Human Services Professionals Media Strategic Plan

Annotating and Planning the Strategic Plan

By now, you are choosing (or have chosen) an organization to begin planning your strategic plan. Based on your reading in Bryson in Chapter 4, it now becomes your primary task to clarify your chosen organization’s mission and vision. You must also create an outline for your strategic plan. Since the environment is constantly changing, your outline must take into consideration the possibility for changes in the future. Remember, a strategic plan is a projection of action into the future, and not merely a description of the current conditions.

Government, for-profit, nonprofit, and mixed (hybrid) organizations generally follow a similar organizational structure, resulting in an outline essentially structured in a similar fashion. Each of the sectoral organizations has a governing or legislating body, each has an executive, support staff, and programs. Each sectoral form offers some type of service to the public, based on the organizational mandate. Considering the mandate, and especially the mission, one immediately determines a primary focus or goal that is intended; this is the point at which there is a difference between the organizations. Your plan for a strategic plan (this outline) must reflect and align with this primary focus throughout.

Instructions

For this assignment, develop an executive summary and an annotated strategic plan outline with references.

• Executive Summary: In 750 words, explain the mission or purpose of your chosen organization and the purpose(s) and worth of the strategic planning effort.
  • Identify a government, for-profit, nonprofit, or hybrid organization, and its sponsors and champions.
  • Indicate the personnel, executives, and governing bodies who you consider will be their participants. Since you are limited to conducting the development of a strategic plan as one person, you will need to describe simulated activities by participants contributing to your planning process. Describe how these identified participants will contribute to your planning process. Combine their simulated contributions into your research for this plan.
• Strategic Plan Outline: Create an outline of your strategic plan based on the headings provided in the Outline Structure section below. Depending on which sector your organization represents (consider samples in the Strategic Planning for Human Services Professionals media piece in your Studies for this unit), you may have more headings. Your goal is to outline the important design features of the plan.
  • Provide annotations for each heading. An annotation describes, in just a few sentences with citations, the subject sentences for the main paragraphs under the heading.
  • Provide a reference list at the end of the outline. Each annotation you provide in the outline must include a reference that corresponds to the annotations. You must include no fewer than twelve references, but you may have more.

Present the following elements of a strategic plan in your executive summary or in your outline. Note that you are not required to fully address all of these elements at this time. Instead, plan for how you will address them in your completed strategic plan.

• Project organization, including who the sponsors and champions are (such as the public, customers, supporters, and contributors).
• The organizations, units, groups, or persons who should be engaged, and in what ways.
• The specific steps to be followed, how the Internet and information and communication technologies will be used, and the ways ongoing feedback and learning will occur.
• The form and timing of reports.
• Resource commitments to begin the effort.
• Key requirements for a successful effort.

Be sure to address the following in this assignment:

• State an estimate of the budgetary amount needed for the plan and justify it. Provide the foundation for the budget, which will be expanded in later assignments.
• Consider future conditions and factors that will permit implementation of your organization’s mission.
• Refer to the Organizational Strategic Plan project description for further instructions.

Outline Structure

• Format Structure: Your plan for the strategic plan must have at minimum the following headings (depending on your sector, you may have more headings):
  • Executive Summary.
  • Board Authorization of Strategic Plan (in the case of a corporation).
  • Organizational Description.
  • Mission, Vision, and Values.
  • Goals and Strategies.
• Potential Appendices:
  • A. Action Planning (objectives, responsibilities, and timelines).
  • B. Description of Strategic Planning Process Used.
  • C. Strategic Analysis Data (External Analysis, Internal Analysis, and List of Issues).
  • D. Goals for Board Committees and Chief Executive Officer.
  • E. Staffing Plans.
  • F. Operating Budgets.
  • G. Financial Reports (Budgets, Statements, etcetera).
  • H. Monitoring and Evaluation of Plan (criteria, responsibilities, and findings).
  • I. Communicating the Plan.

Submission Requirements

• Written Communication: Write professionally, exemplifying doctoral-level critical thinking and analysis in your paper. Do not just present a summary of the readings.
  • Objectively evaluate and report on the findings of your research materials and the readings from the course.
  • Make points that are logical, substantive, and relevant, based on the presented evidence.
  • Avoid written errors that detract from the overall message.
  • Clearly identify in your paper where you are addressing each grading criterion or part of the assignment.
• Length: 750 words plus a references section.
• Number of Resources: Minimum of 12 resources listed at the end of the outline in a reference section.
• APA Guidelines: Format resources and citations according to current APA style and formatting guidelines. Use APA-formatted headings and subheadings, as appropriate.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.