Strategic Planning

A recent two part article, here and here, about strategic planning, concluding it is not all that important—unless it is done for the right reasons and in the right way—generated a rebuttal from a consultant who facilitates strategic planning, as do I, which captures the need for it wisely, in this article from The Blue Avocado.

An excerpt.

“I am an unapologetic advocate of traditional strategic planning.

“I have to admit I am not a disinterested party in this debate. As a consultant with nonprofits for the last twenty years, much of my work has been done under the umbrella of strategic planning. I continue to do this work because I believe strategic planning is both necessary and provides a unique contribution to nonprofit organization effectiveness. In this piece and from this perspective, I respond to some of the major complaints about strategic planning that were outlined in Blue Avocado's critique.

“Strategic planning is made irrelevant by major shifts in the environment.

“Funding was cut for some of my clients by 20% to 40% in 2009. In the cases where these clients had recently completed strategic plans, they had frameworks that were incredibly helpful in making a series of very difficult decisions in a short period of time. Why were these frameworks so helpful? Because they had clarity about their most important priorities and values. In some cases it accelerated planned actions, such as closing a program or organization restructuring facilitated by laying off unproductive staff. In other cases it just helped in making painful decisions that, if resources had remained constant, they would much preferred not to have made.

“Strategic planning is pushed by expensive consultants.

“My neighbor Sean is a plumber. He is a very good plumber and has never let me down. I have hired bad plumbers and know what that's like. He is "expensive" in that he charges more than many other plumbers, and certainly more expensive than the out-of-pocket cost of doing it myself. But when I think about the cost in time and money, let alone the hassle and frustration of the job being done wrong (which is often the case when I do it myself), I find that Sean is a very good value.

"Expensive" is a relative term. What defines an "expensive consultant"? Even spending a few months poorly is a very expensive undertaking when one thinks about how scarce the major resource of most organizations is: the time of staff and board members. Alternatively, developing a clear strategic plan that has board and staff energized and focused can help people move mountains.

“Strategic planning takes a long time.

“I have done strategic planning work with a dozen organizations in the past two years. The cost ranged from $3,600 (where I coached a very sophisticated executive director) to over $60,000 where a great deal of research was required and an unusual amount of stakeholder engagement was desired. The time required ranged from a few months to almost two years. The $3,600 project took 18 months -- in large part because the plan was built around a very large capital campaign and needed a very high level of support from many, many key constituents before the plan could be "approved." The time it takes to do strategic planning is highly flexible and should be determined by the needs of the organization.

“Strategic planning is too often driven by funders.

“The role of funders in trying to support improvements in organizational effectiveness is hotly debated. The reason I believe many funders often ask for (and occasionally insist on) a strategic plan is entirely understandable: they want to know what an organization is trying to do and how it plans to do it. They also want to know that the leadership of an organization is intentional about its work and have taken the trouble to engage its constituencies meaningfully in the broader vision and strategy. A plan in this case is a proxy. (And, if an organization does not have a strategic plan document, but is truly clear about its priorities, strategies, resources, governance, etc., a document can be produced in a matter of days.)”