Has 'Strategic Planning' Become a Bad Word?

Here are two real quotes we heard from philanthropic funders recently about supporting strategic planning for nonprofit organizations in their communities:

• “We’re not supporting strategic planning at the moment as we’ve pivoted to focusing on governance and leadership development.”
• “We aren’t supporting much strategic planning these days, developing strategic thinking and frameworks, yes – but multi-year plans in an environment that is as dynamic as this one is feels like it’s not the right approach.”

The term “strategic planning” is the problem itself. To these funders, it signaled the old model of static multi-year planning, when what both funders wanted is exactly what good planning delivers!

Clearly the phrase “strategic planning” has taken on some negative connotations, so I want to break things down and figure out how to navigate through it. I was curious, so I went to look up the dictionary definition of these words on Merriam Webster:

• Strategic – “of, relating to, or marked by strategy”
• Strategy – “a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time”
• Planning – “the establishment of goals, policies, and procedures for a social or economic unit”

This was an unlock for me because as silly as this is, the word Strategy to me does not include this implicit connection to something that is always long term. I’ve written at length on the fact that modern strategic planning needs to be adaptive, agile, and optimally on an annual planning cadence:

• Why BoardSource Is Ditching 3-5 Year Plans
• Time horizons for strategic planning
• Strategic Planning for Turbulent Times

Words have power, and so I’m thinking we need to start being more careful in describing the work we do. The part of the process that needs to be long term is the vision and the alignment at the board level with the shape of the change we need to see in the world – but the planning? The specific goals and projects to make progress towards that vision? one-year out is about the sweet spot for most orgs, and I agree one year of planning isn’t particularly long term. Maybe we need to start describing this work in two parts:

• Strategic Visioning – painting an inspirational picture of what we want our organization to accomplish over the next three years. And repeating that three years look forward – every single year!
• Implementation Planning – annual planning that identifies the most important objectives for an organization to move towards its desired future. And to be clear, this is often a mix of operational and strategic objectives that truly represent the most important work that must be completed for shared success.

The trick is, the sum of those two activities is greater than either alone. We often describe the ideal outcome as a one-year plan wrapped in a three-year vision. This doesn’t have to be an exhaustive process, we regularly see this done well in a single day facilitated retreat. But I do think the two things – the aspirational long-term vision and the near-term plan need to stay connected together. If you are building a vision with no implementation plan, at best it’s ineffective. If you are building plans with no vision for the future – it’s concerning.

There is a reason we’ve had this quote from Morris Chang on our website since day one: “Strategy without execution is useless, execution without strategy is aimless.”

I’m really struggling with what to call this process of aligning the board and team with where we’re headed with the work of implementing a system of goals that stays relevant and shows progress. These two steps done together – setting a vision and taking an iterative approach to building a plan are the core of governance, the core of leadership, and the foundation of an organization that is set up to get things done and make a difference in the world.

For now, the best phrase I have is “annual planning with a strategic view” – but clearly that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. I would love input from YOU – genuinely, if you have a reaction good or bad to this, please send me a note!

I’ll be the first one to step up and say that the traditional approach is busted and I love that funders are moving away from that model. I’ve helped too many nonprofits convert a static 5-year spreadsheet with many hundreds of lines into a useable plan with measurable priorities to say otherwise.

As strategic leaders, we need to move away from large, long duration engagements that attempt to deliver static overly detailed plans for more than a year into the future. But that also means a commitment to doing smaller planning more often. The days of spending 6+ months building a plan every few years should be behind us, because for us to be agile, we need to move quickly and build visioning and planning into our annual habits.