build a strategic plan that takes your organization where it wants to go.

"Plans are useless but planning is essential"

Churchill is credited with the above quote. What it has always meant to me is that how you go about planning, what methods you use, who is involved, where you plan, how long it takes, what you talk about, how conflict is handled, who talks, who listens etc. is more important than the document that comes out of the other end. I manage the process of planning for my clients, that's where my expertise lies. The client provides the content, I can never know as much about their organization as they do.

Three ingredients for successful strategic planning

For your planning process to succeed you will need...

1. A committed group of key stakeholders who must live with the outcome of planning and who are willing to spend the time to create the plan.
2. A planning process that fits your organization at this particular point in its lifecycle. (We have at least four different processes that we customize to each assignment.) and
3. An external, facilitator who is a master of process and who agrees to remain neutral on the content of the plan.

You supply the first ingredient, I look after the other two.

I am a Strategic Planning Facilitator

I assume you know what strategic planning facilitators do, otherwise you wouldn't have ended up on this page. Not only do I do this for a living, I teach others to do it, I write about it, I supply tools and assistance to other facilitators and sometimes I wake up from dreams about it. I live in Ponemah, Manitoba, Canada. Most of my clients are on the Canadian prairies but I have facilitated planning sessions in Africa, the Caribbean, South America as well as other parts of Canada. If you want to see a list of some of my strategic planning clients follow the link at the bottom of the page.

The process of planning

I look at planning as a 4-stage process. Each stage has some work that  needs to be done. My role is to help you get it done in a way that builds inclusion of key stakeholders, acceptance of the product of planning and commitment to making it happen. Here are the stages in broad terms...

1. WHERE ARE WE NOW? Where are we in our lifecycle? What are our strengths, what are we doing well? What are our challenges? What are we not doing so well? What's going on in the world around us that is positive and presents us with opportunities? What is threatening in the world around us?
2. WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE, WHEN? What is our purpose or mission? What is our overal direction or vision for the next few years? What are our core values that drive our behaviour and guide our decision making? What are our specific goals? How will we know we are making progress?
3. HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET THERE? What are the critical few things that we must work on to get to where we want to be? What steps must we take? Who will lead in each critical area? Who will do the work? When will we start? What are the key milestones along the way? What resources are we prepared to commit to making the plan work? What are we prepared to drop in order to focus on the strategic priorities?
4. GET THERE. As we implement, are we on track? On time? On budget? How do we know? What do we do if we deviate from the plan? How do we get back on plan?

Virtual Strategic Planning

Engaging multiple stakeholders in the planning process has been made much easier, faster and cheaper with the advent of online survey tools and online process management tools.

ONLINE PRE-PLANNING SURVEYS: We use Zoomerang for stakeholder surveys before, during and after face-to-face planning sessions.

ONLINE POST-PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION CONTROL: And we use Basecamp to record the 'plan to plan', to schedule key events, help manage and track the process, to share files, to share survey results, to test ideas, to work through draft documents to a final products and to keep in touch .

Visit www.virtualstrategic planner.com to see some of our virtual planning tools. (If you are a strategic planning facilitator or wish to become one, many of the tools that I use can be made available to you and your clients. Just call or e-mail.)

Talk to me

All of our strategic planning assignment begin with a conversation with the client either on the phone or by e-mail. Often that is enough but if you need a written proposal, we will send one.