Strategic Planning Questions for Small NGO
January 31, 2020 7:50 AM Subscribe
Help us develop or link to strategic planning questions or formats for a small all-volunteer NGO.
I am doing pro-bono coaching with the director of a small, all-volunteer NGO. The volunteers focus on fund raising and grants and all money raised goes directly into the mission. The director is hands on, micro-managing, and extremely short term focused. The bulk of their energies are focused on dealing with the high rate of volunteer turnover.
In coaching, they have realized that their current process is unsustainable. They are open to trying a different approach that will allow them to be more mission focused and agreed to do some form of strategic planning.
I am looking for some generic, NGO focused, strategic planning formats or question sets, that I can customize to fit this particular situation.
I am doing pro-bono coaching with the director of a small, all-volunteer NGO. The volunteers focus on fund raising and grants and all money raised goes directly into the mission. The director is hands on, micro-managing, and extremely short term focused. The bulk of their energies are focused on dealing with the high rate of volunteer turnover.
In coaching, they have realized that their current process is unsustainable. They are open to trying a different approach that will allow them to be more mission focused and agreed to do some form of strategic planning.
I am looking for some generic, NGO focused, strategic planning formats or question sets, that I can customize to fit this particular situation.
Check out the Strategy Screen referenced in this blog post by Pat Libby for a good set of questions. Here's another post on how listening is the key to good strategy. Her blog is a goldmine of nonprofit wisdom, highly recommended.
posted by sweetjane at 10:20 AM on January 31, 2020
posted by sweetjane at 10:20 AM on January 31, 2020
The problem with strategic planning for most organisations is that it ends up being nothing more than a review of the previous years' budget and programmes and an extrapolation out to another 12 months of more or less the same. Usually because there is not enough time an attention to focus on stretching and creating anything new and different. (Making time for strategic thinking is another challenge in a resource-poor organisation.) Change is hard and no one wants to disrupt a set of programmes that are delivering on the mission.
But there are some key questions that should guide strategic leadership thinking, chiefly around anticipating possible changes in the external environment and the potential for growth or reaching new audiences. Are we doing all that we can do? Will our mission still be relevant in 5-10 years? Who could disrupt us? Could we be more ambitious? Could we do things differently? What would that look like? Are there other organisations taking an interesting approach that we could learn from? Will our mission and success continue to bring in the necessary funding?
The main challenge for organisations I have worked with is that at at the end of the day, good strategic thinking requires courage, imagination, and perhaps most importantly, a real sense of intent and the willpower to shape that intent into something real. Forming intent is critical. And not all leaders understand or aspire to strategic leadership.
I don't have any specific formats or tools to suggest--all of the big consulting companies have their own trademarked approaches to this--some version of where are we now, where do we want to be? Jeanne Liedtka is an academic in the business and strategy space whose research has been helpful to me, and her book Design Thinking for the Greater Good, might be worth a look to help you generate some questions. If there is a Board of directors or advisers, that can be a helpful resource. And if the NGO doesn't have one, maybe consider creating an advisory board to assist in this kind of thinking and planning.
posted by amusebuche at 10:17 AM on February 3, 2020
But there are some key questions that should guide strategic leadership thinking, chiefly around anticipating possible changes in the external environment and the potential for growth or reaching new audiences. Are we doing all that we can do? Will our mission still be relevant in 5-10 years? Who could disrupt us? Could we be more ambitious? Could we do things differently? What would that look like? Are there other organisations taking an interesting approach that we could learn from? Will our mission and success continue to bring in the necessary funding?
The main challenge for organisations I have worked with is that at at the end of the day, good strategic thinking requires courage, imagination, and perhaps most importantly, a real sense of intent and the willpower to shape that intent into something real. Forming intent is critical. And not all leaders understand or aspire to strategic leadership.
I don't have any specific formats or tools to suggest--all of the big consulting companies have their own trademarked approaches to this--some version of where are we now, where do we want to be? Jeanne Liedtka is an academic in the business and strategy space whose research has been helpful to me, and her book Design Thinking for the Greater Good, might be worth a look to help you generate some questions. If there is a Board of directors or advisers, that can be a helpful resource. And if the NGO doesn't have one, maybe consider creating an advisory board to assist in this kind of thinking and planning.
posted by amusebuche at 10:17 AM on February 3, 2020
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posted by katra at 9:22 AM on January 31, 2020