Learn how your association can benefit from strategic planning and the steps you will need to take to get an effective, game-changing plan in place.

1. REIMAGINING WHAT'S POSSIBLE
The Power of Strategic Planning

2. 10 Ways To Demystify Your Strategic Planning
Why?
Don’t rebuild
Meatloaf
Define your process
The right players
The right questions
Three L’s
“No”
Measure
Execution plan
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10

3. WHY?

4. Start With ‘Why?’
• This is not a painful, endless mission
statement wordsmithing exercise
• But it’s critical to validate/re-affirm the core
purpose of your organization.
• Is the purpose today as valid as it was
when the mission statement was last
developed and approved? What’s
changed?
• Critical to ensure the new(er) people
around the table understand the “why” at
the core of the planning to come

5. DON’T
REBUILD

6. Why are we here?
It’s how we justify
our annual retreat
The facilitator
made us do it
Great ideas that never
make it beyond the
board room
We need to change
the date on it every
five years
It’s what we’ve
always done

7. Don’t Rebuild.
Reimagine.

8. MEATLOAF

9. Baby,
we can talk all night,
But that ain’t gonna
get us nowhere.

10. DEFINE
YOUR
PROCESS

11. Where are we today?
Where are we going?
How will we measure our success?
How will we get there?
Strategic
Demystified

12. What are we creating?

13. What are we creating?

14. What are we creating?
A Strategic Plan defines the
organization’s overall direction and
generally positions it to move in
that direction.
Ideally it is designed as a set
guardrails within which the
different parts of the organization
can build more detailed
execution-focused plans that will
drive desired outcomes.

15. What are we creating?
Some of the most effective
strategic plans are just
One Page!

16. BRING IN
THE RIGHT
PLAYERS

17. • In some cases, the Board. Or a strategy
committee that feeds recommendations to
the Board.
• Cross section of Board and other key
stakeholders.
• Ensure a diversity of voices from across the
organization.
• Make recommendations, but not decisions.
• Build constructs through which to collect
much broader feedback, inputs, ideas as
you work through your process.
Strategy Committee?

18. The Role of a Successful Facilitator
• Ensure that all voices are heard.
• Continuously push the group
towards decisions and outcomes.
• Analyze and synthesize the work
of the group.
• Test hypotheses – give ideas for
participants to react to.
• Challenge thinking.
• Summarize conclusions.
• Present a written plan.

19. ASK THE
RIGHT
QUESTIONS

20. What do we
believe?
Whom do
we serve?
What do
we do?
Endowment Leadership Program, Eli Lilly Foundation
You can’t make any leap forward unless
you understand and acknowledge your
current position:
• Market
• Capabilities
• Resources
• Budget
Where are We at Today?

21. Be Smart on Approach
Try to gather as many perspectives and inputs from more sources than your
core planning team as your can before you bring people together into planning
sessions.
1:1
Interviews
Surveys
Decision
Tools

22. THE THREE
L’S

23. LOOK

24. LISTEN

25. LEAD

26. THE MAGIC
WORD

27. The art of leadership is saying
no, not saying yes.
It is very easy to say yes.
NO

28. My success, part of it certainly,
is that I have focused on a
few things.
FOCUS

29. NO

30. MEASURE

31. How Will We know?
• For-profit companies use measures such
as earnings or market share to measure
their success against a plan.
• Non-profit organizations tend to use
measures such as membership growth,
program impact, etc., to measure
outcomes.
A Strategic Plan should employ as many
performance metrics as necessary to give the
group’s leadership ample means to measure
progress against plan.

32. How Will We know?
Measurements should help everyone in the organization clearly understand
whether progress is being made on agreed-upon priorities. They should be
simple and clear -- and realistic!
However, metrics should not be based on wild guesses or gut feelings…
“hey, let’s triple our membership over the next three years!”

33. DRIVE AN
EXECUTION
PLAN

34. Optimize Perspective:
Bring the Right People into the Process
Board of Directors – Manage the Why and the What
• Mission Control – Ensure all planned activities align with and support mission
• Manage – Oversee the performance of the organization against the plan
• Budget – Can we afford what we want to do?
Board of Directors:
Manage the Why and the What
Mission Control – Ensure
all planned activities
align with and support
mission
Manage – Oversee the
performance of the
organization against the
plan
Budget – Can we afford
what we want to do?

35. Optimize Perspective:
Bring the Right People into the Process
Committees, Task Forces, Etc. – Determine and Deliver the How
• Develop and execute initiatives in support of the Strategic Plan.
• Provide feedback to Board on obstacles impeding plans or progress.
• Keep the Board apprised of plans and progress.
• Make budget requests in support.

36. Optimize Perspective:
Bring the Right People into the Process
Staff – Drive Execution
• Contribute proposed initiatives in support of the plan.
• Centrally manage the organization’s activities and progress against plan.
• Manage the tactical details, so as to keep key leaders focused strategically.

37. Getting Things Done – Effective Execution Plans
Plan for long term but execute steps in short term increments to track progress.
Each piece of execution needs:
• A clear owner.
• A deadline.
• Clarity around what is being
delivered.

38. Getting Things Done – Effective Execution Plans
Plan for long term but execute steps in short term increments to track progress.
Developed proposed execution plans need
to be reviewed end to end:
• Are there overlaps or gaps?
• Is the organization equipped to do all of
these things?
• Do we have enough budget and resource
(esp. if volunteer-driven)?
• What do we need to stop doing in order to
start on new things?

39. Once a year revisit your plan:
• Check in on progress.
• Is it working?
• Does it need to be adjusted?
Strategic Planning is a
Process, Not a Destination

40. Times change and your plans should too

41. REIMAGINING WHAT'S POSSIBLE
The Power of Strategic Planning
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