Before You Write Your Next Strategic Plan, Get Clear on Who You Are

Before you make a plan, you need to choose a strategy.

Before you choose a strategy, you need to know who you are.

Many organizations spend significant time, money and effort on strategic planning.

• They seek input from their community.

• They look at environmental scans and market analyses.

• They research what their “competitors” are up to.

• They may explore what funders in their field are funding.

They then brainstorm big ideas they think will help their community and help their organization stand out to donors, define a few “pillars” with lots of tasks underneath them, put it all in writing, and share it with the world.

Gathering information about the external landscape (community needs, funder interests, what others are doing) is important…

But great strategy requires us to spend an equal amount of time – and often more – reflecting on our internal organization landscape.

Spending meaningful time defining – and reaffirming – your organizational identity is an upstream practice that enables everything else to flow better.

When your leadership team and board are aligned on:

• The specific roles your organization plays in your issue area or community,

• Your unique preferences around the characteristics of initiatives you want to invest in and pursue,

• Your point of view and how that shapes the way you apply your expertise to making the world better,

• Your vibe and how that informs your approach,

It becomes so much easier to choose a strategy that makes sense for your organization, which then leads to more effective planning and greater impact.

Has your board or leadership team spent defined your strategic identity? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments.