This is the first of four blog entries on strategic planning.

During my consulting career, I have often been proudly shown a glossy document on the organization’s strategic plan of which the organization is very proud.  In many cases, that’s the first and last time I shall see it.  More to the point, it’s the last time that people may pay any attention to it until the time comes when the staff is required to report to the board on the implementation of the plan.

Sheer panic follows.  Everyone runs around and puts together materials that they have worked on over the course of the term of the plan with much of it simply being what they would do normally without the plan.   Someone puts the materials in a binder with strategic plan-related headings and the document is presented to the board.

The question is:  Has anything really been changed because of the plan?  If the organization is honest with itself, the answer is generally “No”.    Lest you think I am being a cynic, why not check out the actual use of strategic plans in your organization or in others if you have access to them?  I think you’ll find that my recounting above is, in fact, regrettably accurate.

So where to go from here?  Bendel suggests that one starts with a review of the last strategic plan under three headings:

1. the process used to design the plan
2. the form of the plan itself
3. the actual use of the plan.

These three headings fit into what Fenwich English, a well-respected researcher on program audits, calls design and delivery of program.

In the March 11th blog we are going to examine in greater detail how the last plan was developed:

• Who was involved in its development?
• What techniques were used to gather information to inform the plan? From where and whom?
• What discussions went into the form of the plan which would make it more likely that it would be implemented as designed?
• What guidelines have been set by the board for its design and duration, etc.

It is always interesting to note that planning for the future rarely encompasses a review of the planning in the past. In the words of the great poet, Alexander Pope: “A little learning is a dangerous thing”!

Dr. Dan