Most association executives know the daunting feelings that the development of a new strategic plan can produce. You rely heavily on your volunteer leaders. You must find time on busy calendars. You have to encourage the senior team to rise above day-to-day challenges and think of the big picture. And yet, you know that good planning has the power to position and align your organization for newfound successes, and that alone makes all this hard work worth it.
But where do you begin?
Based on McKinley’s observations and experiences in conducting strategic planning with hundreds of associations, the best place to start is pretty simple: establish a process, including a timeline.
Where to Begin
Depending on the capacity and resources of an organization, a strong planning process can last anywhere from several months to more than a year, incorporating a range of research phases and/or formal planning discussions.
We find that the amount of time required for the process is less critical than having a mutual understanding between volunteer leaders, staff, and other stakeholders about the overall duration of the process.
Before diving into your strategic planning process, it’s important to lay the right groundwork:
- Define your "why." Establish clear objectives and get leadership buy-in before starting the process.
- Consider who should be involved in the process. Assemble a team that may include key staff, board members, and other stakeholders to capture different points of view.
- Decide if you need an external facilitator. A skilled facilitator can transform your planning process. They keep discussions balanced and productive while maintaining focus on your association’s mission and goals.
- Create a realistic timeline and gather essential data. This included past plans, financial trends, and program performance metrics.
Process Elements
There are three key components to a good strategic planning process: a situation assessment, development of the plan document, and performance evaluation.
The situation assessment is a research phase where data — both qualitative and quantitative — is compiled. This data should include operational trends and forecasts; member, customer, and stakeholder sentiment; staff insights; and macro trends for the field and society at large, including economic, political and social changes. Careful compilation of this information provides a solid, data-driven foundation upon which the strategic plan can be built. This step of the planning process has the most variation in time required. If resources are limited, a shorter, less time-intensive research compilation can be built. The greater the available resources, the greater the opportunity to take time to build a deep, rich set of data.
The development of the strategic plan document is the second key element of the planning process. Often done in a retreat-type setting, this is the most familiar aspect of building a strategic plan. Leaders and senior staff roll up their sleeves and, using the conclusions they have been able to draw from the situation assessment phase, build a clear set of strategic priorities and initiatives that will be given extraordinary resources including time, talent and treasure over the life of the plan.
Approaches to Strategic Plan Development
While retreats are a common approach, other methods can be just as effective depending on your association’s culture and needs. You might consider workshops with cross-functional teams, virtual collaboration sessions, or scenario planning exercises. No matter the path you take, the ultimate goal is to turn your assessment findings into clear priorities and actionable objectives.
Two or three days of collaboration are typically required to create the plan, followed by careful refinement and editing by a smaller number of participants.
Finally, and often overlooked, a robust performance evaluation process needs to be established at the outset. What, when and by whom will the performance of the plan be assessed? In what ways will the organization refine or adjust the plan in response to changing trends or issues? A truly strong strategic plan cannot be handled as a static document, but rather as a dynamic guide that leaders use to set and adjust course as conditions and needs warrant.
One of the critical components of the performance evaluation process is the identification of a timespan for the plan itself. While strategic plans are aspirational in nature, they are most effective when focused on a defined length of time. In the past, plans were often developed for five or even 10 years. But the world today moves too quickly and is full of too many uncertainties to plan for extended periods of time. In our experience, the optimal lifetime of the strategic plan is three years. This planning horizon supports forward-thinking goals and initiatives without giving potential shifts in future organizational priorities or the overall landscape the power to render the plan irrelevant.
Implementation: Bringing Your Plan to Life
A strategic plan is only as effective as its execution. Implementation requires a detailed timeline, clear accountability, and regular progress reviews to stay on track and adapt as needed. Celebrate milestones and share successes along the way to keep everyone motivated and moving forward.
So, to recap, getting started on your plan requires a specific focus on:
- A clear and collectively understood process.
- Establishing a research-centric situation assessment.
- Time to build the plan itself.
- A clear and powerful performance evaluation.
Lastly, as you approach the end of your plan’s lifespan, it is critical that your organization recognize that effective strategic planning is a never-ending cycle. The assessment of one plan feeds immediately into the development of the next plan.
Onward
Effective planning outlines a tailored, strategic direction to guide an organization forward and ensures all aspects of the organization are working toward short- and long-term goals, priorities and objectives.
Want to learn more about the strategic planning process? Reach out to our team!
