Strategic and Operational Planning
Strategic vs Operational Planning
A strategic plan identifies your high-level goals. An operational plan outlines how your team will achieve those goals.
Your strategic plan sets direction for your non-profit organization over a 3 to 5-year period, identifying high-level strategic priorities to pursue so you can achieve your mission. It does not provide the details of how you will achieve those priorities and run your organization – that’s your operational plan.
Operational Planning identifies and actions the strategies, objectives, and activities required to fulfill your Strategic Plan.
An organization’s operational plan provides staff with a clear picture of their responsibilities. It will usually outline what tasks must be done, who is responsible for each task, when the tasks must be completed, and what financial or other resources are required.
Operational Planning
Vantage Point’s Strategic Planning facilitation places your organization in the driver seat to create a plan that sets priorities and aligns your team, board, and community partners toward common goals.
Through Strategic Planning, you will achieve your organizational goals and daily decision-making more easily with a clear vision of where you are going and strong alignment between priorities, strategies and activities.
Under the focused stewardship of your board, we support your organization’s strategic planning through facilitated discussions that:
- Spark engagement among your board members by establishing clear roles and priorities
- Uncover the essential skills needed to effectively steer your non-profit organization
- Reaffirm or reframe your vision, mission, and values
- Take a closer look at your market data, community and partners, and assess internal and environmental conditions
- Engage your community, staff, partners, and interest-holders
- Define what success looks like for your organization
- Identify and prioritize your key objectives
- Ensure your team is in sync with the mission of your organization
Strategic Planning Approach
Vantage Point’s strategic planning model will take your board and leadership team through brainstorming and envisioning activities that spark lively and productive discussions, help you understand your interest-holders better, identify key opportunities, and carve out your vision for a better community.
Keeping your organization’s objectives and situation in mind, we design a strategic planning process that can range from basic to all-inclusive and can involve one to four sessions with your staff and board.
Our approach is focused on aligning your organization’s purpose with clear directions to guide you for the next 3-5 years. Your board and staff will walk away feeling more committed, and with a refreshed, high-level direction that resonates with your mission and vision.
Strategic Planning Packages
Strategic planning is all about achieving consensus throughout shared leadership on fundamental purpose, mission, direction, and relevant goals over a multi-year period. Effective strategic planning also sets organizational leadership up for ongoing strategic decision-making. The elements of a strategic plan typically include vision, mission, values, priorities, goals, and objectives.
Our consultants are equipped to support your organization with one or all of the following steps as you prepare your strategic plan:
- Preparation: Prepare organization’s leadership and board through 1-hour meetings and possibly 3-hour workshops as well as review documents relevant to the strategic planning process.
- Discovery: Collaboratively develop and deliver surveys, focus groups, and interviews.
- Planning: Facilitate the strategic planning session.
- Communication: Prepare a one-page summary of the strategic plan.
- Implementation: see below
Implementation Planning
Strategic plans were made to be implemented, not to sit on a shelf. Successful implementation requires consideration of several factors, including:
- Communication
- Change management
- Capacity and structure
- Monitoring
- Measuring success
- Strategic filtering
- Supporting values with actions
- Budgeting
- Operational planning – see below
Vantage Point has developed tools and training for the above topics to support leaders with successful implementation.
Implementation Planning Support
A Vantage Point Consultant will start by working with you to identify which of the aspects of implementation you require support with. We will also help determine who requires training in implementation. This will lead to a 3-hour implementation workshop that will provide skills and knowledge that leaders can use to implement their strategic plan. We will then follow up with a set of relevant tools and templates to support your ongoing implementation.
Operational Planning
If your non-profit organization has completed a strategic plan and identified priorities for the next 3 to 5 years, the Vantage Point team can support you to build a detailed operational plan that works for your organization and your staff team. The operational plan may include strategies, objectives or goals, activities, timelines, and metrics.
Operational Planning Facilitation
Our facilitators will guide your team to:
- Pinpoint what success looks like for your organization through specific outcomes
- Strategize the best ways to achieve these outcomes
- Set clear objectives or goals and determine staff and resources needed
- Develop a system to track how your organization is progressing
- Break down tasks and objectives to be delivered
Operational Planning Options
Basic Operational Planning Package – Template & Support
A Vantage Point consultant will review operational planning templates with you and your key staff, to identify one that best meets your organization’s requirements.
We will help map out your journey to a completed operational plan. We’ll define all the key elements (strategies, goals, activities, resources needed) and identify measures of success.
Facilitated Operational Planning Package
A Vantage Point consultant will provide support in building an operational plan template, as described in the Basic package above, before facilitating one or more operational planning sessions.
Facilitated operational planning can be done with a small management team or a larger staff group. Our consultants will work with you to determine the best approach. Considering the complexity of operational plans, facilitated operational planning is useful to build key elements of the plan; we will then work with you to lay out a clear process to finish the plan.
Build a Stronger Organization Today!
For more information, please contact our Training and Consulting Program Coordinator, Gawa Desilets, through the form below or at gdesilets@thevantagepoint.ca | (604) 637-8297.
