How do you involve your board, staff, and stakeholders in the strategic planning process?

Agree with @Naomi Korb Weiss - the questions do tend to evolve as we go and learn iteratively from the conversations with various stakeholders. When clients are too rigid about seeking exact answers to the questions they define at the beginning of the process, it limits the true growth the plan can offer.

A few issues with this: The purpose of any strategic plan should always be to provide the focus, clarity and alignment needed to advance the organization's core purpose in a given context. The scope of any strategic plan should extend throughout ~80% the organization's activities; if you're not planning to make changes to what the organization is doing, there's no point in starting a strategic planning process! I don't think arbitrary timelines (i.e. a 3 or 5-year plan) are actually very helpful for strategic planning - although they are very important for implementation planning. A strategy's lifespan depends on its context; a good strategy might last ten years, or a major shift in the environment might render it obsolete in one year.

Yes, AND it’s important to let the process flow organically. Often we have one set of answers to these questions when we start, but the questions and answers themselves evolve as we go. If we knew it all at the beginning, we wouldn’t need to plan!

Great points Molly Penn and Naomi Korb Weiss. When we start planning, we have the group create a “Focus Question” that helps to suggest what the focus of planning will be. And other issues sometimes emerge though data collection - which we share back with the group for their consideration.

A SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is a great tool to help leadership and the board identify and align around priorities for a strategic plan. Establishing a timeframe within the SWOT Analysis helps establish guardrails to ensure the desired outcomes are transformative yet achievable.

Cultivate strong relationships with board members through regular communication, targeted information, and open dialogue. Align strategy with board priorities by understanding their vision, presenting clear metrics, and seeking feedback. Leverage board expertise by forming strategic committees, organizing retreats, and seeking mentorship. Utilize technology for effective collaboration through board portals, interactive tools, and data visualization. Be transparent and accountable by reporting on progress, owning up to mistakes, and demonstrating value creation.

Staff involvement with strategic planning needs to be more of a monolith. These “doers” are often only involved up front (eg, surveys) and then they never participate again until the C-suite, board, and consultants (ugh) have created/stamped a final plan. Staff are on the ground engaging with communities served by the mission, and it’s a wildly short sighted to keep them looped out. Have a committee (or whatever you want to call it) of key staff (from ALL rungs of the org) who participate in every step of the process.

Include staff in the strategic planning committee from the very beginning! They are closest to the impact, and can speak most realistically about the organization’s capacity. Getting their buy-in early on is essential, too. Strategic planning can be nerve-wracking for staff who may be worried about their jobs changing or being eliminated, or that the overall direction will shift away from their passion. Change management is an integral part of this entire process!

Your staff are the most important audience for your strategic plan. Their perspective in developing the plan is essential - AND - they're also the ones who need to understand it and execute it. Strategy is only successful when the human beings who have to execute it know what they are supposed to do and what it means for the future of their organization.

Consider this - your stakeholders are giving you feedback and input all the time. In the emails and calls they make to you, in meetings, in what they say on social media. Establish ongoing ways to collect and review this data so that you can frame planning conversations appropriately with stakeholders. Value their time and energy - and get more effective input for your plan - by incorporating ongoing feedback rather than just point-in-time input.

Agreed provide feedback to your stakeholders on your findings. We asked…you said… we listened. Give them the opportunity to see that their feedback is important and is being used