Strategic Planning
Among the most effective organizations are those who
- Are clear and consistent on their “Why”
- Define consistently “How” they operate, behave, and make decisions among themselves
- Can articulate “What” they do and in the service of whom
Your Clear Next Step is pleased to facilitate a strategic planning, which often begins with strategic visioning to help you through this critical work.
If you’ve already completed strategic visioning, and are looking for support with updating your plan for the next quarter, year, or 3-5 years, we’re happy to help you with that, as well! We can provide any and all of the following Facilitation support activities of strategic planning!
- Mission/Vision/Values Facilitation – helps ensure alignment around why we exist, how we behave, what we do, and who we serve.
- Strategic Visioning Facilitation – helps take the organizational mission/vision/values and the current moment in time, and cast a vision for the future (generally 3-5 years)
- Strategic Planning Facilitation – helps prioritize action plans following the gathering of strategic vision work, to ensure alignment and to move from idea to action
- Change Management Coaching and Support – helps support transition of ideas from idea to implementation for significant change
In larger organizations, each of the steps 1-3 could be a half day each or more, and they can be completed in an accelerated approach when appropriate for smaller organizations.
1. Strategic Planning Facilitation
Strategic Planning Facilitation includes the support that Your Clear Next Step will provide to help you facilitate your strategic planning activities.
Strategic Planning includes preparation, facilitation, and follow-up.
Preparation includes bringing the documentation and the facilitator and the current stakeholders up to date on current state and on what has already been done and how that continues to be true within the current situations, as well as on any inputs that need to be considered for a given strategic planning session.
Depending on the strategic planning event, this could include any of the following:
- documentation review, such as existing strategic plans, operational plans, employee or customer or member feedback, etc.
- conversations with the organizational contact person to firm up logistics, ask questions or discuss topics that need further clarification and to gather advanced information about the participants.
- focus groups, surveys, or one-on-one or small-group interviews to gather relevant information or input from a larger audience than those who will be participating in the session.
- preparation of flip charts and transcription documentation tools so that they are ready-to-go for the session.
- a pre-read for participants, which is emailed to the organization contact for distribution prior to the session.
Facilitation includes the actual facilitated meeting or event, in-person or virtual, during which the appropriate participants are brought together, using appropriate tools, templates, and expert facilitation, to create actionable plans to elicit, prioritize, and document actionable plans to implement the strategy identified. Your Clear Next Step facilitator will guide the activities, chart-write the outputs, and monitor team dynamics.
Depending on whether the conversation is “visioning” (in which case the participants are casting a vision for the future) or “planning” (in which case the participants are helping identify and prioritize the specific actions that need to be taken at a more concrete level), different techniques may be used.
Follow-Up includes the post-facilitation check-ins that are identified during the preparation and facilitation stages. Some events will require more follow-up than others.
- Some will be immediately handed off to one of the attendees for in-session transcriptions and action items.
- Others will have a single follow-up document with transcriptions and action items from the session.
- Others will have periodic check-ins to determine what action has taken place.
Outcomes: From a multi-part strategic planning activity, the client will have actionable strategic plans that will help guide and shape operational and other work for the next three to five years that is aligned with the Mission, Goals, and Values of the client.
2. Change Management Coaching, and Support
Change management is critical to successfully rolling out concepts like new core values, new strategic plans, and large initiatives. Every strategic plan generates creates change of some sort, so leading change is an essential skill for successful those closest to driving the strategic plan. Our change management resources include training, coaching, and consulting, to provide you just-in-time resources to meet your needs.
Change Management Coaching includes supporting you while you grow.
We are committed to providing the support needed to upskill your team members as you grow your Change Management capability. 4-hour bundles of Change Management coaching are available to be scheduled in increments as small as 30 minutes for individuals or small-groups as needed.
Outcomes: From Change management consulting, coaching, and support, your team will have internal team members who have access to expert change practitioners and who are supported as they roll out any changes created by the strategic plan, and who have the ability to grow with the skills, tools, and confidence to successfully change initiatives going forward.
This can be supplemented with Change Management Training
What is Change Management and why is it important to Strategic Planning?
Many times, when organizations complete strategic planning, they change something from the way things were to the way things are going to be. Any change - from hanging new curtains, to offering a new service or new service hours, to changing the way users access information, or moving things around within a building, opening a new facility, resurfacing the parking lot, or changing staff can have an impact on the people connected with the organization. And many people struggle with change.
Change management is the art and science of helping people through the process of change and transition. It’s the tools, communication, process, and expertise that goes into preparing people for the change ahead, helping them through letting go of what was, dealing with the bumps and bruises and inconveniences that often come with periods of transition, and helping them stabilize and delight in the new.
Dedicating sufficient time, energy, and attention to change management when preparing for and executing a strategic plan ensures more timely and more cost-efficient implementation of changes, more satisfied stakeholders, and a more successful overall strategy delivery.
At your Clear Next Step, we are committed to improving workdays for you and your people. We can give your team the skills and tools they need to co-create better workdays.
