15 February 2010

Strategic Planning
Supporting Volunteers
A Roadmap for Stakeholders

By John Marshall, Vice President
Midwest Region

I’ve always loved choral music. Having been born into a musical family (my parents both sang in a choir and my mother was a soloist), I developed a great affection for and interest in singing very early in life. I sang in a children’s chorus at church and eventually graduated to the church choir where I sang tenor. Although I didn’t major in music in college, I sang in a wonderful chamber choir as well as a large and terrific student choir. It was in college that my appreciation for singing deepened, in many ways becoming more of a spiritual experience. (If you’ve ever sung Mozart’s Requiem, you will know exactly what I mean.)

A number of years ago, I took a position with a large hospital in Oklahoma City as the president of its foundation. Almost immediately upon arriving, I investigated the choral landscape of the city and was very pleased to learn about a 120-member chorus which had a stellar reputation. I contacted them and, after having successfully passed a rather stringent audition, found myself amidst 18 tenors (tenors are always in great demand given their scarcity, by the way).

Not long after, I was approached by the chairman of the organization’s board who asked if I would consider becoming a member. I accepted his invitation with pleasure and began what to this day remains the single-most rewarding association I have experienced as a volunteer.

I was asked to serve as board chair after two years and, with a certain degree of trepidation, I accepted.

Singing in the choir was a wonderful experience, but from a business point of view, I felt that something was lacking. It seemed that we were always scrambling around at the last minute trying to sell tickets, or raise additional dollars for any number of needs, or trying to figure out how best to expand our audience base . . . not every concert was a sell-out!

Shortly after I was appointed board chair, I asked the executive director for a copy of our strategic plan. “Well, I have been here for three years, John, and I am not aware that one exists. It seems that whenever the subject comes up, it just gets shoved aside because of everything else that is going on.”

Oh boy! No strategic plan . . . a malady besetting far too many nonprofits. Well, having seen the benefits of a well-constructed plan, I resolved that we would go through the exercise and have a plan in place, hopefully within three months.

“Bob, you’re the head of strategic planning here at the hospital, how would you like to help me in making one of OKC’s treasures a really well-run organization?” Like me, VP for Strategic Planning Bob was also a music lover and quickly agreed to meet with our board and explain the merits of a properly crafted strategic plan and all that would be required on their part to develop a plan.

After hearing that the process would take five to six three-hour sessions over at least two months, likely involving Saturday sessions and the participation of ALL board members, the board agreed to move forward. Bob was willing to facilitate and introduced to the organization a wonderful strategic planning prototype, one which I continue to use today.

This prototype is an exercise intended to bring an organization’s management team, trustees, and other stakeholders a game plan to address strategic direction over a two- to three-year timeframe. It is one which requires a commitment of time, essential to go through both pre-planning and actual strategy development components.

I have to give my fellow board members credit: They honored their commitment to give their time and, once we really got rolling, they exhibited a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and energy. Seldom did anyone miss a session unless they had a very good reason.

A DETAILED APPROACH

Bob explained that it was important for us to see planning as achieving three outcomes:

• To create and support the concept of shared outcomes. (Mission/Vision)
• To secure group acceptance of the strategic direction an organization must take in order to fulfill its Mission and to enable the participant team to fulfill its responsibility of providing direction to other stakeholder groups. (The Plan)
• To serve as a vehicle to achieve culture modification, organizational unity and strategy integration through team building. (The Team)

PRE-PLANNING COMPONENTS

Before we began to formulate a plan, it was very important that the board take on four key pre-planning components:

• Issue identification - The identification of issues critical to the organization which must be addressed as part of strategic planning.

Once this list was created (in our case, a lengthy list), the group has to assign relative priorities, i.e., critical – important – nice. Examples could be: Financial stability; competition; community relations; technology; manpower shortages; downsizing issues; or morale.

• Stakeholder analysis – The group will need to identify individuals and/or groups of individuals who have a reasonable right to believe that their values, expectations, needs and drives will be met by the organization. Failure of the organization to do this may result in sanctions.

Steps to this analysis were: (1) Identify critical stakeholders; (2) Profile stakeholders as to their needs, values, expectations and drives; (3) Identify drivers and satisfiers; and (4) Determine where stakeholders are on the “satisfaction line.”

• S.W.O.T. analysis - It was very important that our group critically identify and assess our organization’s position as it related to:

Strengths – current condition
Weaknesses – current condition
Opportunities – future conditions
Threats – future conditions

Once we had performed the S.W.O.T. analysis, we were in a position to build on our strengths, address our weaknesses, determine how to capitalize on opportunities, and how to avoid threats.

• Competitor’s analysis - In building the plan, it was clear that we had to identify:

Who are our competitors?
How strong or vulnerable our organization was to competition?
What the competition can or is likely to do in response to our initiatives?
Whether our competitors are friendly or adversarial?

BUILDING THE STRATEGIC PLAN

Once we had completed the Pre-Planning Component, which required two full sessions, it was time for the board to build the strategic plan. This proved to be very serious and time-consuming work. Every member of the board was assigned at least two tasks, with many taking on more. Sub-groups suddenly formed, resulting in much work being accomplished outside of the regular full-group planning sessions. The decision to do so was strictly made by individual members.

Under the capable guidance of our good friend Bob, we went about building our strategic plan by addressing the following key areas:

Mission/Vision
Simply stated, the Mission is an organization’s reason for existence and must respond to stakeholders’ expectations. It should be stated in no longer than a paragraph with critical thought given to the choice and sequence of words and phrases.

Just as simply, the Vision is what the organization hopes to become.

It was amazing to me how long it took to come to a group consensus on the wording of these key components, but in the end, we came up with meaningful – and new – statements for each.

Goals and Objectives
We limited the number of goals (four to seven), which were to be goals that must be achieved if our Mission/Vision was to be met. Objectives were measurable outcomes directly tied to goals, and were generally positional and time-related.

Constraints and Guidelines
Constraints are things that must be maintained to succeed, and can never be violated. Guidelines are things that should be adhered to for success, but which might be violated short-term. Constraints and Guidelines become the “Rules of the Game.”

Targets and Tactics
This is where the lion’s share of the work is accomplished and why our sub-groups sprang into action. Targets and Tactics are the “how” we would accomplish our Goals and Objectives. Without them, the process grinds to a halt. At a minimum, they must address:

• Overview
• Action steps
• Timing
• Responsible parties
• Resource requirements

Strategic Triggers
The board was advised to be ever-vigilant in looking for the events that would immediately cause the board to revisit its strategic direction. Failure to do so could cause the plan to derail.

A NEW DIRECTION

I have been involved with strategic planning processes on a number of occasions in my career. However, this particular one has been the most meaningful. The spirit of cooperation and camaraderie that developed was beautiful to see, and by the end of the exercise we had developed a plan which I was certain would be a difference-maker for our organization. It took a great deal of time and effort, but it was well worth every minute we spent together.

Although I moved away from Oklahoma City not long after the new plan was adopted, I recall clearly the pride in presenting the new plan to the chorus and great satisfaction in seeing how they embraced it. I have remained in touch with some of those who worked with me in putting together this critically important plan for the organization. There were a few bumps in the road in its implementation along with some minor modifications; however, this plan absolutely transformed this wonderful organization.

Today, Canterbury Choral Society is one of the most respected performing arts organizations in Oklahoma City, enjoying near sell-out performances and a healthy bottom line. It has grown from having just an adult chorus into one with a children’s and teen’s chorus, and performs “run out” concerts throughout Oklahoma. And, it is being guided by a new strategic plan which, much like the original, is keeping the organization focused and moving confidently into the future.

We at Jeffrey Byrne & Associates would be thrilled to partner with you and your organization’s leadership in developing a strategic plan that will ensure that your Mission remains relevant and your Vision is filled with promise. Click here to contact us.