© Darren Bond (used by permission)

Have you ever been involved in a meeting, or a series of workshops, to build a vision and mission for an organization? Have you crafted strategies to make it successful? Do you wonder why these plans come across as shallow to others that weren’t involved and why they seem to evaporate?

Strategy development is tough, but execution is equally as challenging. It requires a bias for action, risk-taking, embracing ambiguity and good old persistency, follow-through and attention to details. Many want to share their great ideas; fewer want to roll up their sleeves in tactical deployment.

Many planning and management methodologies exist but here are some favourites that I have found useful over the years. If this topic is of interest to members, we can start an online community to put more detailed techniques on the website and share best practices.

People
Engaging the right people in strategy development can make a huge difference in both the quality of the end product as well as the ongoing support to make it actually happen. In addition to core members of the organization, adding “customers” (e.g., an audience member), “partners” (e.g., a facility manager), and “prospects” (e.g., a targeted audience segment - youth) can provide perspectives which are both refreshing and brilliant in their simplicity. Some of the best ideas come from the outside.

Identifying Strategic Issues
Prior to holding any kind of workshop to flesh out strategies, it is useful to have the participants jot down in bullet-point format those issues they think are facing the organization. Having created them individually, these points will be unique to the person without having been coloured or led by a strong personality-type at the workshop.

Later, once the ideas are consolidated by a facilitator and reviewed as an initial agenda item at the workshop, it really gets the energy flowing with people building off of one another’s thoughts and ideas. These form the basis upon which the organization appraises its current state and what strategies are required for future success.

Vision and Mission
Firstly, starting from the top, as much as people have tired of the notion of vision and mission statements, they’re missing the point. The goal is not to have a statement but rather the vision itself. However, getting a group of interested people together to craft a vision and mission isn’t permission to chew up the whole evening debating and fine-tuning each clause; this can be done over weeks, months and years.

Having a clear vision provides a guiding principle to prioritize potential projects and actions.

If you already have an established vision and mission for your organization, look at it with fresh eyes. Does it make sense? Is it plain English or does it collapse under its jargon? If necessary, spend no more than half an hour reworking it with a small group in your organization. Distill each to seven words, or even less; a memorable slogan can be more useful than a full drawn-out statement. This will get the juices flowing and set the tone for putting concrete plans in place.

Having settled on the vision and mission for your organization, it’s time to establish those priorities that will help ensure its short-term and long-term health. There are a variety of methodologies for each stage. Again, I’ll describe those that work for me and hopefully for you, too. Process is critical, but only if it leads to meaningful action.

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