Simply put, strategic planning is about clarifying the purpose and most important priorities of an organization, and also about how the organization will address those priorities. Sometimes the priorities are about major issues and sometimes about exciting overall goals.
The strategic planning process has to suit the nature and needs of the organization in order to produce a useful strategic plan. Especially for small- to medium-sized organizations, the strategic planning process has to be realistic and flexible. Otherwise the plan ends up sitting on a shelf, collecting dust.
This blog is about doing strategic planning in a manner that is always relevant, realistic and flexible for the organization. We’ll discuss different models of planning, typical phases in a strategic planning process and some guidelines to conduct each phase. We’ll also touch on common pitfalls in planning and how to avoid those.
There are many books about the content that should end up being in a strategic plan, but there are few resources about actually facilitating strategic planning. So we’ll also cover some useful techniques in facilitating planning.
This detailed list of topics gives more detail about the types of topics we’ll be likely to cover and their likely order, as well. However, it’s not uncommon that the topics in a blog tend to follow the wishes of the readers — a blog should be about the readers at least as much as about the blogger’s opinions.
What topics would you like to read? What questions do you have about strategic planning?
Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC, provides organizational development, consultant training and Action Learning services, and is developer of the Free Management Library.