If you’ve spent much time working in the nonprofit sector, you’ve probably noticed a ritual that occurs every 3 to 5 years or so in almost every organization. It goes like this: The leadership announces it’s time to do a new strategic plan. This might be driven by the requirements of a funder, or because someone noticed the current strategic plan is about to “expire.” A committee is formed. Perhaps a consultant is hired. Retreats are scheduled. Discussions are had. After 6-9 months, a glossy plan is produced. The plan is distributed to the staff, who promptly put it in a drawer or on a shelf, where it sits untouched. After a short while, no one can quite remember what’s in the plan. It exists on the website, but it doesn’t figure prominently into any decision-making that the organization undertakes. It gives the appearance of clarity, but has no discernible impact on the work of the organization. After 3 or 5 years, someone realizes it’s time for a new strategic plan, and the cycle repeats. Lots of time, money, and energy get invested in the process, with no actual payoff. Sound familiar?
In my experience, the reason that this happens is that most nonprofit strategic plans do not actually contain any strategy. Instead, they are a laundry list of dozens of ambitions. Ambitions are important and inspiring, but they are not strategy. Strategy is, at its core, an exercise in problem-solving. As famed strategy expert Richard Rumelt puts it, a strategy is a design for overcoming a high-stakes challenge. When you think of strategy in this way, you can develop strategies that aim to solve problems rather than simply state desired outcomes.
So, what does it look like to develop real strategy? Over the past decade of running my nonprofit consulting practice, I’ve honed a process for facilitating teams to do just that. Here is what it looks like:
Step One: Vision
Ambitions should be the starting place for your strategic plan, not the end point. What is the organization aiming to achieve? What is your vision for the future? Try to articulate where you’d like to be in contrast with where you are currently.
Step Two: Identify Challenges
What is getting in the way of your organization achieving its ambitions? What are the biggest barriers to forward progress? Make a list.
Step Three: Prioritize
Not every challenge can be addressed at once. Prioritization can be difficult for an ambitious organization, but it is absolutely necessary in strategy development. Identify which one or two of your challenges are key challenges– ones that are highly important and also actionable. These are what you will focus your strategy on.
Step Four: Analyze
For each of your key challenges, ask yourself: What makes this problem hard? What are the contours of this challenge? What is the crux of it? Try to unpack it. Consider external factors and trends as well as internal factors.
Step Five: Develop an Approach
Based on your analysis, what are you going to do about this problem? Which path will you choose to overcome it? Consider an overall approach that will build on your organization’s strengths or unique value proposition.
Step Six: Develop Action Steps
A strategy includes action items for the near future. What are the specific things we are going to do about this in the next 6-12 months? Outline what will be done by when, and by who.
Also consider when to involve your broader set of stakeholders. While your strategy team should comprise a cross-section of your organization, there will be moments when it’s important to hear from a broader range of your people: staff, board members, constituents, etc. Do you need their input on your ambitions? Do you need their perspective on what the key challenges are? Do you need to pressure test your approach or action steps before you implement them? Think about when and how to engage stakeholders via surveys, interviews, or focus groups.
By following these steps, your team will not only walk away with a plan that contains actual strategy, but will have developed its “muscle” for strategic thinking. This will be useful as you put your strategy into action, because you will get real-time feedback and will likely need to adjust your plan as needed. As the next key challenge reveals itself, you will have the ability to repeat the steps and continuously apply strategic thinking.
If we want our sector to be successful, it’s time to abandon the old way of doing strategic planning. Rather than wish lists, we need plans that outline a cohesive response to an important challenge. The stakes are too high to continue operating without the benefit of real strategy.