Strategic planning for community organisation

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  Halo375 on 05/06/2017 - 16:02

  +1

  For a start - learn to be clear about what you want the strategy to deliver over the 3 year time frame. Try to outline what resources you have available to meet that objective - skills, people, money, products, etc. Try to explain what is happening in your environment - suppliers, partners, competitors, communities - what are they doing and how does it help or hinder your cause? Then look at identifying what opportunities are currently available to your organisation as well as identifying what threats are out there that you need to counter against.

  Basically you need objectives, a situation analysis, a review of opportunities & threats and then identify the key tactics that you're going to take to deploy that will leverage all your resources and opportunities to overcome threats in order to deliver your objectives.

  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

  If you don't understand the above (and it is a bit of a mess of concepts there) then hire someone who does. Good organisations die when there isn't a strategy to unify your actions together. If your leadership can't pull that together then you're in serious trouble when your operating environment starts to change.

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    KitchenSink on 05/06/2017 - 16:38

    Your answer reminds me of my uni lectures in IT. :D

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    [Deactivated] on 05/06/2017 - 19:43

    Thanks a lot for this advice. It does make a lot of sense and can be applied to a lot of my work.

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      Halo375 on 05/06/2017 - 21:33

      The critical thing is to have a clear objective and the support of leadership to achieve that goal. They may disagree on how you achieve that goal (the whole strategy / project plan) but they cannot be disagreeing on what you've got to do. If they don't agree on that goal now… don't even start the project otherwise you're wasting your time. Change management (and knowing what that entails) is important to ensure a strategy is actually implemented and accepted by the organisation.

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        [Deactivated] on 05/06/2017 - 21:56

        Yes I do get your angle, management seem to be open to ideas and suggestions at face value but I tend to think if I went down the path of rolling out those plans or trying to they would be blocked due to the fear of change. We are quite anonymous in our field, partly because a big part of what we do is around suicide and we aim to be discreet, but another part of our work requires a profile and reputation which we lack and this impacts on us being able to build a client base. It's tricky but I hope to change the attitudes of management around having a discreet presence so we can start to mix it with competitors.

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        Halo375 on 05/06/2017 - 22:20

        @Jeffgee: Okay, so what you need is more of a directional strategy - something high level to start with that outlines where you think the organisation needs to go. With that you could then break that down to three major strategies (customer value, operational improvements, branding & awareness, etc) that could be rolled out gradually. Breaking it down and taking it slow can sometimes be a good thing, most importantly is getting people on board with the vision and then getting their input on how to achieve that aim.

        Just try to avoid all the buzzwords and try to make something methodical that works for you and your colleagues. A strategy is often a justification for what everyone wants to do anyway!

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  sane on 05/06/2017 - 16:34

  In general, when people ask such a question, there is an inherent contradiction that they need to overcome. There are other issues in setting a strategy as well, but cries of "how do I?" usually stem from that base level contradiction.

  In your case it's fairly obvious that you feel you need change, but have a board that hates change - hence contradiction. In that kind of circumstance you can often find that BIG jumps are easier to make than small ones, and that the threat of a big jump can make small changes more palatable.

  So, in your circumstance, a BIG jump might be to have NO office, and to close down certain things you do, put online others, etc. whilst changing the direction of what you do. It's probably possible to draw up a 'brave' scenario that 'joins up' and makes coherent sense like that.

  You can then draw up a halfway house to that, maybe moving slower; and finally a 'mild scenario' where you move office, make some changes etc. The important point is you don't offer a 'do nothing' scenario.

  You initially push hard for the BIG jump. You lay out how much better it is, how it would get ahead of the game, how it would deliver several nice characteristics (eg lower fixed costs). And then you let yourself be persuaded down from there.

  Of course, the reality is that all three scenarios are OK with you, but you've reframed it to 'how much change do you want' rather than 'any change at all?' Oh and throw in a fourth scenario that's totally daft but doesn't look so on the surface.

  The only risk is that someone on the board has seen this game played before, in which case you have a fight on your hands.

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    [Deactivated] on 05/06/2017 - 19:44

    Yea I can relate to what you've suggested.. It's great advice and ideas. Thank you!

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  supnigs super skids on 05/06/2017 - 19:04

  free stuff. what you want if to get your company name out there where they can associate with something you have done for them. Go early hit hard, repetitively so people do not forget. approaching 3 years, remind them of achievements together.

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    [Deactivated] on 05/06/2017 - 20:03

    Yes sounds Like a good approach.. Thanks

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  Halo375 on 05/06/2017 - 22:28

  Building community profile ideas - have a strong digital foundation. Good website backed up by SEO and SEM, good social media backed up by good customer management. This is foundational stuff you need today.

  THEN depending on your budget and resources. Look to partner with supporting businesses, councils, clinics or other parties. See how they can promote your services and make sure they have the right sales tools to promote your organisation.

  Consider advertising if you have the budget, good content and the right channel but ro be honest - digital marketing is usually much more important these days. Consider events and seminars to spread the word. Sponsor events if something like that is relevant.

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    [Deactivated] on 05/06/2017 - 23:22

    I've actually spent time the last month completing a social media corporate class and can really see the value in it. I will begin to establish a social media presence in the coming weeks. Yes partnering at meetings etc with other stakeholders is critical and I think we can do this better. Your advice is very relevant, very much appreciated!

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      Halo375 on 06/06/2017 - 09:13

      Don't forget the basics. Most people will search for things initially via Google - make sure your website is easy to find and if it isn't, hire someone to work on your site or run some search engine marketing campaigns on your behalf. If they can't find you, they don't know you. If they don't know you they sure as hell aren't going to look for you on social media.

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        [Deactivated] on 06/06/2017 - 09:44

        Yes I totally agree and our website is something that could use some work! I appreciate your help. Currently working on it at the moment. Thanks again.