I spent the past weekend at a strategic planning session with a local non –profit organization.  For me it was a labor of love but I must admit that I was at times a little impatient with the process.  For me strategic planning is a tedious process that involves many hours of brainstorming and digesting information.  But this occasion caused me to focus on a few key issues that I’d like to share. 

First, the session forces me to listen to the various perspectives of both staff and board members alike.  This helped me to learn more about the people involved in the organization.  By listening to others you not only gain insight into what motivates individual members of your team or organization but you also learn more about individual strengths and thus you can then assign goals and objectives that play to those strengths.  Too often we spend much of our time and effort criticizing team members because of their lack of expertise or skill levels.  Often, this causes conflict and frustration among the team.  However, if you play to a person’s strengths you are implementing a strategy for success.  People tend to complete those tasks they enjoy and thus they are more enthusiastic about the objective.

Next, one of the most apparent differences that impact the way people approach strategic initiatives is whether they are sequential thinkers or global thinkers.  Global thinkers have a need to know the big picture prior to being able to consider the details.  Sequential thinkers tend to concentrate of the individual elements which will lead to the overall goal or vision.  Many times this too is a source of frustration.  Global thinkers tend to think that discussion of details is tedious and time consuming.  Sequential thinkers believe that global thinking may be a waste of time because by focusing on the individual tasks you inevitably will achieve the over-arching goals and objectives.  The truth is that you need to do both.  Every organization needs to know its vision.  Ever organization needs to complete individual operational activities as well.

The third issue is that simply by putting everyone together in one room for a period of time helps build organizational culture.  Providing everyone with an opportunity to voice their opinion helps individual members to feel connected to the organization.  It helps to have a facilitator to keep the discussion moving forward, but a facilitator is not required for the process to be successful.  It is important however to go through this process periodically; perhaps every two to three years or whenever your organization undergoes a major organizational shift or change.

Lastly, another key to a successful strategic planning session is assigning tasks and holding each member of the organization accountable for the completion of any action steps that are assigned.  More times than I care to admit, I have attended sessions in which the grand ideas that were discussed never come to fruition because once individuals get back on-the-job they forget about their assignments.  Usually this is due to a lack of the organization’s leader’s attention to the tasks.

Before you commit to beginning this process, be sure that you know what you want to achieve as a result of the session.  Some questions to think about include:  What three things will help you achieve your mission?  What are the three greatest challenges you need to overcome in order to be successful?  What are your organization’s greatest strengths and how can you play to those strengths?  Once you lay the foundation with this information, you can then begin to create your own strategic plan.