Maliasili has some new materials out to help guide organizations in developing strategic plans. Here we are sharing some higher level guidance on strategic planning dos and don'ts.

If you know Maliasili, you know we love strategic plans. But it’s more than just the plan itself that we love, it’s the entire process. We asked some of our partners and our team members to reflect on their strategic planning processes and experiences and to share some insights on what it was like and its value.

This week the world celebrated the International Day of Women. Maliasili took this opportunity to connect with Dr. Leela Hazzah, a founder and member of the leadership council of WE Africa (Women for the Environment) to get her views on how organizations can support the growth and development of female leaders - and why that matters.

Work planning, especially at the organizational level, often falls low on a team’s priority list. But an organization-wide work plan can be transformational for teams, helping ensure their work is aligned to their strategic goals and helping everyone see how their efforts contribute to something greater (i.e. their impact!).

Annual reports are your opportunity to reflect on the past year, share your accomplishments, and give a glimpse into the great plans you have set for the year ahead. To put it simply, they’re a place where it’s okay - encouraged even - to brag a bit. And ultimately, "impact drives income", so make sure to show off the amazing work that you do.

We asked the Maliasili team to take a moment, reflect on our work, and answer this question: If you had one piece of advice to share with our partners that will help them do their work even better, what would it be?

Consider stress management as another part of your job description, since it’s an essential piece to realizing your full potential and performing your best. Identify the things that help you reduce your stress and incorporate them into your daily routine (i.e. make time for them during your day, even put them in your calendar).

If you do just one more thing before the end of 2020, make it communications. Here’s why: December is a huge month for giving (the biggest actually: in America one-third of all giving happens in December).

As the end of the year approaches, we always see a spike in workloads: the end-of-the-year push to get things done. But some things are much more important than others, which is why we wanted to share one of Maliasili’s favorite management and prioritization tools with you now: weekly goals.

You can make your planning more effective and strategic by starting out with taking a big picture view of the year ahead. Here we explain why organizational annual work plans matter and how you can go about developing one.