Strategic Planning Involves Many I Need A Comment
I want two detailed paragraphs of a response to each of the following. Ex-I can relate -I like what you said or referred to in.. in my experience…..
C
So far this course has really enlightened my understanding of the intricate process that is strategic planning. While my undergraduate studies as a business major prepared me well for business analysis through many of the models shared during this week’s content, I have found the opportunity to familiarize myself with the building blocks of strategic planning to be quite eye opening. If conducted to industry standards, strategic planning involves many moving parts, intertwined components, and diverse “players” to get the necessary information to properly assess the organization’s current heath and future direction. I’ve also enjoyed reviewing the textbook’s worksheets, as the questions provide an opportunity to expand my everyday scope of thinking in relation to strategic thinking, organizational structure and capacity, and inclusion of varying levels of stakeholders. The Harvest Business Review article (Links to an external site.) that Pia shared during the second week really stuck with me as I think it highlights how easily leadership teams can confuse objectives and actions with strategy. “Your strategic plan is an essential device in navigating disruption’s headwinds.”1
B
The Salvation Army has a strategic plan that is updated infrequently – typically at a funders request. From my perspective, creating the strategic plan seems like the easy part of the process. Actually implementing the plan is another story. Through our class discussions thus far, it’s become apparent that our organization is not alone with these notions. While I am aware of other TSA locations wrestling with their strategic plans, it was particularly refreshing to hear from my fellow classmates that their organizations have similar issues as well. Particularly with the discussions concerning La Salle University, it was interesting to hear that they invested so much time and money to develop a strategic plan that isn’t followed properly or revised to reflect where the organization is currently. A shame considering the Nonprofit Center is based there and could have been a real asset to the University during the implementation process.
Additionally, I have found that this week’s material to be particularly insightful. I was only familiar with the SWOT tool which I previously used in a program evaluation setting. Internally, I believe TSA has a keen eye on our strengths and weaknesses. I have found however, that external threats and opportunities are rarely considered until they are right on top of us. Implementing other external evaluation methods may be time consuming for our organization, but none of them seem particularly difficult to complete. These tools can be used beyond strategic planning stages and can be used in our other evaluation efforts.