Worksheet: Planning for Planning Consider the following questions as you embark on your strategic planning. What benefits and concerns do you have from embarking on a strategic planning process? Benefits Concerns Ways to overcome

concerns/build on benefits

For whom are you developing a strategic plan? (audiences and stakeholders) Over what time period will you plan? How much time do we have for developing the plan? Who will manage the planning effort and keep it on track? How might an outside expert help you? Where would funds come from to hire such a person?

Worksheet: Taking Stock Complete the phrases and chart below, considering what is occurring internally to your organization. Describe your history and present situation. Note historical issues or trends that need attention in your organization. Strengths and assets Weaknesses and liabilities

Worksheet: Taking Stock Think about the situation external to your organization – what is advantageous (opportunities) and challenging (threats)? Customers and stakeholders Competitors Allies

When looking at your stakeholders or customers, consider the following: Their needs Ways to meet their needs

Their resources Ways to tap into those resources

In thinking about your competitors/allies, consider the following: What you compete for Your relative advantage Your relative disadvantage

What are the outside trends and factors impacting your organization? Social Cultural Economic Political Technological

Overview of Strategic Planning1

Why strategic planning? A strategic plan should answer some basic questions about your organization: “What is our purpose? Who do we serve? How well are we meeting the needs of our target audience?” An effective strategic plan will guide your organization’s continued development, bringing together the right people and resources to promote organizational growth and sustainability. When your strategic plan results from an inclusive participatory process, and is referred to regularly by participants, it is a compelling indicator of your organizational effectiveness and sustainability. Strategic planning involves two main components: planning and implementation. Planning entails participatory meetings with staff, board members and potentially key external stakeholders. Implementation consists of carrying out the “to do” list in the plan and gathering periodically to check the relevance of the plan. Planning without implementation is insufficient for organizations to achieve their successes.

Generic steps in strategic planning Preparation: Preparation consists of agreeing to “what” and “why” about strategic planning, and setting up routine logistics such as “who,” “what,” “when,” and “where.” Step 1: Where are we? In this step, the focus is on what’s happening internally and externally to the organization. This would include examination of history, trends, resources available, strengths and weaknesses, competition/ cooperative alliances, etc. Step 2: What is our purpose? What will success look like? Drawing upon the work in Step 1, the focus here is on revising, or creating an idealized image of what future success looks like (vision). In this step, the organization also answers the question “why do we exist?” (mission). Step 3: What’s keeping us from achieving success? What strategies or approaches should we adopt? In this step we would explore how to achieve the picture of success we defined in Step 2. Step 4: How will we actually implement the strategies? In this step, we answer the questions, of “Who will do what, by when, for how much?” for the strategies agreed upon in Step 3. Steps 5, 6, etc: (approximately 3 months after the previous session): How are we doing? In this step we look at what is working well, and what may need to be changed or adjusted.

1Prepared by Charlotte Young, Ph.D.; ENVision…synergy, Toronto, Ontario; C, 2001, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 www.envision-synergy.net; 416-778-4713

Some terminology…

Strengths/Weaknesses/ Opportunities/ Threats (SWOT) Analysis Definition A SWOT analysis is an inventory of conditions internal to the organization (strengths

and weaknesses) and external to the organization (opportunities and threats). In looking at the results, consider what: • Your organization does well and could improve upon internally (strengths and

weaknesses, e.g., well functioning committees)) • Is happening externally to your that might impact its operations (opportunities

and threats (e.g., uncertainty from upcoming election means people don’t join professional associations))

• You know about other organizations that might inform how your organization could operate

Mission and Vision Purpose and Desired Future

A “mission” statement describes why an organization exists, i.e., and what is its purpose. Mission statements have three parts: • Purpose • Audiences/groups served • And, sometimes, “How” we achieve our purpose A vision statement describes what success looks like. It is an idealized image of the future – where the organization wants to go.

Audiences Think about who your organization serves and consider both internal and external audiences: • External audiences: -- with whom do we want to: consult, inform, ignore; it depend • Internal audiences: -- with whom do we want to decide, collaborate / involve,

consult, inform? Does the mission capture the essence/ spirit of what you want for your organization? As you think about your organization’s desired future (vision), consider: • What do we want more of? • What do we want less of?

Strategies Definition Strategies are the broad approaches organizations pursue to achieve their mission

and vision.

Examples for NGOs

• Research • Education/Training/Public Awareness • Mentoring • Policy Change/ Advocacy • Space • Technology • Product Development

Action steps Definition Action steps are the “to do” list that organizations must carry out to achieve their

strategies.

Setting out action steps

• Identify the action steps that your organization must undertake to implement each strategy, particularly the first three steps for each strategy.

• In listing out the action steps, consider how likely, important and easy that step is for your organization to achieve each Strategy. (This rating system will help you determine which steps are most relevant for implementing the strategy.)

• Consider what you can contribute to that step and what you require to complete that step. Reflect upon and commit to any action steps you are willing to champion.

Reasons to create a strategic plan • Sharpen focus/ focus on 1-2 critical successes • Gain advantages associated with size (e.g., alliances) • Find a niche • Simplify or downsize • Engage community as an ally • Replicate past successes • Become entrepreneurial (e.g., social mission) • Mix program evolution and maturity (e.g., mix of new and old programs and associated

funding sources) • Address a stage of development • Note sweeping trends • Rekindle the fire

Outside help? Consultants or other organizations, can:

• Assist in designing process • Orient or train participants • Assist in gathering or summarizing information • Facilitate/summarize meetings • Lead you through a strategic planning process • Coach the steering group • Advise on specific questions for strategic planning sessions • Provide advice on process

What are elements of your plan? • Executive summary • Mission statement • Vision statement • Values/guiding principles • History • Organizational profile (e.g., how large, how got started, etc.) • Situational analysis • Goals/strategies • Service levels (e.g., # people served, type of reach for programs, etc.) • Staffing levels • Financial plans • Success indicators • Implementation plan • Mini-plans

24 October 2010 CharityInsight www.charityinsight.com

“Candidly

you can

only assess

yourself as

‘great’, if you

achieve your

mission.”

...from Good to Great

“G ood is the enemy of Great”

is the opening of one of the most influential books in

contemporary management thinking. As an opening it is pretty

arresting – maybe not up there alongside “In the beginning was the word” from The Bible or “A spectre is haunting Europe” from The Communist Manifesto of 1848, but nonetheless powerful. And although originally written about businesses, the thinking behind it also challenges the self-satisfied mentality of those charities that trumpet their worthy mission statements but sometimes ignore their weak results.

The opening is taken from Good to Great (G2G), one of a series of influential books by US management guru Jim Collins. The research-base for the study is a long-term analysis – 25 years – of results in US for-profit companies. Collins tracks profitability and sustained growth as his ‘great’ metrics, and from that dataset is able to describe how some organisations grow from being merely good to genuinely great, defining great as “capable of making a significant difference and achieving sustainability.”

For charities the ‘great’ metrics can be difficult to analyse, but it can be done, and in the UK organisations as diverse as the Alzheimer’s Society and the Science Museum use the model.

For charities taking on the G2G challenge, even assessing the ‘good’ part is difficult – so ‘great’ becomes very hard indeed. But whether you are

good or great you need to ask if you are genuinely addressing the challenges of poverty, natural disasters, child neglect, social inequality, human rights violations, environmental degradation, etc. Candidly you can only assess yourself as ‘great’ if you achieve your mission – if you have indeed reduced global warming, or slowed HIV spread, or guaranteed the nation’s heritage is preserved. See the table on p26 for organisations that are undertaking that assessment and working very hard at becoming great.

We are currently running a research project on how to become great – comparing charity programmes, campaigning and fundraising that are trying to make the ‘greatness’ leap. The data is not all in yet but already it supports Collin’s thesis that “greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance, but a matter of conscious choice and discipline.” A tool for charities to use to benchmark themselves is available at www.managementcentre.co.uk/pages/g2g.html

Below I outline how you can make Collins’ ‘conscious choices’ through three practical stages: disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action.

Stage 1: Disciplined people▶ Level 5 Leadership. G2G organisations have Level

5 leaders. These kinds of leaders are ambitious for the cause, the organisation, the work – but not for themselves. They have a fierce resolve to do whatever it takes to deliver results, while displaying personal humility and professional will.

• What does Level 5 leadership mean for current

Is your organisation excelling in its field or is it

simply average? Would you even know how to

measure your success? Bernard Ross outlines

the questions charities need to ask themselves

in order to go...

In depth

CHI001_009_Good to Great.bsedit.indd 24 11/10/10 15:00:13

In depth

www.charityinsight.com CharityInsight October 2010 25

charity leaders – especially the ‘charismatic’ ones? And how do we reconcile this with the growing class of ‘professional’ leaders?

▶ First Who … Then What. G2G organisations recruit a team capable of creating greatness. This means charity leaders need to make sure they have ‘the right people on the bus’ – in the organisation – and the wrong people ‘off the bus.’ This means taking tough decisions where necessary. They also need to be sure the right people are in the key seats before they work out ‘where to drive the bus’ in the overall direction. These level 5 leaders think first about “who” and then “what.”

• In a market where everyone complains about skill shortages how do you ensure you get the right people on the bus? And what does this mean for the organisation obsessed with strategy rather than building human capital?

Stage 2: Disciplined thought▶ Confront the Brutal Facts. G2G organisations are

absolutely rooted in reality and the harsh reality of their performance against mission. But this reality check doesn’t stop them having a visionary focus. They believe they will succeed in the end, regardless of the difficulties.

• Does your annual report boast of your successes but ignore the failed programmes, the poor

investments, the weak appointments? What is the harsh truth about your real performance against mission?

▶ The Hedgehog Concept. G2G organisations identify their core competencies and strive to be best in those – even if that simply means being the best local hospice charity in Wiltshire. Greatness comes about by consistently applying a simple, coherent concept— a “Hedgehog Concept” to your work (see diagram on p26). In the Hedgehog Concept, Collins compares two animals, drawing on an ancient Greek legend: the fox who tries to be good at many things and the hedgehog who practices one core competence. The model involves three intersecting circles: what you can be the best at, what you are passionate about, and what drives your resource engine.

• In charities, people spend a lot of time pursuing the ‘new’ rather than focussing on core competencies. What is your core and do you play to it?

Stage 3: Disciplined action▶ Culture of Discipline. G2G organisations work

in a systematic way. Disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and take disciplined

Dimensions of Good to Great

Dimension Question to ask yourself

Disciplined people

Provide level 5 leadership

Who is seen as leading the organisation – the CEO? Senior Team? Board? Is that a sustainable and suitable governance model?

Are you seen as providing successful and legitimate leadership? Does it gain followership?

Get the right people on the bus

Do you have the quality of staff you need to deliver on your mission? Can you hold onto them when you have them?

Can you get rid of the people who cannot contribute to your organisation’s greatness? Or are you carrying deadwood?

Disciplined thought

Confront the brutal facts

Have you learned from past mistakes that were made? Do you admit them and have a culture of learning?

Do you have accurate and timely means to report on results? Is that information acted on?

Identify your hedgehog concept

Do you know what you are good at? What creates passion in supporters and staff – and drives financial results?

Are you clear about what are the opportunities to grow? Is Cameron’s Big Society a real chance or a chimera?

Disciplined action

Create a Culture of Discipline

Are you clear on the results you need from people? Do you have a system for delivering a high performing culture?

Do you spend ages trying to motivate people? Or do you recruit self-motivated people and then manage the system?

Develop Innovation accelerators

Are you putting in place the processes and systems needed to drive success? Do you invest in the future?

Do you know what changes – partnerships, approaches etc – will provide a significant difference to results?

CHI001_009_Good to Great.bsedit.indd 25 11/10/10 15:00:28

In depth

26 October 2010 CharityInsight www.charityinsight.com

Bernard RossDirector

The Management Centre, not-for-profit consultancy

Who is making the move?

Organisation The Good to Great characteristic they embody

Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan radically changed its business model not just the brand. The “We are Macmillan” represented a move away from MacMillan Nurses to a whole new definition of their hedgehog concept.

Sightsavers

Over the last three years, under the visionary leadership of Caroline Harper, Sightsavers has gone from being a small medical charity to a genuine development INGO. To see real evidence of their ability to address the brutal truth look at their website on monitoring: www.sightsavers.org/in_depth/quality_and_learning/13107_SIM%20Card%20dashboard.pdf

NSPCCDuring the NSPCC’s landmark Full Stop appeal, mistakes – from recruiting too many staff to misjudging the time scales – were constantly made. But these mistakes were confronted and corrected. The real strength of that initiative was its ability to address the brutal truth.

British Red Cross

In 2004, the British Red Cross had 113,000 people giving £8m unrestricted income from regular gifts (average £6 a month). In 2010 it has 420,000 people – or 0.7 per cent of the UK population – giving £49m (an average £10 a month). Level 5 leadership by director of fundraising, Mark Astarita has driven these results.

action are the cornerstone of a greatness culture. People operate with freedom in a framework of responsibilities. In a culture of discipline, people do not have “jobs”, they have responsibilities.

• How do we create that disciplined accountability approach in our organisation? How do we combine discipline with the flexibility that staff and volunteers expect in contemporary organisations?

▶ Innovation Accelerators. G2G organisations adopt innovative approaches that help build long-term success. This is not about buying a new database or creating a sexy website or iPhone app. It is about adopting new ways to deliver services, building new partnerships, and facing up to the changes in society that demand we work differently.

• Are you investing in the future – in techniques and technologies that might transform the way you work? Or are you simply trying to work harder at business as usual?

Change within values

Breakth

rough

Buildup

Push the Flywheel

Level 5Leadership

First Who...Then What

Confront Brutal Facts

Hedgehog Concept

Culture of Discipline

Innovation Accelerators

Disciplined People Disciplined Thought Disciplined Action

The Good to Great Model The Hedgehog Concept

What we are deeply passionate about?

What drives our economic

engine?

What we can be the best in the world at?

Core competence

Collins summarises his approach with two final ideas you might like to consider. One involves what he calls Clock Building, Not Time Telling. If we are to become really great we need to build culture and business models, not obsess about bean counting. Often we work far too hard at matching funder or short-term priorities – time telling, rather than building genuine capacity – clock building. The other idea, crucial to charities, involves creating Change within Values. G2G organisations are clear on their fundamental beliefs and change everything but these. With clear values we can act flexibly to deliver the great result that our beneficiaries demand of us.

CHI001_009_Good to Great.bsedit.indd 26 11/10/10 15:00:48

Defining your Direct Management Assistance (DMA) Project A: Define your sphere of influence (who) What are the organizational boundaries of your intervention? With what group of people will you work with regularly on this project? Who are your intended audiences for this project? For example, it may be a:

• board of directors of your branch or chapter • volunteer group or committee to whom you have some responsibility • staff team or work group • partner or coalition • particular stakeholder/ audience group (e.g., donors, members of other ENGOs)

B: Consider the scope of your intervention (how big) How big is the initiative are you considering? This project is not intended to be an added burden, but rather something that is integrated into your daily work and that will help improve the way you work in your sphere of influence. C: Define your initial question or problem (what/why) What question do you wish to answer? Why is this challenge important to your organization? 1: Determine how you will approach the question (how) Consider with whom you will consult.

• Who will be affected by any change? • Who will be involved in implementing any change? • Who has power and influence in the system to support (or resist) the change?

Determine how you will collect your information In collecting information deliberately, systematically and comprehensively, you wan to make sure you touch all relevant factors both in and outside your organization. For example, will you:

• Assemble a focus group(s)? • Conduct individual interviews? • Ask people to complete a questionnaire? • Conduct a telephone survey?

2: Develop a time frame that suits (when) Consider: (a) your schedule, (b) the people you will consult. 3: Collect and analyze the information from #4. 4: Summarize your process, results and conclusion If an idea emerges at this point – even a hazy one – for an appropriate intervention, note it too. Consider the following as the idea unfolds:

• What current problems or limitations do you think will be addressed by this idea? • What are various people in your organization or group concerned about? (i.e. people

who will be affected by your idea, people who will have to approve your idea, colleagues who will have to participate in implementing your idea.)

• Who will agree with your idea? Who will disagree?

Tips for giving and receiving feedback

Giving feedback • Check to see if the receiver is willing to listen

• Describe what you observed or noticed. (“I noticed you mentioned X” when you were

talking). By approaching feedback this way, you are giving the other person non-judgmental information that they can decide what to do with, what it means for them, and how they feel about it).

o Provide behavioural based suggestions – something that receiver is able to change o Use “I” statements to describe what you experienced (“When you paraphrased back

to the group, I felt that you had understood what I was saying.”)

• Be specific, and avoid using “always” or “never” • Offer at least 3 positive observations for every behaviour you think might be different

• Thank the receiver for listening

Receiving feedback • Listen with an open mind even if it hurts – the other person is trying to be helpful

• Find the kernel of truth

• Ask for clarification or elaboration when you do not understand (“Could you say more?”;

“Could you give me an example?)

• Say what you’ll do

• Thank the giver

Things to avoid – Do NOT • Evaluate • Repeat yourself • Give advice • Offer non-related information • Let things build • Ask “why” • Ignore the importance of timing

Notes and Reactions – DMA projects Sphere of influence (organizational boundaries and audiences) Scope of intervention Question or problem Approach to question or problem Time frame

Mechanisms for collecting and analyzing data Summary plans

Moving from Good to Great1 Building a great organization involves four interrelated components.

Disciplined People - Do you have the right people on the bus (leaders who are ambitious for the cause, the

organization, the work, and not themselves)? - Do you have the wrong people off the bus? - Do you have the right people in the key seats before figuring out where to drive the bus?

Disciplined Thought (Hedgehog Concept – see next page) - Do you have unwavering faith that you can and will prevail, - Do you have the discipline to confront the brutal facts of your current reality? - Are you making decisions consistent with the Hedgehog Concept?

Disciplined Action - Do your people have jobs or do they have responsibilities? - Do you continue to work towards your vision, repeatedly and persistently? There is no single

defining action. (Flywheel concept ~The process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough and beyond. )

Building greatness to last - Are you depending on a single charismatic personality, or on building multiple generations of

leaders? - Do you have a set of timeless core values and a core reason for being that remain constant over

long periods of time? At the same time, do you have a unyielding drive for change and progress – a creative compulsion? And do you keep a clear distinction between the two?

1 Concept summary from Collins, J. 2005. Good to great for the social sectors. A monograph to accompany good to great. Colorado.

The Hedgehog Concept

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Archilochus (7th-century b.c.e.)

Is your organization a hedgehog or a fox? Do you use your hedgehog nature to drive toward what Jim Collins came to call a Hedgehog Concept? Or do you tend to be more of a fox, never gaining the clarifying advantage of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead scattered, diffused, and inconsistent? “The essence of a Hedgehog Concept is to attain piercing clarity about how to produce the best long-term results, and then exercising relentless discipline to say ‘No thank you’ to opportunities that fail the hedgehog test.” – Jim Collins, p. 17

Carrying out the “Hedgehog” Concept in your organization 1. Identify what you are deeply passionate about. 2. Refine your passion by rigorously assessing what you can be best in the world at, and what

you can best contribute to the communities you touch. 3. Create a way to tie your resource engine directly to the other two dimensions.

core values & mission or core purpose

resource engine (time, money and brand)

unique contribution