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.

What makes a good strategic plan?

• Inclusive and owned - The strategic planning process should consider a range of stakeholder interests, and decisions throughout the process should be owned by the entire organization, including staff, board and leadership.

• Informed - To make informed decisions, it is essential to have a solid understanding of the context in which an organization works as well as the organization itself.

• Realistic and ambitious - Strategic plans should strike a balance between an organization’s past track record and its future plans. An organization that never changes what it does or tries to change too much too quickly risks affecting its performance. 

• Clear and concise - Strategic plans are guiding tools, which means they must be accessible and clear, and useful for making practical decisions on a regular basis. 

• Focused - Great organizations are able to maintain focus on the most important things. A good strategy forces an organization to make tough decisions and be clear about what they want and need to achieve and specifically how they will do that.

• Flexible and ‘living’ - Organizations must be ready to adapt and to revise their strategies as needed in order to always be as effective and efficient as possible.

Alarm bells - Some common strategic planning pitfalls to watch for:

• They lack focus - Making hard choices is, well, hard. We’ve seen many organizations wrestle with this during strategic planning; often they want to “keep options open” so that they aren’t limited in what they can do, or so they can be ‘holistic.’ But such approaches do not lead to high performance; they lead to lack of focus, chronic overstretch, and a  watered-down organizational identity. 

• The Project Trap - Sometimes strategies get caught in ‘the project trap,’ where they focus on a lot of activities and actions through projects and programs, but lack a clear sense of overall purpose and impact. Don’t get too granular with your plan - projects and programs should be planned to support your strategic goals but not as your goals. 

• They don’t prioritize - Relatedly, organizations need to be able to articulate the most critical and important things that they need to achieve, both operationally and organizationally. This can be difficult, but it is central to being able to achieve goals with limited resources and make tangible progress. 

• They aren’t adapted and ‘living’ - We live in a fast-paced world where things are changing all the time - strategic plans need to help an organization keep up. Strategic plans must be used as living documents, reviewed and changed in a constant cycle of learning. If they aren’t they will not be useful. 

• They’re too dense and detailed - The function of a strategic plan is to examine and clearly express an organization’s core value proposition and objectives; they should have headline goals and targets but do not need to provide detailed programming or work plans; too much detail on things that will change over time is unnecessary and often detracts from the broader key strategic questions and issues. 

• They don’t balance big dreams with realities - While dreaming big is an important part of the strategic planning process, it’s equally as important to ground those dreams in reality. Organizations that have big dreams but lack the capacity and plans to deliver will struggle to achieve impact. Thinking through what implementation will require is a critical step in strategic planning.

• They’re not inclusive - It’s not uncommon for strategic plans to be done through a single workshop or meeting, with only a few people in the room. Such truncated processes, without sufficient stakeholder participation, tend to result in strategic plans that do not truly address an organization’s needs and may not be implemented because there is a lack of ownership from  across the organization. 

• They don’t make sense - If aspects of a strategic plan aren’t making sense to you, then it’s likely they just don’t make sense. Our field is prone to jargon and complexity and a strategic plan is meant to help an organization find its clear path within that.

Read the full newsletter here: Maliasili Reader Issue 21

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