It’s hard to accomplish anything without a plan. Whether you’re coaching a football team, cooking Thanksgiving dinner, or running a small business, you need a strategic plan. Strategic planning is one of those corporate phrases that may be, at first glance, intimidating. A for-profit phrase applied to non-profit organizations? Absolutely.
Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. It may also extend to control mechanisms for guiding the implementation of the strategy. Strategic planning is the process executives undertake in order to make thoughtful decisions about their organization’s mission, values and goals, and properly allocate resources to fulfill those directives. You may already have undertaken strategic planning in your head, but developing the ideas on paper will give your organization direction.
Developing a strategic plan might seem like an overwhelming process, but if you break it down, it’s easy to tackle. Here’s my five-step approach:
- Determine where you are.
- Identify what’s important.
- Define what you must achieve.
- Determine who is accountable.
- Review. Review. Review.
A strategic plan is a wonderful thing. It can help you take your new or existing organization to places you never thought possible. Let me help you lay out a strategic plan now. It will help keep your organization on track and lay the groundwork for a fulfilling future!