september 2021 Newsletter
Strategic Planning in this Environment?
Yes - with some tools for quick responses to sudden changes
Strategic Planning in the TIME of COVID
pivoting during uncertain times…
In May 2020, I presented a webinar titled Strategic Planning in the Era of COVID[ 1 ]through Rice University’s continuing education platform. It was a strange and scary time. Much of the economy had shut down, unemployment had gone from 3.5% in February 2020 to 15% in a matter of months, the price of oil had plummeted, the stock market had lost 12% of its value. Congress passed the first CARES Act and the Federal Reserve Bank made bold moves to increase the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses.[ 2 ] Many nonprofit organizations were facing an uncertain future.
The Rice webinar, while focused on the critical steps involved in strategic planning, also focused on scenario planning that enables an organization to make quick adjustments to events that could significantly impact its future health. Strategic planning takes a longer-range view, even though many organizations have smartly reduced their strategic planning window from five to three years given the pace at which economic, political and operating environments are changing. Scenario planning takes critical areas of an organization such as programs, staffing, or funding strategies and explores a range of decisions that could be made relatively quickly to course correct when the unexpected happens.
Bridgespan, a consulting firm that works with nonprofit organizations to help create social impact, describes scenario planning as a process that “helps organization leaders navigate uncertainty while providing structure around making key strategic decisions.” Their article published in May 2020, Making Sense of Uncertainty: Nonprofit Scenario Planning in the COVID-19 Pandemic[ 3 ] effectively laid out a process for responding to the pandemic, including describing examples of best case, moderate case and worst case scenarios that addressed options for ways to deliver programs if in-person options were no-longer viable for the duration of the pandemic.
We are now in our fourth wave of COVID. You may have had to pivot so quickly, so many times, that your neck is in a brace! Depending on your mission, you may have experienced a significant increase in demand, especially if your organization deals with meeting basic needs,[ 4 ] or you may have had to make difficult and heart-wrenching cuts, like many organizations in the performing and visual arts.[ 5 ]
So why should we invest time in strategic planning at this particular time? Why should we not just transition to scenario planning instead? Both tools are valuable, and you might want to use them for different reasons.
delineating the two
Difference Between Strategic Planning and Scenario Planning
If you have gone through strategic planning before, you know that it requires research, time, effort, and energy to keep people engaged and committed to the process. I strongly think that it is worth the effort for two reasons. First, a strategic planning process should be identifying ways to make your organization better, your programs stronger. It should not be restating what you are already doing but what you will be doing differently to achieve your mission.
For your board members, it allows them to carve out time to set challenging goals for themselves around participation, recruitment, and their own education (about the organization and the needs the organization is serving, about financial needs and fundraising strategies that will support the direction of the organization). Many members find that being a part of the planning process gives them the opportunity to learn more about the organization, programs, challenges, and their impact on the community. Frequently, when board members participate in a strategic planning process, they become more motivated than ever to support and promote your organization.
Scenario planning helps you think through and decide on steps to take when unexpected situations arise. Nonprofit organizations (as well as businesses, families, education, etc.) have been on a roller coaster the last year and a half, recently being so close to a sense of normalcy earlier this summer with vaccines developed and caseloads plummeting. Now, facing spikes in COVID again, it makes abundant sense to apply your experience of the past year and craft scenarios for a range of options to have them ready when, not if, they are needed.
Strategic planning provides an opportunity for a nonprofit organization’s leaders to invest quality time with their board and other key stakeholders to consider important questions:
Why does your organization exist?
What value propositions does your organization offer?
Is there tangible, measurable community impact?
Are your clients positively impacted?
How would your clients, your board members, your staff and your funders “rate” your organization?
How would you describe your culture?
How does your organization stack up against other organizations providing similar services? Have you kept up with research, technology, and best practices that would improve your approach to achieving your mission?
ENCOURAGING GROWTH
What I learned from facilitating Strategic Planning during COVID
Here are my six take-aways from facilitating long range planning during this recent, challenging time. (See the article in this newsletter on my recent facilitation of strategic planning with the Houston Area Urban League.)
1. Organization. Create a Strategic Planning Committee of senior staff and board members who represent a range of experience (professional and personal), demographics, and different areas of organizational/board leadership (8-12 members). Provide a committee description and set clear expectations for what will be required for the committee and the strategic planning process to be successful.
2. Commitment to Process. Work with the committee to find the best days/times to meet that will promote and enable strong participation. Honor the schedule as members will be organizing their calendar around these meetings. One and one-half hour meetings seem to be the “sweet spot” to provide enough time to get meaningful work done and not represent a barrier to participation.
3. Impartial Assessments – Use the strategic planning process to gather information about your board’s engagement and your staff members’ assessment of operations. As a member of BoardSource, I have used their board self-assessment which provides extremely helpful insights to a board on their engagement and recommendations for building and strengthening boards. I have also used the iCAT, an on-line questionnaire designed to solicit helpful feedback from staff members on a number of leadership, management and operational issues.
4. Retreats (Virtual or In-Person) – When well-planned and with good input on developing a meaningful agenda, retreats can deliver great outcomes. During COVID, I facilitated Zoom retreats (2.5 hours) for board members and staff leadership, using Zoom’s break-out rooms feature, which worked very well with pre-planning on who would be in which small group.
5. “Owner” of the Strategic Planning Process – A strategic plan has a much greater likelihood of being implemented if the CEO identifies someone to be the lead person to support, communicate about, and track the progress of the strategic plan. This needs to be part of their job description, not an “add on” responsibility. The person needs to be at a senior level in the organization, respected by the staff, and known to the board of directors, so that they can keep the Strategic Planning Committee organized and motivated and the board of directors and staff informed and engaged in the process.
6. Summary of the Strategic Plan – One of the best things you can do at the end of the strategic planning process is to develop a high-level summary of the plan to share with new board members, new staff, funders and other key stakeholders. This should be a professionally produced piece with high quality photography. It should include a short description of the process, mission, vision and goals developed through the plan. It should be a visually moving piece, compelling and easy to follow, logical in its format, moving from the big picture to administrative and program goals that are clearly linked to your mission.
Two Tools to Improve Navigation in Challenging Times - Summary
A strategic plan can be a guidepost for your organization in more normal as well as challenging times. Committed leadership is key, as well as prioritizing staff support for monitoring and implementing the plan -- otherwise the investment is for naught. Yes, it takes time in your already busy schedule, but with tools such as Zoom, the process can be done effectively and efficiently with less travel time required by board members. Keep other tools in mind, such as scenario planning, built on the values of your organization and tied to your mission, when decisions need to be made in the face of a critical challenge. Together, strategic planning and scenario planning will help you steer your ship in choppy as well as smooth waters.
Through the month of September 2021, my full Power Point presentation on Strategic Planning will be accessible on my website under "Presentations."
RESOURCES ON STRATEGIC PLANNING AND SCENARIO PLANNING:
[ 1 ] This presentation provides detailed information on a possible planning process, definitions of key planning terms, key elements of a mission statement, examples of good mission and vision statements, and things to consider when planning during COVID. Through the month of September 2021, the full presentation will be on my website under Presentations.
[ 2 ] “The Coronavirus Crash of 2020, and the Investing Lesson It Taught Us,” written by Liz Frazier, Forbes, February 2021
[ 3 ] "Making Sense of Uncertainty: Nonprofit Scenario Planning in the COVID-19 Pandemic”, May 27, 2020, The Bridgespan Group. See resources listed at the bottom of the first page of the article for other approaches to scenario planning.
[ 4 ] “Houston Food Bank Says It Faced Record Demand During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, Houston Public Media, March 17, 2021, story by Elizabeth Trovall.
[ 5 ] “Alley Theatre cuts budget, staff, performances amid COVID-19 pandemic”, Houston Business Journal, May 22, 2020, written by Jeff Jeffrey.
Houston Area Urban League’s experience
Strategic Planning Put to the Test
In the Summer of 2020, I met with the President and CEO of the Houston Area Urban League (HAUL), Judson Robinson, to discuss the possibility of facilitating a strategic planning (SP) process with the organization. It had been a while since HAUL had gone through a SP process and they were facing some important short- and long-term decisions. Meanwhile, COVID was spreading, and the economy was in a tailspin. “We need to transition some of our services from in-person to virtual, knowing that some of our clients don’t have access to the equipment necessary to connect to services virtually.” HAUL’s bandwidth needed to be expanded to handle the dramatic increase in demand for internet and WIFI to support on-line meetings and virtual service delivery. HAUL was also participating in a local community response to the May 25th murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer that spurred an awakening to the reality of ongoing racial injustice in our society. But even with all that was going on, Judson felt that it was important to embark on a process to define their future direction and provide a North Star to guide important decisions in the days ahead.
Meeting and Communication Process
Thankfully, Zoom enabled us to bring the committee together safely over a period of nine months during a worldwide pandemic. The process worked well, the committee stayed engaged, and there was added benefit of being able to save travel time. We even planned and held two retreats via Zoom using their break-out groups feature – one with the Board of Directors and one with the Program Leadership. In addition, Zoom meetings were held with program and administrative teams to solicit their input on key issues within their individual areas as well as issues that were impacting the organization overall, such as limited marketing resources and outdated computer equipment.
What’s going well? Where can we improve? What’s going on beyond our doors?
It is important as you begin a strategic planning process to look in a mirror and assess where you are as an organization as well as to look outside the organization to see what external trends or issues are facing you as you look to the future. The years 2020-21 will most be recorded in history books as the years of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. They also coincided with the most challenging economy since the Great Depression!
So, there were a few cataclysmic issues that HAUL and many other nonprofit organizations and businesses were facing as we were conducting our assessments. The SP Committee devoted an entire meeting to thinking through where they can build on strengths, where they can improve, as well as how to effectively address issues of social justice and equity while operating in a challenging economic environment. The Board of Directors completed an extensive self-assessment through BoardSource and the staff leadership completed the iCAT tool, focused on capacity building.
“The members of the Houston Area Urban League (HAUL) Strategic Planning Committee, in partnership with consultant Carol Shattuck, led and participated fully in the design of the process and the development of the plan. The process was all-inclusive with opportunities for representatives from all areas of the enterprise to provide their input. Carol provided advice, direction and expertise in the coordination and structure of our process as well as the identification of resources and self-assessment tools we could use for receiving input from our staff and board members as it relates to our operations and engagement. She was also the primary facilitator for all our meetings, both formal and informal. She along with our lead staff at HAUL employed software products for us to use to capture and share data and thoughts in real time along with coordinating break-out rooms for small group discussions. This allowed us to have a very successful virtual board and staff retreat where we shared our thoughts, concerns and expectations for HAUL. Her recommendation that we create a Summary of the Strategic Plan was done and is a wonderful outcome of our work. HAUL’s leadership and members of the committee remain fully engaged and committed to the strategic plan providing continuous oversight to the execution of the plan for the next three years.”
Dr. Judith Craven
Chair, Strategic Planning Committee, First Vice-President, Board of Directors
Houston Area Urban League
For additional quotes from the HAUL President/CEO and the HAUL Board President, scroll down.
Mission and Vision
Crafting a clear and concise mission statement is critical. It keeps you focused on delivering services that directly impact your organization’s ability to achieve your mission and keeps you from wandering into areas that other organizations can address more effectively.
As a local chapter of a national organization, there was some expected consistency between the National Urban League’s mission and that of its local branches (see text box on the Mission Statements).
In discussing the mission of HAUL, the SP Committee focused on answering the question, “Why does our organization exist?” The SP suggested that HAUL change the term “African Americans” to the more inclusive term “Black people” as a primary focus of HAUL. There was also a shift from using the words “underserved communities” in the National Urban League mission statement to “marginalized communities” which is a clearer reference to those who have been kept from realizing their full power and potential.
The SP Committee started from scratch on drafting the Vision Statement. The SP Committee used the following definition for Vision: A mental image of a desired future of when your organization is successful. Some organizations develop vision statements that refer to a vision for their organization (i.e. to be the best at “X” in “Y” region). Other organizations focus their vision on the desired future of their clients’ reality. HAUL chose to do the latter, developing a vision statement that clearly described what their client’s success looked like when their mission was fulfilled.
“The Houston Area Urban League (HAUL) has a well-documented and respected past in the city of Houston. We continue to ensure people have opportunities to gain employment, housing, education, and entrepreneurial training. With the advent of so many new nonprofits it was important to ask ourselves and our supporters the tough questions about our purpose, and our structure and strategy to achieve this purpose. The in-depth study process allowed us to clearly think through our challenges, and the process to overcome them. The many “think tank” meetings, assessments, and other documents were compiled into a visual well-designed Summary capturing the plan at a glance. This will be helpful when presenting our plan to new board members, funders and other stakeholders, while providing a reminder to our Staff and Board of the agreed upon direction of our organization.“
Judson Robinson
President & CEO
Houston Area Urban League
Goals and Measurable Objectives
The next step was for the board and the staff to begin the process of synthesizing the input from meetings, retreats and assessments and develop goals and measurable objectives that, if achieved, would improve the organization’s effectiveness as well as its impact. In fact, the HAUL Board was so motivated to begin the process, they did not waste any time. The Board Chair, Calvin Guidry, took the outcome of the board retreat and began to quickly work with the Board Nominating Committee to approve the goals and objectives around board service, board development and financial support and began the process of implementation. The staff followed soon behind the Program Retreat and the administrative group meetings to develop specific goals to address the high priorities identified in the planning process. For each goal, time-phased objectives were developed and the staff member/team that was accountable was identified.
“Strategic planning is essential and critical to every organization’s progressive movement. The uniqueness of Carol Shattuck’s methodology and process was the engagement of every board member. Carol’s approach allowed all board members to develop goals that were synergistic to the plans of exponential growth of the Houston Area Urban League (HAUL). Additionally, Carol led us through a process of self-evaluation to ensure that each board member’s contribution to the organization and community was appropriate. These are repeatable and sustainable processes that can be utilized on an ongoing basis. The steps we took to refresh the vision, mission, goals and objectives for the board, especially the self-assessment, have been invaluable contributions of Shattuck Consulting.”
Calvin Guidry
Chair, Board of Directors, Houston Area Urban League
High Level Summary of Strategic Plan – A key tool to share your ambitious journey ahead!
One of the tools that we designed as part of the last strategic planning process I was involved in at Collaborative for Children (CC) was a stand-alone summary of the strategic plan. The summary provided the big picture of the plan (mission, vision, goals for programs and support areas such as fundraising and marketing) in a readable format with photographs and graphics to engage readers in the plan for CC’s future. The back cover included a compelling case statement for why investing in early education was imperative for a healthy community. The HAUL SP Committee liked the idea of a SP summary and developed a similar tool to provide a high-level summary of the HAUL SP.
If you decide to develop a summary, I recommend that you invest the time and resources in working with highly skilled communications and marketing experts who can help you tell your story (if you don’t already have this level of expertise on your staff). While you are understandably very enthusiastic about all aspects of your organization’s work, professionals will remind you that supporters and stakeholders want to understand what you do at a “rooftops” level. Experts will have creative ways to combine text and visual effects to increase the readability of a summary. HAUL identified a graphics artist who helped turn the words on a page into an attractive overview of their SP. The Senior Staff and the Chair of the SP Committee have already shared the summary with some of their key stakeholders (funders, new board members) and the feedback has been very enthusiastic!
Time for Implementation!
Work is now underway to implement the plan. I look forward to following the progress of the Houston Area Urban League in the years to come and am excited about some of the game changing work they are doing to positively impact the lives of their clients through their new Center for Social Justice and Education and their Entrepreneurship program, in addition to their continuing programs in education, housing and workforce development! Work is now underway to implement the plan.
CONTACT US
If you would like to learn more about how Shattuck Consulting, LLC, can assist you with strategic planning or scenario planning, please go to the website and complete the “Contact Us” information and Carol will follow up to schedule a time to discuss this. You can also send an email to carol@cshattuckconsulting.com or call Carol at 713-498-7797.