. Now that the rate of change in the world is so rapid, this is no longer a realistic plan. The focus of strategic planning in modern times is on planning for change. As a process, plans need to be fluid. There are many models for strategic planning--some less formally structured than others--but most contain the following steps:
1. Preparing to Plan
- Who will be involved and at what stages
- Assessing organizational readiness and openness to the planning process
2. Environmental Scan
- Evaluate how well the organization is working now
- Consider views and feedback from clients, other agencies, and the community about what the organization should be doing
- Consider factors in the organization’s environment that may be of critical importance in the future
3. Vision and Mission
The vision statement should reflect the values of the organization and what the board would like it to be doing in the future, including the intended impact on the community. A mission statement should define the basic purpose of the organization - its reason for being. It should explain in one or two sentences what the organization does, and for whom. Deciding on the vision and mission of the organization is a fundamental role of the board; however, it can be developed jointly by the board and staff for ultimate approval by the board.
4. Strategic Goals
Strategic goals identify a limited number of priorities where the organization will focus its energy during the period covered by the plan. These priorities can span up to five years but should be reviewed annually. When creating strategic goals the board must:
- Describe the desired directions or outcomes for each of these areas;
- Define how success will be evaluated for each area.
Strategic goals should be:
- Consistent with the mission statement and vision;
- More specific than the mission statement;
- Based on community data;
- Focused on what the organization wants to achieve within five years.
5. Operational Objectives
Operational objectives describe how the organization will implement a strategic goal. Each goal can have a number of objectives. An objective:
- Describes how the strategic goal will be met;
- States specific, concrete results;
- Is short-range, usually covering a one-year time frame;
- Is measurable;
- Is developed annually.
6. Allocate Resources
Human, financial, and other resources are needed in order to implement action plans. The availability of resources will impact which actions are developed. It will sometimes be necessary to allocate resources to priority action items.
7. Action Plans
Developed for each strategic goal, action plans usually include the following elements:
- The set of actions required to implement the strategic goal;
- A timeline for the actions;
- Who is responsible for each action;
- Support and resources required (materials, money, information, etc.);
- Decision points within the process;
- Monitoring and evaluation of the achievement of the strategic goal.
8. Monitor, Evaluate and Re-Assess
The Board is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the plan. The information the board asks for as part of its monitoring function must relate directly and clearly to the board’s role.
Questions to ask:
- What decisions are needed?
- Are the required decisions within the role of the board?
- Is the information needed to make these decisions available?
When activities are completed, a different set of questions needs to be considered by the board in order to evaluate the activities. These questions include:
- What impact did the activities have on the community?
- What has been learned about how our business is conducted?
- What could happen differently in the future?