This document outlines a strategic planning course that covers key concepts and tools for developing strategic plans. The course consists of two sessions. Session 1 introduces strategic planning models and includes a case study and group discussions. Session 2 reviews required readings, presentations on performance measurement, and how to apply lessons back to participants' organizations. Instructors are available for individual consultations. The document provides an example case study and outlines the strategic planning process, emphasizing developing a plan of action through task forces to achieve organizational objectives. It stresses that strategic planning helps set direction, gain commitment, and enable informed decisions through a realistic assessment of strengths and opportunities.

1. Strategic Planning
“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might
end up somewhere else.”
- Casey Stengel

2. Course Outline and Objectives
Session 1:
• Strategic planning tools, language and models being used today
• Case study: Ann Storck Center, Ft. Lauderdale
• Small group discussions
Your Strategic Plan:
• Work one-on-one with instructors
• Instructors are available for individual consultation throughout the week and
via phone and e-mail.
Session 2:
• Review required readings
• Short presentations
• Conducting performance measurements and a balanced scorecard
• Taking what you have learned back to your organization

3. An Outside Set of Eyes
Case Study:
The Ann Stork Center
Servicing the developmentally disabled
Located Ft. Lauderdale

4. The Ann Storck Center
• Hired the FIU Florida Institute of Government as a
consultant
• not necessary to hire consultant to get “big
picture perspective”
• Goal: to develop a strategic and marketing plan
• What we do and how we do it; fundamentals and
means

5. An Outside Set of Eyes
Central Issue:
• Senior management and board’s perceived need to
review “the big picture”
• Most felt like they were facing a pivot point
• Disengagement of board
• Appointed accounting firm recommended getting an
“outside set of eyes"
• Operating deficits required offsetting contributions

6. What was accomplished:
• Developed a strategic planning tool that lead to a business
plan rather than a marketing plan
• A 3-5 year plan is realistic; no more than that
• Provided a document that no one could “avoid”
• Sometimes it is easier to accept coming from the “outside”
An Outside Set of Eyes

7. Why Are You Here?
• Do you have a formal strategic plan?
• Do you step back regularly and evaluate WHAT YOU DO &
HOW YOU DO IT? Is the BIG PICTURE clear?
• Where are you in the lifecycle of your organization:
adolescence, middle-age, decline?
• Do you see a pivot point or change on the horizon?
• Think about what you want to get out of this course

8. Words of Wisdom
The Future Comes Quickly
“You know, at one time there must have been
dozens of companies making buggy whips. And
I'll bet the last company around was the one that
made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever
saw.”
- Danny DeVito, Other People’s Money, (1991)
Planning is
fun and
productive

9. Exercise I:
 Following 5 questions are the basis of the Peter Drucker
book series that you have in front of you
 Take 10 minutes and answer the 5 questions in terms of
your own organization
• WHERE ARE WE NOW?
• WHAT DO WE HAVE TO WORK WITH?
• WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE?
• HOW DO WE GET THERE?

10. Strategic Planning
for the Future

11. • Provides Common Game Plan
• Sets Direction
• Helps Gain Commitment
• Enables Managers and Leaders to Make Informed
Decisions
• Determines How Resources Will Be Used
Why Plan?

12. Major Elements of A Strategic Plan
• Assessment of the Current Environment
• Vision and Mission
• Strategy
• Goals and Objectives
• Action Plans
• Implementation
• Evaluation and Modification

13. Strategic Planning Features
• It is a focused process that concentrates on
selected issues most important to a nonprofit
organizations vision
• It realistically assesses an organization and its
strengths and opportunities while considering
other elements in the environment

14. Strategic Planning Features, con’t.
• It explicitly considers resource availability and how
resources can be used most effectively
• It considers major events and changes occurring
outside the organization and the impact they can be
expected to have on the organization
• It is action oriented with a strong emphasis on
implementation and achievement of practical results

15. Benefits of Strategic Planning
• Helps to accomplish most important things
• Helps educate members of the
organization about plans and builds
consensus about important issues and
actions necessary to address these issues

16. Benefits of Strategic Planning, con’t.
• Can position the organization to seize
opportunities
• Can shed new light on important issues
through rigorous analysis
• Helps to identify the most effective use of
limited resources

17. Guidelines for Strategic Planning
• Set broad policy directions based upon the values
and goals of the organization
• Analyze global, national, regional, and industry
trends that affect the organization
• Identify local strengths and opportunities,
particularly in relation to other NPO’s –what
makes your NPO unique? What is your
competitive advantage?

18. Guidelines for Strategic Planning, con’t.
• Select key issues
• Conduct further analysis of external and
internal factors after key issues are identified
• Develop a plan of action
• Evaluate, modify, and update the plan

19. Strategic Planning:
Cyclical and Continuous

20. How to Develop and
Implement a Strategic Plan
within a Committee or Task
Force Structure – or alone

21. The How to……
• Develop a base of Information
• Identify Major Issue Areas
• Identify and Map Assets
• Identify Favorable and Unfavorable “SWOT”
Factors
• Develop a Vision Statement

22. SWOT Analysis
• Strengths
• characteristics of the organization or team that give it an advantage
• Weaknesses
• characteristics that place the organization at a disadvantage
• Opportunities
• external chances to make greater sales, profits or impact
• Threats
• external elements in the environment that could cause problems
Exercise II:
Take 15 min. and do a mini-SWOT analysis on
your organization

23. The How to……
• Develop a mission statement (write a
statement of purpose to guide activities)
• Prepare a Goal Statement (establish a list of
goals and purposes)
• Develop Specific Objectives Under Each
Stated Goal
• Form Committees of Task Forces (5-8
members) to address Specific Objectives

24. The How to……
• Each Group or Task Force Develops Tactical
Strategies for Implementation of Each
Objective in an Action Plan
• The Task Force Presents a Report to the
Whole Group, Advisory Board or
Committee for Evaluation and Feedback

25. The How to…
• Tasks Force Representatives Present
Reports to Key Decision Makers
(stakeholders) and the Public as Deemed
Appropriate
• Progress Reports are Due at Appointed
Times (3-6 months)

26. Strategic Planning Can Be Used To
Determine Organizational Mission, Vision,
Values, Goals, Objectives, Roles and
Responsibilities, Timelines, etc.
Strategic Planning Is the First Step In the
Development of a Results-Based Accountability
System

27. Strategic Planning Questions
Can you add anything to your first response?
• Where are we now?
• What do we have to work with?
• Where do we want to be ?
• How do we get there?

28. Strategic Planning Assumptions
• The Organization must Be Responsive to a
Dynamic, Changing Environment
• Decisions Must Ensure the Organizations
Ability to Successfully Respond to Changes
in the Environment

29. Strategic Planning and Strategic Thinking
• Strategic Planning is only Useful if it Supports Strategic
Thinking that Leads to Strategic Management
• Strategic Thinking “Are we doing the right thing?”
• Definite Purpose
• An Understanding of the Environment in Particular
the Forces that Affect or Impede the Fulfillment of the
Purpose
• Creativity in Developing an Effective Response to
those Forces

30. Strategic Management
• Strategic Management is the Application of
Strategic Thinking to the Job of Leading an
Organization
• Strategic Management continually asks “Are
we doing the right thing?”
• Strategic Management focuses on the “Big
Picture” and the Willingness to Adapt to
Changing Circumstances

31. Elements of Strategic Management
• Formulation of the Organizations Future Mission in
Light of Changing External Factors (i.e. regulation,
competition, technology, customers, etc.)
• Development of a Competitive Strategy to Achieve
the Mission
• Creation of an Organizational Structure that will
Deploy Resources to Successfully Carry out the
Strategy

32. The Five Most Important Questions You
Will Ever Ask About Your Organization
1. What is our mission?
2. Who is our customer?
3. What does the customer value?
4. What are our results?
5. What is our plan?

33. What is Our Mission?
• What is the current mission?
• What are our challenges?
• What are our opportunities?
• Does the mission need to be revisited?
Relationship to Elements of a Strategic Plan
• Assessment of the Current Environment
• Vision and Mission Assessment

34. Who is Our Customer?
• Who is our primary customer?
• Who are our supporting customers?
• How will our customers change?
Relationship to Elements of a Strategic Plan
• Considers events and changes occurring outside the
organization & the impact they can be expected to have
on the organization
• Helps educate members of the organization about
plans and builds consensus about important issues and
actions necessary to address these issues

35. What Does the Customer Value?
• What do we believe our primary and
supporting customers value?
• What knowledge do we need to gain from
our customers?
• How will I participate in gaining this
knowledge?

36. What Does the Customer Value, con’t.?
Relationships to Elements of a Strategic Plan
• Can shed new light on important issues through
rigorous analysis
• Sets broad policy direction based on the values
and goals of the organization
• Helps to accomplish the most important things

37. What are Our Results?
How do we define results?
Are we successful?
How should we define results?
What must we strengthen or abandon?

38. What are our results, con’t?
Relationship to Elements of a Strategic Plan
• It is a focused process that concentrates on selected
issues important to a nonprofit organizations vision
• It realistically assess an organization and its strengths
and opportunities while considering other elements
in the environment

39. What is our Plan?
• Should the mission be changed?
• What are our goals?

40. What is our Plan, con’t?
Relationship to Elements of a Strategic Plan
• Develop a base of Information
• Identify Major Issue Areas
• Identify and Map Assets
• Identify Favorable and Unfavorable “SWOT” Factors
• Prepare a Goal Statement & Establish A list of Goals
and Purposes

41. What is our Plan, con’t?
Relationship – con’t……
• Develop Specific Objectives Under Each Stated Goal
• Form Committees or Assign those Responsible to
Address Specific Objectives
• Those assigned will Develop Tactical Strategies for
Implementation of Each Objective in an Action Plan
• Monitor, Evaluate, Report, and Modify Action Plans
as Necessary

42. Exercise III:
Take 15 min. and answer the following:
1. What is our mission?
2. Who is our customer?
3. What does the customer value?
4. What are our results?
5. What is our plan?

43. Strategy is Only One Ingredient:
A Balanced Scorecard
Having the “game plan” requires
vision…but there are other
components.

44. Other Critical Factors
Are you a “learning” organization?
• Per Drucker—is dissent encouraged?
• Can you learn from mistakes?
• Are personnel given timely and meaningful
feedback on performance?
• Can you recruit and retain qualified personnel?
• Salary issues
• “Politics”

45. Other Critical Factors II
• Do you have scheduled “customer” feedback
on outcomes and processes?
• Can IT provide the necessary information on
a “need to know basis”?
• Does the reward structure (financial and
“other”) send the signals that foster
productivity?

46. Other Factors III
You need to understand strategy…but…
• It is one of many factors regarding organizational
health
• It may not mean much without the means for
execution
• Staying connected with an ever-changing
environment requires “eternal vigilance”

47. On to the BSC
Per Drucker: Do you have a plan?
• Great…but how do you track performance?
• The dominant performance indicators are financial
• Scarcity applies to all organizations, public, private and non-profit
• We tend to be a short-term oriented culture; the next quarter or year is
what counts
• Financial metrics are easy to design and generally accepted

48. Norton and Kaplan’s Paradigm Shift
• Harvard Business Review article of 1992 may be on of the most
influential in history
• Financials are critical but…
• They are lagging (i.e., rear view)
• They tend to be short-term
• They ultimately reflect a wider range of qualitative factors
(both strategic and tactical)
• Hence the need for a “Balanced Scorecard”

49. So, We Need Balance
• Financials in the non-profit/public sector: tend to
emphasize cost-effectiveness
• Customers: are we listening to needs and wants
• Internal Business Processes: how do we process
people, data, etc., rapidly and cheaply?
• Learning and Growth: Human capital drives success
and adds value

50. Generally Accepted Framework
• Has become the basis of many “dashboards”
• Is not viewed as perfect but certainly plausible
• Forces decision makers to see indicators
outside of the financial box
• Places human capital at the forefront of value
added in an organization

51. Exercise IV:
Take 15 min.
What a balanced scorecard would look like for your
organization?
What are your key performance indicators?
• Financials
• Customers
• Internal Business Processes
• Learning & Growth

52. References:
Excerpts from the following articles and book were used to
develop this presentation:
• Strategic Planning Process: Steps in Developing Strategic Plans
By Diane Schilder, Harvard Family Research Project
• What is Strategic Planning; The Nonprofit FAQ, Idealist.org
• Module 2 – Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations,
Improving Boards and Organizational Effectiveness
• The Five Most Important Questions you will Ever Ask About
your Organization; by Peter F. Drucker et.al., Leader to Leader
Institute