By / par Jessica Kirby>
Strategic planning: A concept that brightens the day for some people and darkens the brows of others. For large corporations, strategic planning is a complex machine with many moving parts; for smaller companies it can be done over drinks at lunch. And for associations with volunteer boards, it is another beast entirely.
To address the question most people have but are afraid to ask: what exactly is a strategic plan? Well, it’s like this: a strategy is a set of decisions devised to mobilize resources towards some kind of success—how are you going to progress? Come out on top? That is your strategy. Your strategic plan lists the ways the strategy will be delivered, including tasks and action items. A strategic plan has to represent an organization’s purpose and direction and be clear, focused, and still legible in the event of a complete turnover by the executive.
Meredith Low is a highly experienced management consultant, focusing on helping organizations and companies understand how, when, and where to grow in the context of fast-changing environments. Her career spans engagements with small to large companies (including the Fortune 500), professional associations and other not-for-profits, and government, assisting them with, among other things, strategic development and planning.
According to Low, strategic planning for associations like TIAC has a number of important differences from the process used by large and small companies.
“In large corporations strategic planning processes reflect the fact that they are big, complex, moving machines that involve many people, but for which decision making is mainly central and at the top,” she says. “Typically, decisions then lead to new processes that are rolled out to various branches and divisions.”
In smaller companies owned by one or two people, the process is much simpler. “Strategic planning can literally be done on a cocktail napkin in that case, because you can go for a drink with your two partners and decide how you want to be successful.”
Both of these scenarios are different from what occurs in professional associations. The difference lies in the size and complexity of the group and in who makes the decisions—in a for-profit company, decision-makers can more or less make up the rules (within legal and physical confines, of course), presumably with the objective to make a profit doing what they like.
An association, on the other hand, as a not-for-profit organization, has multiple stakeholders and a board which is ultimately accountable for its success.
“Boards have the responsibility to decide what is important to the members and stakeholders, and how to be successful in terms of fulfilling the association’s mission,” says Low. “They should be setting targets or metrics, but if the objective is something other than making money, progress is harder to measure.”
In larger businesses, the strategic planning process is distant, and often decided for and communicated to employees. In associations, the board is much closer to the activities of the members, which means the process ideally should be consultative.
“The board has to understand its members and everyone who makes the association a success,” says Low. “The plan must be robust and the board, with the support of staff, must think through clearly what is going to work and what isn’t. It needs a good decision making process because is a broad based decision.”
This isn’t exactly easy territory for volunteer boards with full-time careers, families, and social lives. Setting strategic direction and policy isn’t their day job, but it is still a primary responsibility each board member has in fulfilling his or her duty—but that doesn’t mean board members have to (or even should) do all the work.
“If you are on the board of large organization, your role is just governance, making sure policies are in place, and overseeing work at a higher level,” says Low.
Enter the common plight of most volunteer boards: the same ten people who set the plan are often the most active volunteers and finding extra help can be difficult. Low says it is crucial to plan strategy with resources in mind.
“The plan has to consider the capabilities of the organization,” she says. “If you are saying we need to roll out a big new program but we have no resources, that isn’t going to work. Strategy is about making choices about what to do to be successful.”
So, the question becomes: how does the board make the plan real? One way is to plan for engagement at the strategic level. Another consideration is whether to invest financial resources in getting the jobs done. Most importantly, it is crucial boards don’t overlook the value of changing processes that aren’t working.
“One duty of a board member is the duty of foresight, to think ahead and see the future and see how to remain successful and sustainable. If you have the challenge that, traditionally, board members have taken on responsibilities of members, part of your work is figuring out how to do it differently,” says Low.
In some cases an advocacy committee is helpful—individual members in different regions are trained in skills like media relations and engaging policy makers and are tasked with representing the association in their municipalities.
Or, consider opting for task forces and axing committees altogether. This allows members to take on concrete, finite tasks rather than being on a committee in perpetuity.
“People have a horror of that,” says Low. “Instead, think about how to create action on a task basis, get members plugged in, finished up, and moved on. People get real value and pleasure and a sense of satisfaction out of achieving a thing, as opposed to being in a role.”
Another road block to effective strategy planning for associations (and businesses) is ambiguity—items in the plan need to be concrete and meaningful, which means items like “provide value to members” and “promote excellence” are too difficult to make into action items or to measure.
“There should be an element of specificity but they shouldn’t get into the weeds, especially if you are using a governance model,” says Low. “If you can defer the discussion around an item, it is probably too detailed. Things like the dates and times of events are too detailed, whereas whether to have three events per year is reasonable.”
Be able to count the plan’s strategies on one hand because the reality is, if there are more than that, they probably won’t get done. Think primarily about items that will make the association successful—for example, decide what value the group offers members before hammering out the details of a recruitment strategy.
“You have to tackle the big issues head on before you get too detailed,” says Low. “The faster your industry changes, the more you have to revise and adapt.”
Start with strategies with metrics attached—how will you know if a thing worked? Did the members say they are better because of a deliverable? Did you do a thing and did it have a different effect?
The other reality is that board members need to come wearing their board hats and realize they are stepping out of their every-day roles to serve the association’s interests. It can be helpful to have a document describing each board member’s role and responsibility and it can be useful at the beginning of each meeting to spend ten minutes getting into role or reviewing one aspect of governance.
At the same time, Low cautions volunteer boards against “beating themselves up” if a plan doesn’t come together right away because strategic planning is legitimately difficult and outside the wheelhouses of most people.
“Strategy is asking the board to look at what is true and important and possible and desirable in a room with 12 others asking those same hard questions,” says Low. “You are really putting your thinking out there, and, ultimately, the board is accountable for the strategy.”
Despite its challenges, strategic planning is a valuable and insightful process worth the effort for any organization. Sometimes set and forgotten or overlooked entirely, the process is the best way to maximize time and financial efficiency, even if the return on investment isn’t immediate.
“It is about doing more of the right things, spending fewer resources doing the wrong things, and doing the right things more efficiently and effectively,” says Low. “If you think that could increase the bottom line by 20 percent, what would that be worth?
Read more about Meredith Low and read her blog posts at meredithlow.com.♣
