Laying the foundation for success: Why you need a strategic plan

You would never think of remodeling your home without a proper blueprint, right? The same holds true for a new CEO and the Board of Directors of an organization looking to create significant change. But in this case, we call the blueprint a strategic plan.

A strategic plan is one of the most important documents an organization can create. We’re not talking about the strategic plans of yore, which were set on shelves to collect dust and promptly forgotten. It needs to be a carefully constructed, living document that articulates your organizational vision, its mission, values, strategic goals - and then provides a clear path toward achieving them.  Strategic planning is the formal consideration of an organization's future course and deals with at least one of these key questions:

1. “Why we do what we do?”
2. "For whom do we do it?"
3. "What do we do?"
4. "How do we excel?"

An advantage of having vision, mission, and value statements is the focus they create. These statements give a sense of direction and future opportunity.  To be truly effective, organizational statements should become assimilated into the organization's culture. Features of effective statements include:

• Vivid and clear pictures
• Clarity and lack of ambiguity
•  Descriptions of a bright future
• Memorable and engaging wording
•  Realistic aspirations and challenges
• Alignment with organizational values and culture

Vision: Defines the way an organization will look in the future. The vision is a long-term view describing the organization's picture of an “ideal world.” It is a source of inspiration and provides clear decision-making criteria.

Mission: Defines the fundamental purpose of an organization, succinctly describing why it exists and what it does to achieve its vision. It defines the customer and the critical processes. It can also inform about the desired level of performance.

Values: Core values are shared among the stakeholders of an organization. Values, beliefs and behaviors drive an organization's culture and its priorities. Values provide the critical framework from which decisions are made.

As a new leader, one of your first tasks should be to review the existing strategic plan – if there is one – and determine how it aligns with your vision of the organization. You just might need a new plan, or at least make some changes to the current one. 

So, how do you come up with a strategic plan? At ACPE, I was fortunate enough to come into place just as the Board of Directors was meeting to discuss the strategic plan for 2012-14. Senior staff members from different departments of the College submitted their input on where they thought ACPE should be headed, and then all of us – board, CEO and senior staff – held a marathon all-day meeting.

The timing in this case was ideal. As a new CEO, there were certainly changes that I believed needed to be implemented in order to help ACPE grow and thrive. Through the strategic planning process, I received the input I needed to make sure my vision was in step with the board’s and it helped better my understanding for how the senior staff viewed the organization. Additionally, this opportunity gave me a platform to introduce everyone to the direction in which I saw ACPE moving.

At the end of this planning day, we all reached consensus on the future direction for ACPE. And we felt better knowing there was now a blueprint for the significant change and new direction we wanted for our organization. Plus, we successfully created a new team-oriented leadership environment as a secondary gain.

If you'd care to check out the fruits of our labor, you can view the ACPE 2012-14 Strategic Plan here. We'd love to get your feedback.