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� Major Event

› Happens and passes

› Draws significantly on resources

› Placed on a shelf thereafter

� Ongoing process

› Ensures progression and results

› Helps an organization determine

� where it is going,

� how it will get there, and

� how it will know if it got there or not.

� Document the process� Vary in several ways:› Timeline

� one year, three years, and five to ten years into the future.

› Scope� across the organization

� top-level information

› Direction & length� specify action plans or leave them out

� Short (5-8 pages) or considerably longer.

� Consider both the long-term view and the short-term requirements.

� Not interchangeable

� Strategic plans

› Relatively short documents

› Focused on the entire organization

� Business plans

› More substantial

› Targets a particular product, service or

program

› Product of your strategic plan

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� Clearly define the purpose/mission of the organization

� Establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with the mission

� Communicate goals and objectives to stakeholders

� Develop sense of ownership of the plan

� Ensure most effective of resources

� Establish basis to measure progress

� Build consensus about future direction

� Provide clearer focus

� Bridge staff/employees and management/leadership

� Build strong teams

� Increase productivity through increased efficiency and effectiveness

� Solve major problems

� Inadequately prepared for changes

� Competing agendas

� Fragmented stakeholder communications

� Inconsistent message

� Inefficiencies and ineffectiveness throughout

Essentially:

� Struggle toward achievements

� Expend resources to simply “survive”

“The process of developing and evaluating every decision and action in light of current and future circumstances, the direction you want to go, and the results you want to achieve.”

- The Sergay Group, Ltd, 2011

� Focused on “possibility thinking” instead of doing “business as usual”

� Encourages pushing the envelope

› What can be done smarter

› What else can be done “instead of”, or “in addition to”, that would maximize

opportunities.

� Strive to become “strategic thinkers”

› re-evaluate, challenge, and adjust where

necessary

› consider all variables, internal and external

› ongoing responsibility of every employee

� Assess every challenge, every problem, or every action in light of a broader context

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� See the big picture

� Initiate innovative ideas

� Conceptualize complexity

� Know the right questions to ask

� Think horizontally and simultaneously

� Know when to ask searching questions

� Integrate concepts, however disparate

� Apply lateral thinking to different situations

� Challenge current processes, practices, and strategy

� Unearth alternative approaches, solutions, or methods

(The Sergay Group, Ltd, 2011)

1. Strategic thinking

2. Identify patterns or trends

3. Identify threats and

opportunities to the

organization

4. Create a vision statement

5. Define organizational purpose

6. Set goals- Authenticity Consulting, LLC

1. Committee management

2. Conflict management in groups

3. Conflict management

4. Creative thinking

5. Innovation

6. Decision making

7. Facilitating in face-to-face groups

8. Focus Groups

9. Group-based problem solving and decision

10. Meeting management

11. Problem solving

12. Valuing diversity

- Authenticity Consulting, LLC

� Everyone in the organization � More people = more perspectives and

information available � Allows everyone to see the bigger picture� Increases awareness and understanding� Empowers participants� Helps to create a common culture � Motivates employees to support the

organization’s future direction� Increases likelihood that the Plan will

become action

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1) Assess your existing environment› SWOT analysis

2) Develop a realistic Vision› Presented as a pen picture of the organization› Three or more years time › Stated in terms of its likely physical appearance,

size, activities etc.

3) Develop a Mission Statement› Purpose and activities› 3 to 4 years› Hard-nosed versus softer issues› Focused, realistic, and justified

4) State organizational values and beliefs

› Governing conduct

› Governing relationships

5) Set out key long-term objectives

› Results to be achieved

› Medium- to long-term

› Expectations and requirements of all major

stakeholders

6) Identify key organizational strategies and major functional areas

› Rules and guidelines by which the mission, objectives, etc. are achieved

› Use SWOT analysis to identify� Build on strengths

� Resolve weaknesses

� Exploit opportunities

� Avoid Threats

7) Assess possible future environment

› SWOT Analysis

8) Review & refine vision, mission, values, and objectives

9) Specify major goals achievable over the next 3 to 4 years

› Specific interim or ultimate time-based measurements to be achieved by implementing strategies in pursuit of the company's objectives

› Quantify in terms of sales, market shares, products, finances, profitability, utilization, efficiency

10) Identify strategic action programs

› Who, what, when, where, how

› Set targets

› Prioritize

› Establish implementation plans

› Address resources, objectives, time-scales,

deadlines, budgets, and performance

targets

(PlanWare, Invest-Tech Limited, 2011)

� Considers internal and external environments

� Analyzes larger system › Stakeholders

› Needs & expectations

� Systematic analysis of the internal and external factors which influence your organization

� These factors are:› Strengths

› Weaknesses

› Opportunities

› Threats

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� Internal to the organization

� Relate to resources, programs and organization in key areas

� Good and bad points within the organization

� These include:› Sales - marketing - distribution - promotion -

support

› Management - systems - expertise - resources

› Operations - efficiency - capacity - processes

› Products - services - quality - pricing - features -range - competitiveness

› Finances - resources - performance

› R&D - effort - direction - resources

› Costs - productivity - purchasing

› Systems - organization – structures

� External factors confronting the organization

� Includes the following areas:› Structural changes within

the industry

› Economic or social factors in

the marketplace

› Competition

› Changes in products or processes due to new technologies

� Use the following approaches for each factor:

› Build on strengths (e.g. reputation)

› Resolve weaknesses (e.g. communications)

› Harness opportunities (e.g. new legislation)

› Avoid threats (e.g. competition)

� Combine tactics and strategies in your strategic plan

� Vision Statement

� Mission Statement

� Goals & Objectives

� Short-Term Action Steps

� Word “picture” of your company in the future

� Framework for all your

strategic planning

� Establishes “stretch” for the

organization

� Entire company or single division

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� Answers “Where do we want to go?”

� Inspiration for daily operations and strategic decisions.

� Destination for the journey…without a destination, how can you plan the route?

� Short, simple, inspiring

� Created by the leader

1. Evaluate your mission› Why do we exist? What is it we do well? How

do we do it?”

2. Imagine where it takes you› Extrapolate… where is your organization

going to be in five years? What will you accomplish?

› Form a mental picture

› Imagine a company news byte. What is your organization being recognized for?

3. Shape your vision statement

› Refine your vision into usable form

› Use the following template to build your vision statement:

Five years from now, (my company name) will ______________ by ______________.

› Identify the most important accomplishment of your organization

› State a time-frame to accomplish it

› For example:

Five years from now, the APWA will become the leading provider of training for Public Works Directors in the continental US by

consistently providing a reliable, affordable, accessible training in Public Works core

competencies.

4. Commit to your vision statement

› Take action

› Keep it alive

� share it liberally

� make it visible

� Defines and articulates your organization's purpose

� Clarifies the reason for its existence� Combination of › what your company does› how and why it does it

� Encapsulates the values that are important to your organization

� Explains to customers why they would want to do business with you

� Provides the guidance to those who are familiar with it

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1. Describe what your organization does

› Keep it simple at first:

› My organization's purpose is to:

� Sell shoes

� Provide educational services

� Build and maintain roadways

2. Describe how you do it› Not a detailed description of the physical

operations

› Description of general operations

› Incorporate one or more of your core values. For example:

� High product quality

� Superior customer service

� Equal access to resources

� Encourage innovation/creativity

� Practice sustainable development

› Consider your organization’s core competencies - what a you do well that

distinguishes it from others?

› My organization's purpose is to:

� Sell shoes of the highest quality

� Provide educational services that allow all Public Works Directors to participate

� Build and maintain roadways using sustainable development practices

3. Add why› describe spark or passion behind your

organization› Why does your organization do what it does?› My organization's purpose is to:

� Sell shoes of the highest quality so every customer can find a pair of shoes they actually love to wear.

� Provide educational services that allow all Public Works Directors to participate and improve the communities in which they live and work.

� Build and maintain roadways using sustainable development practices to ensure today’s resources are protected for future use.

4. Put your mission statement to work.› Front and center in the minds of

� Employees

� customers

› Highly visible

� at your premises

� on your website

� on all your marketing materials.

› Theme of advertising campaigns.

› Not just a slogan, an operations manual

Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and

one neighborhood at a time.

Goals & Objectives

Goals Objectives

Accomplishment you are

trying to reach

Steps in the process of

reaching a goal

Broad, large in scope Specific targets or end-results

Major activities that support

the mission

What needs to be done

Future desired/expected

outcomes

Statements of actions toward

outcomes

Programmatic direction Clear, realistic, measurable,

and time-limited

Ends… Means…

Be persistent Be flexible

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� Stated first

� Categorized around major responsibilities, needs, or programs

Examples1. Provide high quality information services that

satisfy user needs.2. Acquire or make available, in a timely manner,

all externally produced information resources needed by the organization

� Written for each goal

� Strategies or primary means for achieving goals

� Two Types

› Outcome

› Process/Action

� Address ends to be obtained

� Can be in the form of ultimate, intermediate, or immediate

Examples

� To have a 75% customer satisfaction rating on reference requests by xxx date

� By end of FY xx 50% of all employees will be aware of at least 3 library services

� Specify the means to achieve the outcome objectives

� Begin with words provide, train, serve, etc.

� Need an end date Process

Examples

� To provide information consulting services for any company unit that requires it.

� To provide online database search training on Lexis-Nexis to all users of the service.

� Activities for the current year

� Steps necessary to move toward vision

› Specific activities required for each step

› Information requirements

› Assignment of individual

responsibilities

› Major milestones and schedule

› Resource requirements

Examples

Objective:

Repair/improve drainage on roads to be paved within the year

Short-Term Action Steps:

1. Identify roads to be paved

2. Locate drainage needs

3. Obtain necessary materials

4. Schedule work

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1. History2. People/Culture3. Leadership4. Discipline5. Communication6. Monitoring, Measurement, Feedback7. Lack of Flexibility8. Milestones/Rewards9. Bad Planning10. Bad Plan

Ten Common Reasons Strategic Plans Fail

By: Leo Bottary(Vistage International Inc., 2010)

FOUR ESSENTIAL STEPS

1) Make your planning process inclusive

2) Make sure your plan is realistic, flexible, and complete

3) Make a commitment

4) Recognize that the value of your Strategic Plan depends on your leadership

(Burns ,2010)

“Fatal Flaws”� Developing your

� Strategic Plan during a crisis

� Setting unrealistic objectives

� Assuming everyone

knows what is expected of them

� Ramming a plan down anyone’s throat(Burns ,2010)

� Authenticity Consulting, LLC. (n.d.). All About Strategic Planning. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from Free Management Library: http://managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm

� Burns, M. (2010). Off the Shelf. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from BWB Solutions: http://www.brodyweiser.com/pdf/offtheshelfnewdraft.pdf

� PlanWare, Invest-Tech Limited. (2011). Developing A StratgegicPlan. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from PlanWare: http://www.planware.org/strategicplan.htm

� The Sergay Group, Ltd. (2011). Strategic Thinking - A Task for All Employers. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from Smart Talk: http://www.sergaygroup.com/Smart-Talk/Strategic-Thinking.html

� Vistage International Inc. (2010). Ten Common Reasons Strategic Plans Fail. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from Vistage: http://blog.vistage.com/business-leadership/ten-common-reasons-strategic-plans-fail/

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Sherri B. ZimmermanAssistant Professor

Indiana University of Pennsylvania717-919-2482

sherriz@iup.edu

Richard L. V. Coates IIIAssistant DirectorCounty of Fulton, GA404-612-7468Richard.coates@fultoncountyga.gov

SWOT Analysis

EXTERNAL:

Opportunities Threats

INTERNAL: Strengths

Weaknesses

SWOT Analysis

EXTERNAL:

Opportunities Threats

INTERNAL: Strengths

Weaknesses

INVEST DEFEND (either alone

or with others

DAMAGE CONTROL DECIDE - become

stronger to take

advantage of or let

the opportunity pass

by

ACTION STEP DEVELOPMENT WORKSHEET

Goal: __________________________________________________________________________________

Objective: ______________________________________________________________________________

Action steps Who will do it? By when?

1.

2.

3.

Goal: __________________________________________________________________________________

Objective: ______________________________________________________________________________

Action steps Who will do it? By when?

1.

2.

3.

Goal: __________________________________________________________________________________

Objective: ______________________________________________________________________________

Action steps Who will do it? By when?

1.

2.

3.