Strategic Planning Prioritization
How strategic planning helps answer the difficult questions
Eli (not his real name) was trying to be helpful.
He had agreed to take the time to speak with me, so many years ago, about his work.
This man was successful. He had built a large consulting firm with significant community visibility.
I, on the other hand, was in a time of uncertainty. I had gone through a challenging job departure. I felt a little lost.
At the time, I was doing the thing that has always helped me to get clarity – talking with a lot of people about what they do, listening to their stories to understand where I might fit in the world of work.
The question I could not answer.
“So,” he asked, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
When I heard the question, I remember freezing and my mind going blank.
The first thought that came to mind was, “Noooooooo!”
And after that, I thought, with some frustration, “I have no idea!”
And then the thought after that was, “Why don’t I know this?” And I remember feeling small.
I wanted to be the kind of person with a vision for my future.
I had created a vision for my future a few years before. But when my job did not work out, that vision evaporated.
In the moment of the conversation, I was barely treading water. I could hardly explain where I “saw myself” in the next five minutes, much less 10 years.
I cannot remember what my response was. I wanted to get off the call. It felt embarrassing not to have an answer.
As I thought about Prioritization, the next step of strategic planning, the conversation with Eli came into my mind.
Getting out of the weeds.
For our clients, the challenge of Prioritization is often that they are so deep in the weeds of their work that it is hard to step back and look around.
There are people who naturally start with a vision and then figure out how to make the details happen.
But a lot of our clients are deeply committed to the work they do without spending too much time thinking about where it is taking them.
One of the gifts of strategic planning as a team is that no one has to build the vision on their own. But rather, the group comes together to build priorities.
We do this after staff and the board have an opportunity to reflect on what was learned in Discovery. This reflection creates a shared understanding of organizational strengths and challenges.
From there, board and staff members work through a powerful question together:
What do we want to see in place in the next 3-5 years as a result of our actions?
We call this a Practical Vision, since it represents shorter-term accomplishments.
The collective answer emerges through a structured process of individual brainstorming, small group work, and large group discussion.
All of our clients say that they want to keep doing even more of their core program work—strengthening their services and centering their clients in the work.
Usually, there are pieces around funding:
For one recent client, the Discovery process raised questions about future funding streams. Their priorities included exploring these streams in order to expand revenue.
Another recent client struggled with expanding needs and an expanding workload. A key priority is doubling their organizational budget in the next three years – and they feel confident that they can find funding to do this.
Other priorities are unique to individual organizations. One recent client, whose staff had doubled over the past few years, is now focused on human resource policies and support for this next phase. Another client, a membership organization, is focused on ways to continue to add value for members, and to lead their field.
Organizational strategies -- the organizational “buckets of work’ -- come right out of the Practical Vision.
If you’re wondering – when I am asked this question now, I do have a response:
Ten years from now, I see myself doing what we do now: Designing and leading inclusive, equitable conversations that bring out the wisdom of the room. Maybe with more people and across more groups. But the same kinds of conversations that give teams the tools and confidence to talk together about their shared future. It continues to feel energizing and rewarding and we have seen the process work again and again.
Visioning needs spaciousness.
And after guiding so many organizations through these processes, I see our conversation with Eli in a different light. It is difficult —maybe impossible — to generate a vision under pressure. Vision emerges from listening and presence.
Reach out if you want to build a plan with spaciousness for your team or organization.
This is part 4 of a six-part series on the stages of nonprofit strategic planning:
Other resources to support strategic planning:
Join our November Strategic Planning course, live online at Cal State East Bay
Purchase our new strategic planning workbook