Remember your audience and your stakeholders when performing your strategic planning. The result should be a document that everyone involved in the planning process understands and supports. If nothing else it should be user friendly and provide clear picture of the organization and where it is heading.
Key Concepts:
- The process is strategic because it involves choosing how best to respond to circumstances of a dynamic and sometimes hostile environment
- Strategic planning is systematic in that it calls for following a process that is structured and in the case of Title I planning "data based"
- Strategic planning involves choosing specific priorities
- The process is about building commitment or buy in
- Strategic planning guides the acquisition and allocation of resources
Whether the organization is big or small the most important impact of strategic planning should be to focus attention on why the organization exists and why a number of persons are interested and committed to its purpose to such an extent that they are willing to work to make it thriving.
Successful strategic planning advances the focus of an organization in that it generates:
- A clear understanding of the organization's mission, vision and values among key stakeholders
- A road map for action based on what is happening now
- Benchmarks by which we can determine achievement
- Information that can be used to market the organization
