What is strategic planning?
Summary:
Strategic planning can be used to determine mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, roles and responsibilities, timelines, etc.
Summary:
Strategic planning can be used to determine mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, roles and responsibilities, timelines, etc.
Answer:
Overview
Overview
Strategic planning is a management tool, period. As with any management tool, it is used for one purpose only: to help an organization do a better job - to focus its energy, to ensure that members of the organization are working toward the same goals, to assess and adjust theorganization's direction in response to a changing environment. In short, strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future.
(Adapted fromBryson's Strategic Planning in Public and Nonprofit Organizations)
A word by word dissection of this definition provides the key elements that underlie the meaning and success of a strategic planning process: The process is strategic because it involves preparing the best way to respond to the circumstances of the organization's environment, whether or not its circumstances are known in advance; nonprofits often must respond to dynamic and even hostile environments. Being strategic, then, means being clear about the organization's objectives, being aware ofthe organization's resources, and incorporating both into beingconsciously responsive to a dynamic environment.The process is about planning because it involves intentionally settinggoals (i.e., choosing a desired future) and developing an approach toachieving those goals.The process is disciplined in that it calls for a certain order and pattern to keep it focused and productive. The process raises a sequence of questions that helps planners examine experience, test assumptions, gather and incorporate information about the present, and anticipate the environment in which the organization will be working in the future. Finally, the process is about fundamental decisions and actions because choices must be made in order to answer the sequence of questionsmentioned above. The plan is ultimately no more, and no less, than a setof decisions about what to do, why to do it, and how to do it. Becauseit is impossible to do everything that needs to be done in this world,strategic planning implies that some organizational decisions andactions are more important than others - and that much of the strategylies in making the tough decisions about what is most important toachieving organizational success.The strategic planning can be complex, challenging, and even messy, butit is always defined by the basic ideas outlined above - and you canalways return to these basics for insight into your own strategicplanning process.
Strategic Planning and Long-Range PlanningAlthough many use these terms interchangeably, strategic planning andlong-range planning differ in their emphasis on the "assumed" environment. Long-range planning is generally considered to mean the development of a plan for accomplishing a goal or set of goals over aperiod of several years, with the assumption that current knowledge about future conditions is sufficiently reliable to ensure the plan's reliability over the duration of its implementation. In the late fifties and early sixties, for example, the US. economy was relatively stable and somewhat predictable, and, therefore, long-range planning was both fashionable and useful.On the other hand, strategic planning assumes that an organization must be responsive to a dynamic, changing environment (not the more stable environment assumed for long-range planning). Certainly a commonassumption has emerged in the nonprofit sector that the environment isindeed changeable, often in unpredictable ways. Strategic planning,then, stresses the importance of making decisions that will ensure theorganization's ability to successfully respond to changes in theenvironment.
Strategic Planning and Long-Range PlanningAlthough many use these terms interchangeably, strategic planning andlong-range planning differ in their emphasis on the "assumed" environment. Long-range planning is generally considered to mean the development of a plan for accomplishing a goal or set of goals over aperiod of several years, with the assumption that current knowledge about future conditions is sufficiently reliable to ensure the plan's reliability over the duration of its implementation. In the late fifties and early sixties, for example, the US. economy was relatively stable and somewhat predictable, and, therefore, long-range planning was both fashionable and useful.On the other hand, strategic planning assumes that an organization must be responsive to a dynamic, changing environment (not the more stable environment assumed for long-range planning). Certainly a commonassumption has emerged in the nonprofit sector that the environment isindeed changeable, often in unpredictable ways. Strategic planning,then, stresses the importance of making decisions that will ensure theorganization's ability to successfully respond to changes in theenvironment.
Strategic Thinking and Strategic Management
Strategic planning is only useful if it supports strategic thinking andleads to strategic management - the basis for an effective organization.Strategic thinking means asking, "Are we doing the right thing?" Perhaps, more precisely, it means making that assessment using three keyrequirements about strategic thinking: a definite purpose be in mind; an understanding of the environment, particularly of the forces that affector impede the fulfillment of that purpose; and creativity in developing effective responses to those forces.It follows, then, that strategic management is the application ofstrategic thinking to the job of leading an organization. Dr. JagdishSheth, a respected authority on marketing and strategic planning,provides the following framework for understanding strategic management: continually asking the question, "Are we doing the right thing?" Itentails attention to the "big picture" and the willingness to adapt tochanging circumstances, and consists of the following three elements:
formulation of the organization's future mission in light of changingexternal factors such as regulation, competition, technology, andcustomers
development of a competitive strategy to achieve the mission
creation of an organizational structure which will deploy resources tosuccessfully carry out its competitive strategy.Strategic management is adaptive and keeps an organization relevant. Inthese dynamic times it is more likely to succeed than the traditionalapproach of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
What Strategic Planning Is Not
formulation of the organization's future mission in light of changingexternal factors such as regulation, competition, technology, andcustomers
development of a competitive strategy to achieve the mission
creation of an organizational structure which will deploy resources tosuccessfully carry out its competitive strategy.Strategic management is adaptive and keeps an organization relevant. Inthese dynamic times it is more likely to succeed than the traditionalapproach of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
What Strategic Planning Is Not
Everything said above to describe what strategic planning is can alsoprovide an understanding of what it is not. For example, it is aboutfundamental decisions and actions, but it does not attempt to makefuture decisions (Steiner, 1979). Strategic planning involvesanticipating the future environment, but the decisions are made in thepresent. This means that over time, the organization must stay abreastof changes in order to make the best decisions it can at any given point- it must manage, as well as plan, strategically.Strategic planning has also been described as a tool - but it is not asubstitute for the exercise of judgment by leadership. Ultimately, theleaders of any enterprise need to sit back and ask, and answer, "Whatare the most important issues to respond to?" and "How shall we respond?" Just as the hammer does not create the bookshelf, so the data analysis and decision-making tools of strategic planning do not make the organization work - they can only support the intuition, reasoningskills, and judgment that people bring to their organization.
Finally, strategic planning, though described as disciplined, does not typically flow smoothly from one step to the next. It is a creativeprocess, and the fresh insight arrived at today might very well alter the decision made yesterday. Inevitably the process moves forward and back several times before arriving at the final set of decisions.Therefore, no one should be surprised if the process feels less like a comfortable trip on a commuter train, but rather like a ride on a rollercoaster. But even roller coaster cars arrive at their destination, aslong as they stay on track!
