Turn These Three Fears About Strategic Planning into Opportunities

It is common for leaders to feel some apprehension about undertaking a strategic planning process, nevertheless, in many cases these initial worries can become opportunities. Here are three fears we frequently hear and how we recommend overcoming them. 

Fear: “We are already overloaded with serving our mission day-to-day. How will I make time for working on a strategic plan on top of everything else? Our team would be totally overwhelmed if I asked them to take on one more thing!” 

Opportunity: In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey writes about the importance of working on the highly important and non-urgent issues. Strategic planning falls in this category. Strategic planning will never knock on your door urgently, however, it is an extremely important activity for a successful organization to engage in. It enables an organization to most effectively make use of its resources, overcome obstacles, and seize opportunities to achieve its mission all while engaging and inspiring staff, board, clients, funders, and partners in its important work. With a clear strategic plan in place, the day-to-day overwhelm decreases because you and your team have clarity about who you are as an organization, and on what priorities you should (and shouldn’t) focus.

Despite the additional work of strategic planning, nonprofit staff frequently note during the planning process how inspiring, connecting, and reassuring it is to them to zoom out and work with their colleagues on addressing broader organizational challenges and creating the future of their organization.

Fear: “Staff and board will be frustrated or angry if we ask for their input into the plan, but then we don’t adopt and follow every idea they propose.” 

Opportunity: People typically desire the opportunity to be included and heard even when it may not be possible to implement all their ideas. We start every strategic planning process with clear decision rules, so that everyone knows how and when decisions will be made. With clear expectations in place, staff, board, and other constituents can freely express ideas that can be considered for the plan, understanding that while all ideas will be thoughtfully considered and engaged with in a collaborative prioritization process, not all ideas may ultimately be adopted. Even so, staff and board members experience greater engagement with the organization’s work from the inclusive process. 

Fear: “If we have a written plan in place, then we will be constrained and won’t be able to respond to new opportunities or adapt to new ideas not explicitly written in the plan.”

Opportunity: As the world evolves, so should your strategic plan. Your strategic plan provides insights into your organization’s core strengths and identity — and a roadmap for priorities in the years ahead. It is not a rigid instruction manual for each step to take and when, but rather a guide that can change as the environment and circumstances change. While clients implement their plan, we recommend they hold at least an annual session with the board, strategic planning committee, and/or full staff to evaluate how the plan goals and strategies still reflect the organization’s priorities and circumstances, and then adapt the plan as required to fit the organization’s needs at that time.

What DEIBA Means to Us and How We Center It in the Strategic Planning Process

Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility and disability justice (DEIBA) are important to our firm, as well as each of our individual team members. Drawing from our own lived experiences and trusted sources such as Racial Equity Tools, Equity in the Center, the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, and Creating Accessible Neighborhoods (CAN), over time our team has collaboratively defined what these principles mean to us:

• Diversity: The presence of people with different experiences, identities, and perspectives. 

• Equity: The guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups. 

• Inclusion: An environment where all feel welcomed, involved, connected, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate and bring their full, authentic selves. 

• Belonging: Belonging is what happens as a result of inclusion. Belonging means more than just having access, it means having a meaningful voice and the opportunity to participate in the design of political, social, and cultural structures. 

• Accessibility and Disability Justice: No matter their ability or experience, people have equitable access and self-determination; institutions not only make space for difference, but they expect and embrace it.

We believe it is important to center DEIBA in the strategic planning process and the plan itself. Below are some of the ways we do this when guiding clients through strategic planning:

• Understanding the history and context of the organization’s current diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts

• Designing an inclusive and diverse strategic planning committee (as we’ve written about here)

• Prioritizing people directly impacted by the organization’s work when conducting research and engaging and guiding committee members to conduct interviews and focus groups

• Facilitating conversations that ask committee members to intentionally consider how DEIBA will be intertwined in their priorities, goals, and strategies

• Centering DEIBA in our facilitation methods, including balancing voices in the room and using different methods to raise the voices of those who are less represented or have less hierarchical power

• Applying an equity-grounded lens to strategic plan development and uplifting possible solutions to promote positive impact

How do you center DEIBA in your organizational planning? We’d love to hear about it. 

Keeping Your Core Values at the Center

When facing challenges, articulating our values and holding ourselves accountable to them can provide the guidance we need.

You may have read about how the people of Rotterdam, Netherlands, stood up to Jeff Bezos. He and the maker of his new, three-masted, $500 million schooner wanted to temporarily disassemble a beloved old bridge to move his new ship out to sea at no financial cost to the city. The community was furious and refused. We found this story delightful and inspiring because the community rallied together and stayed true to their values, which is so important for organizations to do.    

But before a nonprofit can stick to its values, you must articulate them. Clarifying values presents a team-building opportunity for staff and board to surface and reflect on your organization’s core values, and also to define how you do your work and implement your strategic plan. 

Values are your organization’s principles and beliefs about what is important and worthwhile, and they guide how an organization executes on its mission. Values must be more than aspirational or desired qualities. They are inherent strengths that are lived and breathed by your organization. 

When identifying your values, you’re articulating the principles and beliefs that are most important to your organization. Louis Raths and John Dewey identified these elements that define a value:  

• Prized and cherished: it must be something you prize and cherish

• Publicly affirmed: you must be willing, when appropriate, to publicly affirm what you value

• Available alternatives: there must be the possibility of alternatives

• Chosen intelligently and freely: it must be chosen freely and after consideration of the consequences

• Action: it involves acting on your belief

• Repeated action: you must be willing to act on it repeatedly and consistently

Having clearly articulated and explicit values motivates teams by providing a uniting, principle-based guide for action and a filter for decisions and behaviors. The more that nonprofits stay centered in their core values when making decisions and leading teams, the more they will strengthen their culture and ability to execute on their missions.