You do not need to create a new strategic plan every year. However, it would be of value to update your current strategic plan. We do this through a “strategy refresh”. A short facilitated session in which we help you refresh your strategic plan with up-to-date information and knowledge. In an ever changing environment, your strategic direction should be influenced by the best and most recent information available.
Transcript:
All right. Welcome to this episode of i501c you the podcast for nonprofit board members. And today is the last podcast of 2023. Hard to believe that the year has come to an end and been a very busy year for a lot of folks and for me as well.
And I’m very, very grateful to that for that. But one thing I would like to talk about, because this has come up recently and is really thoughtful and timely as we come on year end, and that’s to reevaluate your strategic plan as an organization, your strategic plan. And
Hey, I want to jump in real quick. Somebody asked me the other day, what does the CORLEY Company do? Well, we do three things for non-profits. One, we facilitate meetings. Yes, like board retreats where we discuss governance and strategy with all the members of the board. Number two, advise CEOs and help them as they make decisions and implement actions to drive their mission.
And then finally, we produce podcasts such as this one, but also for a number of nonprofits to help you get the word out, get your message out. So if you’re interested in any of these services, please feel free to reach out to michael@thecorleycompany.com. Now back to the podcast.
I love I really enjoy having conversations and working with groups to do a strategy refresh.
So what is the strategy refresh? Well, let’s go back to the strategic plan first. And there is a time and a place for every organization to have a strategic plan to outline the direction of the organization goals, objectives, activities, tasks for the next, let’s say, three years. Some people still try to do a five year strategic plan, and I think even three years is a stretch in light of how quickly everything changes.
So it’s definitely a time and place to do a formal three year strategic plan. So we’ve got some direction. We know where we’re going. But in order to make that a very effective, I encourage my clients to do an annual strategy refresh. That means once a year, take the time to pause, spend about 3 hours, 4 hours and revisit the strategic plan, reviewing what happened, what was accomplished over the past year, understanding new assumptions and reevaluating those assumptions because the world’s changed in a year.
So things, activities, things externally could have happened which impact the strategic planning process which you thought you would be doing in years two and three and beyond, for that matter. And it gives you an opportunity to plan and prioritize over the next year, given what’s happened the past year, given what we think this three year strategic plan is, what our three year strategic plan is, what should we do in year two?
And then again, what should we do in year three to continue the to be heading in that direction, that trajectory? I’m not a big believer that you have to redo your strategic plan every year and go through that entire process. But undergoing a strategy refresh gives you a chance to, on an annual basis, bring the team together, spend a half day focusing on strategy, looking at the past year, and really prioritizing your activities going forward.
That may be time well-spent for any organization and a chance for the CEO, the board to come together and just pause and look at the strategy. So the strategy refresh it. If you’re not doing it in a formal basis, hopefully you’re doing an informal basis. And even if it’s not related to the strategic plan, you should be outlining your priorities and what are going to be the success factors, the things that you’re going to measure and look at over the next year.
So I highly encourage that strategy refresh. And if we need help with that, I’m more than happy to work with you to outline a plan and even facilitate that session if it makes sense and be of benefit. This is Michael Corley the I 501c You the podcast for nonprofit board members and I will see you in 2024.
Timestamps:
00:00 The last podcast of 2023
01:05 Strategy Refresh
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