Lessons Learned Key Success Factors in Strategic Planning

• Keep the plan simple, achievable and easily understood by others. Focus on the things you do really well. Set realistic timelines and revisit your plan annually. The Strategic Plan must be dynamic and be able to evolve over a period of time.  The plan must be able to accommodate change and contingencies.

• If it is your agency’s first time doing a strategic plan, consider it a learning process.  For instance, after the first time using a consultant, many agencies find they can do their strategic plan themselves or with minimal external assistance.

• Make sure mechanisms are in place to ensure the plan is implemented and the implementation and outcomes are monitored.

• Do a formal review of your success in meeting objectives at the end of the year. This becomes your starting point for next year’s plan. There may be objectives that are not yet completed but need to carry over to be fully met.

• Include meeting objectives as part of ED, managers and staff performance reviews. Everyone should fully understand their role in enabling the organization meet the goals of the Strategic Plan.  This gives ownership in both establishing the goals and accomplishing them.

• Avoid a long drawn out strategic planning process that goes on for a year or longer.  This can become frustrating because there isn’t enough momentum in the process to feel like anyone has completed anything.

• If not already incorporated into your strategic plan, develop a work plan with overall schedule, timelines for implementation, resources required, persons responsible, performance measures, and measurable objectives.  This will ensure that there is a direct link between strategic plan, operational plan and goals of staff. 

• Develop a tool that will allow you to keep your strategic plan present in all decisions rather than filed away.