Product
I facilitate and lead custom-designed planning processes to:
- articulate a vision for your organization
- create or re-visit your mission statement
- develop a statement of values or beliefs
- do an environmental scan of an organization’s internal strengths and challenges
- do an environmental scan of the context in which your organization works — what has changed? What are the opportunities to be embraced or the potential challenges to be considered as you move forward?
- set strategic directions
- identify objectives to be accomplished within the directions
- create workplans to achieve the objectives
- establish evaluation frameworks so evidence of the progress made is communicated to relevant stakeholders
Impact
Aside from the above products, a planning exercise can serve an organization in many ways. It can provide:
- a (renewed) vision of the world the organization hopes to create
- a greater alignment of staff and volunteers with the organization’s mission and goals
- a set of goals based on community need and organizational wisdom
- an accountability framework for staff, management and board of directors
- a decision about an important choice
- an even stronger more effective team
- a document that will assist in communication with external stakeholders
My processes are designed to provide the desired product and impact.
My Process
With my clients, we develop the answers to these three key questions:
- What results (product, organizational impact) do you want from this planning process?
- Who are the stakeholders in your organization? Given your desired results, which of these do you want to be involved in the planning process?
- How much time, energy and money do you choose to put into this process?
Then together, we develop a process that meets the client’s full needs for the process. In most cases, I lead the process and I write up the results in the form of a strategic plan. Every planning process I lead has new or differently done elements responding to the needs of my clients.
Eighteen months after the completion of the plan, I check back with clients to learn how the plan has served them.
See Profile section for a list of some of my planning clients.