I am on my way to New Orleans for some high level strategic planning at two different organizations. For the Independent Schools Experiential Education Network (ISEEN), I am running the meeting as board chair, and for the Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG), I am reporting to the board in my role as chair of the strategic planning committee. These two groups have experienced rapid growth over the past few years and both boards need to make sure we have a plan in place to ensure mission-driven programming, adequate membership benefits, and sustainable staffing and governance structures that make it all possible.
I am intrigued by the differences and similarities in the processes each group has chosen to follow. In the case of ISEEN, we started working on a plan at our board retreat in September, carried it forward at a meeting in January, and now we’ll dive into vision and values before putting together our specific goals and timeline. Our part time Executive Director is leading this part of the process, and we are using a terrific resource called The Do-Good Strategic Plan Template for: Non Profits, Charities and Volunteer Organizations, by Rebecca Macfarlane. We will nominate a committee at this meeting that will steward the process and hold us accountable going forward.
At GEBG, we had lengthy discussions of mission, vision and values at an earlier board meeting, and the Executive Director appointed a committee at that point to create a plan and bring it to the board for review before our annual conference. This committee, made up of current board members, worked in pairs to develop our ideas around the subject areas of greatest need and desire, and then tasked one member of the group to create a draft open to comment. This draft outlines one and three-year milestones for each identified goal. If the board approves the overall plan, this same committee will be responsible for assigning specific people and dates to each milestone and hold the organization accountable for achieving our stated goals.
While strategic planning for these small and growing organizations is challenging, I am struck by one simple fact: taking the time necessary to do deep core work is what makes specific tasks possible. Having a strong mission is important, but developing vision and values around that mission and then making sure everything grows out of the same center is what ensures success. Exactly how the process happens is far less important than making sure it does happen, and taking the time to develop a process that is inclusive, comprehensive, and thoughtful can lead to an organization that is both idealistic and realistic. I look forward to these meetings, to the work that grows out of them, and to the GEBG annual conference immediately following: Laissez les bon temps roulet!