Strategic Planning: What It Is and Why You Want It

Your organization does important work.  No, your organization does vital work.  Think of the people you and your organization serve.  Now, imagine how those people would be negatively affected if your organization ceased to exist tomorrow.  Of course, this would never happen, right?  Well, you hope not, but hoping is not a strategy, nor will it take you to places you need to go in order to serve those people who are relying on you. 

I’ll make a bold statement.  Success is not necessarily indicative of health.  So, what if you’re turning a profit or if you’re servicing more people this quarter than last?  The real question is not, “What is happening?”, it’s “Why is it happening?”  The answer to that question and so many other vital questions comes when you walk through a disciplined, strategic planning process.  In this article, I’ll give you an overview of the thirteen core principles of strategic planning and tell you exactly why they are important to you.  In the coming months, I’ll unpack each of the thirteen principles in detail for you.

A brief overview of the 13 core principles of strategic planning:

1.     Perspective before planning.  Success, in and of itself, is not necessarily indicative of health.  Even if your organization is effective, you must know why.  Would you rather have the view from the valley or the mountain-top?  You must find the truth before it finds you.  To do so, you can use a variety of tools to face current and future truths.

2.     Seek Truth.  There are two types of truth you must seek - current and emerging.  You must face crucial and sometimes difficult conversations.  It’s not easy, but you can do it.  And, you always keep in mind that you’re attacking principles, not people.

3.     The team develops the plan.  Collective wisdom is better wisdom.  Everyone contributes.  In the strategic planning process, you need owners, not advocates.

4.     Facilitated vs. Prescribed.  I bring the process, you bring the content.  If you hire a strategic planning consultant who wants to tell you how to run your organization, fire them immediately.  You and your team already have the answers.  You just need someone with the expertise to draw those answers out for you.

5.     Seek breakthrough.  Horizontal vs. vertical.  Vertical alignment is when the decisions and strategy are set from the top and everyone below is expected to fall in line.   However, horizontal alignment is when strategies are set collectively by multiple representatives with the whole organization in mind.  Vertical alignment sucks energy from an organization, while horizontal creates synergy among departments and staff members.

6.     Planning.  You must develop an architecture of success; a unified master plan based on the organizational distinctives and goals.

7.     Action.  Unified implementation of the core plan through action initiative teams working to accomplish milestones and goals is the way to get it done.

8.     Structure.  Form follows function.  Structure follows the substance of the plan.  You’ll have to develop a structure for executing the unified plan through appropriate and timely decision-making.

9.     Management.  If you plan your work and work your plan, your plan will work. Effective management means managing the whole.  Strategic, operational and financial.

10.  Control.  You manage the plan through strategic control panels which are an integral part of the plan management process.

11.  Learning.  You will continuously improve through the elimination of everything which does not add value and stoking the fires of those pieces that do.  No more sideways energy.

12.  Renewal.  Change is inevitable.  Your management system must help renew and adapt to change constantly. 

13.  New organizational discipline.  Perspective, Plan, Execute, Renew.  It’s a process and you can trust this process.

So, why is this important to you and your organization?  Simple. Because those people we talked about above are waiting for you to bring the clarity, unity, focus, energy to the organization you lead, and they believe in.  You deserve this and so do they.

*Jason Fitch is a certified leadership and strategic planning coach with Lead Self Lead Others, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He is also a certified “StratOp” facilitator with the Paterson Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The 5 Key Relationships You Must Have

You are the average of the people you spend the most time with.  There are some relationships you’ll need to cultivate, some you’ll need to pull away from and some you’ll need to create.  Whatever your current situation, you cannot attain God’s dream for you alone.  Today, we’ll talk about the five crucial relationships you’ll need in place to see your dream take flight.

1. Experts.  These are people working and living out a dream similar to the dream you are called to.  We all need models and mentors and you may need to do some research to find who some of these experts are.  Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  Most of us will need to see and even learn a model before we can adapt it.  As you begin to research who some of these experts are, reach out to them and see how you can learn from afar and even close.  You may be surprised how accessible some people will be if you just ask.  Overall, chemistry is key.  Look for experts and then lean into the relationships with those you feel you click with best.

2. Supporters.  These are people who believe in you, who encourage you and would pray for you if you asked.  Supporters are like a spider web.  The tensile strength of a spider’s silk is greater than that of the same weight of steel.  Further, it has greater elasticity, because of its many points of connection.  Who are the people who will hold you up as you move God’s dream forward for your life?

3. Challengers.  These are the ones who typically tell it like it is.  They are very direct and straight-forward.  We all need these people who will challenge and push us to reach higher and get better.  They will challenge you both by the example of their lives and by the words they speak.  They may not know much about your dream, but they are for you and could play this role if asked.  Caution, these people may threaten you.  You may need some thick skin to gain the valuable perspective a challenger will bring to you.

4. Resourcers.  These will share and sponsor you into their networks and relationships.  Supporters will help you with your dream by providing knowledge, experiences and even financial resources.  Again, chemistry is key, but can you think of some people who deeply care about you and might want to help you pursue your dream by being resourcers?  A word of caution.  These won’t always be the people you would expect most.  Just because they’ve been a supporter does not mean they will become a resourcer.

5. Balancers.  These are the ones who will help you live a healthy and balanced life.  Once you discover God’s dream for your life, it’s easy to pursue it full-throttle, often to the detriment of other vital aspects and people in your life.  We all know people who have burned out doing too much of what they love or have neglected some priorities and have lost valuable parts of their life along the way.  Hear this and hear it well.  You can’t afford to lose your health or relationships that matter most.  Think of people you know that model emotional, physical, relational, intellectual and spiritual health.  Who would push you to take time for leisure activities or hobbies?  You may not know one person who will bring all those traits, but you know some people who can bring some of them.

I hope this list is helpful to you as you pursue God’s dream for your life and try and decide which relationships you need in your life.  You can’t do it alone.  There is no such thing as a completely self-made man or woman.  Don't know where to start?  I’m here to help you discover and establish some of these crucial relationships in your life.  Let’s get started today!