But we don't need a strategic plan...

Some organisations insist that they know what they are doing without having to spend time and resources doing a strategic plan. It is "obvious" what they need to do - and they just do it.

Other reasons for not strategic planning include:

• The intensity of day to day activities, with no time to "waste" on planning
• Instability in funding and staffing make it hard to think about the future
• It seems too "private sector" to have a strategic plan
• Some board or staff members might be threatened by the idea of doing things differently
• Strategic planning has been tried before, and it didn't work.

All of the reasons above are very good reasons why there should be a strategic plan. For example:

• strategic planning could be used to identify why the organisation is overloaded, and point to better structures to deal with the workload
• strategic planning helps build stability, and even plan for uncertainty
• NGOs have less resources than the private sector and have to manage them more smartly and strategically
• a strategic plan help prevent any single person, including the Executive Officer, from pushing pet projects or agendas
• if a previous strategic planning process was not a success, learn from the exercise. It is likely the process used was not suited to the organisation.

Think of the time put into strategic planning as an investment or insurance policy. Even one day set aside for planning can improve an organisation's chances of survival in the future.


Back to Strategy: Strategic Thinking and Planning for Community Organisations

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