Designing Transformational Strategy

Board Development, Strategy Design, Strategic Planning

Last month, our Nonprofit Strategy Report focused on the importance of developing engaged trustees for the board. In this month's report we are going to look at how to design transformational strategy. These are the three major levers that nonprofit CEO's need to be focused on consistently to break the status quo:

Developing Engaged Trustees

Designing Transformative Strategy

Developing Staff

Transformation is about creating a future that does not exist. It is about thinking differently and outside the scope of the existing business model. Designing Transformative Strategy is to look beyond what the organization is currently doing, and determining new ways of achieving the mission and goals.

There is a great saying, "If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten." This means that breaking the status quo requires bold thinking and action. It also requires strong leadership! 

There are three key steps to designing transformational strategy:

Step 1 - Assess

Gain a deep understanding of the business model of the organization. It is critical to know what drives the economic engine, who the real customer is, the value proposition to those customers, and the partnerships that will support success.

This assessment will allow leaders to better understand their organization and how new ideas will impact operations. This will increase their ability to implement change with the staff in a pragmatic way.

Step 2 - Engage

Identify stakeholders both internally and externally that will be engaged in the strategy design process. Stakeholders can include but are not limited to: trustees, staff, donors, foundations, customers, local or state government officials, other nonprofits, partners, and vendors.

We engage stakeholders with the purpose of understanding where they see opportunities and threats to the organization. This is similar to crowdsourcing ideas from large audiences. Developing an organization’s strategy and vision should be done with the feedback and insights of the stakeholders interviews. This will enroll them in the future success of the nonprofit organization. In doing this, we will have created ownership and buy-in for the future direction. The strategy design is co-created with multiple viewpoints, ideas, opinions, and different ways of thinking.

For example, have you ever had a job performance evaluation? Performance evaluations can be done by a supervisor, which is the feedback and evaluation from just one individual. Now compare that to the different levels of perspective you would receive from a 360 degree evaluation from your supervisor, peers, colleagues, and subordinates. The feedback of the 360 degree evaluation is going to be far more valuable because it is from multiple levels of perspective and from more than one source.

The same value can be gained by engaging multiple levels of stakeholders during the strategy design process. This allows ideas to be shared that could become the organizations next strategic area of focus. It also generates a significant amount of momentum when transitioning from plan design to implementation. That momentum can help drive the change and transformation needed to ensure success.

Step 3 - Assemble

Once the assessment of the business model is complete and the stakeholders have been engaged, it is time to combine the data and ideas. The goal is to identify the ideas and opportunities that align from all the interviews and data points. The more the feedback aligns, the more relevant and applicable the ideas become when setting the strategic direction of the organization.