By Sabrina Houser
Where is your organization’s strategic plan and how are you using it in your day-to-day operations? You know the strategic plan we’re referring to: the 3-5 year plan that took many, many person hours to develop, refine and write. The one that brought together staff, board, and stakeholders to articulate a common vision and a path forward toward that vision.
Is it sitting on a shelf in your office in a nicely tabbed binder never to be seen again until you need space on the shelf for something else? This, unfortunately, is the fate of many strategic plans. It is something of an in-joke in the nonprofit sector that the fate of most strategic plans, despite the effort that went into their creation, is to gather dust on a shelf in the office until it is time to develop a new strategic plan to replace it.
When done with purpose, strategic planning is an invigorating, energizing and community building process. It is an inherently motivating and hopeful activity to connect goals and objectives to a shared vision for your organization. Everyone involved feels a sense of accomplishment and shared purpose when the plan is complete.
The truth is that your strategic plan is not an end product: it is a starting point. It is the beginning of your organization’s journey toward the shared vision that has been created. Unfortunately, because staff, Board and the Strategic Planning committee feel their work is finished after the strategic plan is written, the implementation of the completed plan is often left as solely the Executive Director’s responsibility. With no clear plan for implementation, this feels overwhelming. Lack of clarity about authority and coordination of communication and accountability are a death knell for even the most well-developed strategic plan.
