Fifteen Burlington-area board and staff members gathered in the Key Bank Board Room on 11/18/15 for a Working Board Lunch to learn more about the value of strategic planning and the role of the Board in ensuring the long-term strategic position of their organizations. Merryn Rutledge of Revisions LLC, delivered a dense one hour of strategic planning know-how from her many years of organizational development experience. Her new book, Strategic Planning Guide for Leaders of Small Organizations includes chapters on who needs to be involved, preparing to plan, scanning the environment, assessing challenges and opportunities and connecting strategy to work plans

1. Strategic Planning
If you don’t know where you’re going,
any plan will do.
Alice in Wonderland
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015
Sturdy plan requirements
• A concise structure
• Action verbs that yield
outcomes
• Measurable outcomes at one or
more plan levels
• Strategic statements are
accompanied by short-term
implementation plans; strategy
is actionable
Conditions for success
• The right people involved in
the right ways
• Data and other information
as inputs
• Terms everybody uses
the same way
• The plan guides decision
making—every step of the way
• The plan infuses your
organization; people see
how their work advances
and connects with the plan
• Well-run meetings
Group guidelines
1. Talk about assumptions.
2. Explain the reasons behind
what you say and do.
3. Make statements and invite questions.
4. Be specific, using examples and data.
5. Share all information relevant
to this meeting.
6. In a conflict, focus on the problem,
not the people.
7. Disagree openly with any group member.
8. Jointly design ways to test
disagreements and solutions.
9. Discuss undiscussable issues.
10. Keep the discussion focused.
11. Avoid “talking over”, interrupting
and side conversation.
12. Avoid comments at others’ expense.
13. Agree on what important words mean.
14. All members participate in all phases
of the process.
15. Be explicit about decision-making
methods.
16. Evaluate meetings.

2. How to
Steps
• Plan the planning
• Sharpen meetings practices
• See what’s present and foresee what’s coming: scan and analyze
• Create the plan’s roof first
• Build each level under the roof, sky to ground
• Organize for implementing, communicating and influencing
• Each time you create a plan, evaluate the process to improve it
• Update the plan formally and periodically
Plan the planning
• What are your purposes?
• What structure and parts suit these purposes?
• Will you use a consultant?
• Whom will you involve and how?
• What’s your planning group?
• Outline the whole process.
Scan and analyze
• Gather information on strengths and gaps
• Create SWOT/SCOT charts to sort and make sense of the data
• Analyze the charts
• Consolidate key findings
The plan structure
• The overall structure. Mission, vision, goals, objectives, a work plan or action plan
(steps, target dates, who is responsible)
• Customize?
• RBA as roof, with 3 levels: goals, objectives, work plan
• Mission/vision as roof, with 2 levels: goals and rubrics. (D. Grant, 2014)
• Vision and mission, created using Appreciative Inquiry, with 3 levels: goals,
objectives, work plan
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015

3. Promote Strategic Thinking and
Organizational Learning
• Keep your heads up, taking the broad, long view
• Reflect, analyze and make decisions based on the broad, long view
• Continuously learn
AND
Make strategic planning the occasion to teach your organization
how to do better decision making, problem solving, creating, and
innovating—all processes that use the Learning Cycle.
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015
David Kolb (1984, 2015)

4. Sticky Wickets and Pitfalls in
Planning
Messy terms
• Mission =
• Vision =
• Goals = strategies,
outcomes, priorities, objectives.
• Objectives = strategies, goals, outcomes
• Work plan = short term plan, one year plan, action plan
Other pitfalls
• Long, florid narratives
• Board doesn’t know or use the plan
• Staff leaders don’t use the plan
• Same old plan stiffens with ages
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015
Gather information;
reflect on it
Analyze
Add it all up: plan
Decide and implement
What is happening now?
Use the Learning Cycle to Update Your Plan

5. The Right People at the Right
Times, In the Right Way
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015
Reflecting on possible stakeholders
• What are your intended purposes for creating a strategic plan?
• Who are the decision makers?
• Who is resistant or in a position to block a plan they don’t own?
• What viewpoints will ensure the plan is truly strategic?
• What technical expertise is needed?
• Who will operationalize the plan?
Thinking through whom to involve and how = stakeholder analysis
• At the table
• Get input and feedback (when, how, how often)
• Keep informed

6. The Right People Involved in the
Right Way--a Sample Process
1. Full board briefing and/or orientation
2. Organize and convene planning group; confirm the desired plan structure
and planning process
3. Input from full staff, full board, other carefully selected stakeholders
4. Do research, and gather other data and information
5. Full board and planning group: scan and analyze inputs
6. 4-6 more planning group meetings:
• RBA Results statement; confirmation that this statement serves as the
strategic plan vision; confirmation of the mission.
• Priorities identified by the scan analysis turned into draft goals.
• Refinement of draft goals, with full board and all-staff feedback.
• Draft objectives for each goal.
• Draft objectives for each goal.
7. Full board review and ratification of Results statement and goals
8. Input on objectives by full staff, via department meetings
9. Senior staff: create work plan (3 meetings, with assignments for each
meeting.
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015

7. Work plan
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015
• Senior staff creates together
• Continue to ask if other staff should be involved
• Each senior manager is responsible for a strategic goal or set of objectives
• Board creates a work plan if there is a board development strategic goal
Goal # Obj # Step Target
date
Who Status
Let’s do it!
Reflect: what are
likely steps?
Sort and choose

8. Board Responsibilities,
a Short Checklist
1. How does the board pay attention to the changing strategic landscape and
engage in ongoing strategic discussions?
2. What are your organization’s ongoing strategic planning processes?
3. What is the board’s role in these processes?
4. How do you ensure the board’s familiarity with the organization’s strategic
thinking and planning?
5. What is the board’s role in ambassadorship, fundraising and development?
6. How does the board regularly and formally evaluate how it functions—its
composition structure, and processes—and make needed improvements?
7. As strategic plans are created and updated, what do plan contents and
structures imply about the board’s composition, size, and structure (e.g.,
committees)?
8. When and how does the board plan its annual calendar, and how do you ensure
that strategic discussions figure in this annual plan?
ReVisions LLC. Dr. Merryn Rutledge, PCC,
GPCC & Bd Certified Coach (c)2015