Every day events challenge our focus, which is why having a strategic plan is essential for guiding an organization, whether it’s a business or a nonprofit, towards its long-term goals. Typically, a strategic plan outlines a set of goals and objectives for three to five years, providing a roadmap that aligns your team and clarifies decision-making processes. Your strategic plan is also a reflection of the time in which it was created, the team who created it and the particular context of that moment. As internal and external circumstances evolve, it’s important to reassess and update your organization’s strategic plan to ensure it remains relevant and useful.
The Importance of a Strategic Plan
A strategic plan is your organization’s north star, setting forth a common set of goals and objectives. More important than the final plan is the process of looking towards the future together. When your board, staff, donors, volunteers, community, and other key partners are engaged in an effective and respectful way, they will be more invested in the outcomes, ensuring a collective commitment to your final strategic plan.
As an internal document, the strategic plan sets a unified direction that helps ensure that everyone in the organization is working with a common purpose. Externally, your strategic plan can be used to demonstrate your organization’s foresight to donors, investors, and funders.
Why Reassess Your Strategic Plan?
Over time, the circumstances that shaped your strategic plan will inevitably change. Organizations evolve, new opportunities arise, and unexpected challenges emerge. Reassessing your strategic plan is particularly pertinent in scenarios like:
- Change in Leadership: New leaders often bring fresh perspectives and priorities. They also are in a process of getting to know the organization, working with the existing team to get up to speed. A reassessment provides an opportunity to onboard new leaders and ensures that the strategic plan aligns with updates to vision and approach.
- Shift in Operating Environment: Significant changes in your community, funding or regulatory landscape can impact the relevance of your current strategy. Regular reassessment allows you to adapt to these changes effectively.
- Internal Changes: Organizational growth or significant changes in internal processes may require a re-evaluation of your strategic objectives.
How to Reassess Your Strategic Plan
Reassessing your strategic plan involves a structured approach to evaluating its current relevance and effectiveness. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you navigate this process:
1. Stoplight Review
Begin with a "stoplight review" assigning green, red or yellow lights to your goals and objectives with a representative group from across your organization. This group should include members from the board, leadership team, frontline employees, and, if applicable, the community you serve. The purpose of this review is to gauge how the existing plan resonates with the organization, assess the progress made, and identify areas that may no longer be relevant.
- 🟢Green Light: Identify elements of the plan that are progressing well and continue to energize your organization. These may include goals or objectives that have already been achieved.
- 🟡Yellow Light: Highlight aspects that are somewhat stalled or not generating the expected momentum.
- 🔴Red Light: Pinpoint components that haven’t been started, are significantly stuck or are no longer relevant.
2. Re-Evaluate
Based on your initial review, re-evaluate your strategic goals and objectives based on their colour.
- 🟢Green Light: Keep goals and objectives that are energizing, relevant and still in progress. Consider updating your plan or communication strategy to celebrate goals and objectives that have already been achieved.
- 🟡Yellow Light: These areas are the most likely to still be relevant but may require additional resources or some minor adjustments to make them achievable.
- 🔴Red Light: Remove any goals or objectives that are no longer relevant. Of what remains, consider what reframing might be needed to make these areas resonate with your organization.
3. Re-Engage
Determine who else needs to be re-engaged to reassess and potentially redefine these yellow and red areas. This might include members of your original planning team, external consultants, or new groups who have since become relevant.
You might conduct a survey, 1:1 interviews, or focus groups to gain new perspectives into these areas. Understanding the context impacting the status of these goals and objectives will support your organization to make decisions about whether these areas need more focus or resources or if they should be reframed.
4. Update the Plan
Based on your findings, update your strategic plan. These updates should reflect the current realities and future direction of your organization. Ensure that the revised plan is communicated effectively across the organization, highlighting the changes and the rationale behind them.
5. Take Action
Consider what resources and capacity need to shift in order to take action on your updated plan. For example, a growing organization might benefit from outsourcing its bookkeeping or back-office operations. Engaging external experts for these functions can free up resources and capacity on the internal staff team to focus on programs and initiatives.
6. Share the Story
Transparency is key to maintaining trust and engagement within your organization and with your community.. Share the story of your reassessment process, including the challenges identified, the changes made, and the expected outcomes. This openness helps build a shared understanding of the organization's direction and fosters a sense of collective ownership.
Conclusion
A strategic plan is a living document that should evolve with your organization and the world around it. Regularly reassessing your strategic plan is not just a good practice; it is essential for ensuring that your organization can respond to changes in your environment. By consistently evaluating and updating your strategic plan, you can maintain team alignment, drive progress, and position your organization for continued success. Through careful reassessment and thoughtful updates, you can keep your organization on track and moving towards its long-term goals.
