Let's Put the Strategy Back in Strategic Planning!

Leadership, Nonprofit Disruptors, Nonprofits, Strategic Planning, Strategy Design

The days of Strategic Plans consisting of 5-10 goals that address market shifts are over. Organizations and Teams are stretched thin and with limited resources there simply isn’t enough capacity and bandwidth to implement and drive such all-encompassing plans.

Instead, initiative fatigue sets in and organizations find themselves on track to accomplish few goals, or worse yet, none at all. The strategic plan loses creditability, implementation comes to a halt, and organizational advancement and culture is negatively impacted. 

To avoid these pitfalls, leaders need a more focused strategy, with 2-3 targeted goals that, when accomplished, will have the greatest impact on relevance and sustainability. While the process of narrowing goals can be challenging, isolating a smaller number of major initiatives will keep employees focused and help drive transformational change. 

In collaborating with countless organizations over the years, we have seen first-hand the implementation and execution success that organizations achieve when narrowing the focus to a smaller number of key initiatives. 

It’s time to create more carefully designed strategic plans. Plans that are focused, clear, and prioritized around 2-3 change or transformation efforts that when implemented, will dramatically increase the probability of organization-wide success.