You Might Not Need a Strategic Plan

Somewhere between October and January, a board chair is probably going to ask about the strategic plan. Maybe the last one has expired. Maybe the organization has never had one. Maybe a funder brought it up, and now everybody agrees it's time to get one in place. And as the executive director, you're probably already thinking about the next steps. Find a consultant. Get the board together. Figure out the budget. Start planning.

But before you do all that, ask yourself: Does your organization really need a strategic plan right now?

A strategic plan can be incredibly useful. It helps your team agree on priorities, make decisions about where to put resources, and work toward a shared vision for the future. When your organization is ready for that kind of work, the process can make a difference.

But sometimes, the request for a strategic plan is pointing to something else. And if you don't figure out what that is first, you can spend months developing a plan that doesn't address the problems your organization is trying to solve.

When a Strategic Plan Might Need to Wait

Before you commit your time, money, and staff energy to a planning process, take an honest look at what's happening inside your organization.

• Are you in or approaching a leadership transition? If your executive director is leaving, you may want to think carefully about how much of the organization's future should be decided before the next leader arrives. A plan developed during this period could create expectations for someone who hasn't had a chance to understand the organization, much less help shape its direction.

• Will your funding change in the next twelve months? Maybe a major grant is ending, a government contract is up in the air, or too much of your budget depends on one funder. Those realities affect what your organization can take on. Before you commit to three years of goals, you need a clear picture of the resources you'll have to work with.

• Does your staff describe the organization the same way? Ask a few staff members to describe your mission, your programs, and the people you serve. If their answers don't align, you may need to clarify who you are and what you're here to do before you decide where you're going.

• Does your board know what it is responsible for? If board members are stepping into day-to-day operations, staff doesn't know who makes certain decisions, or nobody is quite sure who owns what, a strategic plan won't clear that up on its own. Those questions need attention, too.

• Are you in an operational crisis? If you're dealing with a cash flow crunch, staff turnover, or a program that's struggling, your immediate needs may have to come first. Your team needs the time and capacity to address what's happening now before it can meaningfully plan for the next three years.

These situations don't automatically mean you should put strategic planning on hold, but they do mean you should take a closer look before moving forward. Otherwise, you risk spending time and money on a plan that looks good on paper but doesn't help your organization deal with the challenges in front of it.

Start by Understanding What Your Organization Needs

Start with a needs assessment.

Think of it as taking stock of where things stand before deciding what comes next. You want to understand what's working, where your organization is struggling, what your team needs, and what's getting in the way of doing the work.

That might mean looking at your finances, talking with staff and board members, reviewing your programs, or getting honest about responsibilities that have never been clearly defined. The goal is to understand what's happening across the organization.

And you might discover that the issue is different from what you expected.

What started as a request for a strategic plan could turn out to be a need for clearer board governance. Maybe your organization depends too heavily on one source of revenue. Maybe staff members are carrying responsibilities that should be shared across the team, or a program needs to be rethought before you can decide how it fits into the organization's future.

Those issues deserve attention in their own right. Addressing them first can also make a future strategic planning process more productive, because you'll have a clearer understanding of what your organization needs and what it can realistically accomplish.

How to Have the Conversation With Your Board

Let's say your board chair is ready to move forward, and you're realizing that your organization needs to do some work before it starts planning.

You don't have to shut the conversation down. You can offer a different starting point.

Explain what you want to understand before committing to a multi-year plan. Recommend an assessment that looks at the organization's current needs, and come prepared with a proposed timeline, budget, and clear next step.

You might also agree on what happens when the assessment is complete. Will you review the findings together? Decide which issues need to be addressed first? Determine whether the organization is ready to begin strategic planning? That gives the board a way forward, with a clear point to revisit the decision.

So, before you start building a plan for the future, make sure you understand what your organization needs right now. That understanding will help you decide what comes next, whether that's a strategic plan, a few important operational changes, or some work to get your team on the same page.