All About Strategic Planning

Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it's going to get there and how it'll know if it got there or not. The focus of a strategic plan is usually on the entire organization, while the focus of a business plan is usually on a particular product, service or program. There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organization's leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organization's environment, size of the organization and expertise of planners.

Understanding Strategic Planning

Introduction -- What is Strategic Planning?
- - - Some Basic Descriptions of Strategic Planning -- and a Comparison to Business Planning
- - - Some Different Models of Strategic Planning
- - - For-Profit Versus Nonprofit Strategic Planning
Benefits of Strategic Planning
When Should Strategic Planning Be Done?
Various Overviews of Strategic Planning Process
- - - Samples of Plans

Conducting Strategic Planning

Preparation for Strategic Planning
- - - Guidelines to Keep Perspective During Planning
- - - Useful Skills to Have When Planning
- - - Need Consultant or Facilitator to Help You With Planning?
- - - Who Should Be Involved in Planning?
- - - How Many Planning Meetings Will We Need?
Always First Do "Plan for a Plan"
Strategic Analyses
- - - Taking Wide Look Around the Outside of Organization (Opportunities and Threats)
- - - Looking Around Inside the Organization (Strengths and Weaknesses)
Setting Strategic Direction
- - - Strategizing (identifying goals and methods to achieve them)
- - - - - - Understanding Strategy and Strategic Thinking
- - - - - - Do a SWOT Analysis of Results of Looking Outside and Inside the Organization?
- - - - - - Other Guidelines to Identify Strategic Goals and Methods/Strategies to Achieve Goals
- - - - - - - - - Consider Your Business Model (For-Profit and Nonprofit)
- - - - - - - - - Evaluate Your Strategies
- - - Developing/Updating Mission Statement (the purpose of the organization)
- - - Developing/Updating Vision Statement (depiction of future state of organization and customers)
- - - Developing/Updating Values Statement (overall priorities in how organization operates)
Action Planning (Objectives, Responsibilities and Deadlines)
Writing and Communicating the Plan
Implementing, Monitoring, Evaluating and Deviating from the Plan -- and Managing Change
- - - How Do We Ensure Implementation of Our New Plan?
- - - Monitoring Implementation, Evaluating Implementation -- and Deviating from Plan, If Necessary
- - - Changing the Plan as Necessary During Implementation
- - - Guidelines to Manage Organizational Change While Implementing the Plan

General Resources

General Resources