How to develop a strategic plan
If you have completed the preparation suggested on the previous pages, taking note of culture and context, and involving as many stakeholders as possible, you should now be able to develop and document a plan that will map out your organisation’s future direction. The steps leading to the development of this plan, possibly conducted as a two-day workshop, are as follows...
1. Establish rapport and outline the program.
Get the group together, welcome participants, engage them in activities designed to build trust and confidence with fellow participants, then introduce the program outline (which follows), detailing areas to be covered with time estimates. Invite participants’ comments, offer explanations, and make additions or deletions as necessary.
2. Articulate a vision.
Using information already compiled from the preliminary sessions and the expertise within the group, work through the following process which focuses on articulating a vision. This process, adapted from James Collins and Jerry Porras, and outlined in topic 302, requires that you:
- isolate the 3 to 5 core values held in the organisation
- identify its core purpose or reason for being
- draft a description of that future in the form of a vision statement.
The process will also influence the development of a mission statement.
3. Consider existing and new opportunities.
You need to encourage the group to consider the information compiled as a result of that preliminary exercise. If you used the SWOT approach, for example, consider the following:
- Invite participants to work alone to consider and record any additional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats not recorded. This encourages participation by everyone.
- Form into pairs to discuss individuals’ lists and compile one list representing combined contributions.
- Repeat the process in groups of ‘fours’, then ‘eights’.
- Group and categorise the final refined lists under broad headings such as ‘production’, 'marketing', ‘communication’, ‘management or administration’, and so on.
Considering various scenarios, either prepared previously or created by the group, can also be used to identify opportunities.
Your final list will contain those issues that are considered crucial to the organisation's growth and profitability over the ensuing period, the next few years, say.
