The strategic planning process contains numerous parts and timetables helping to reach the final goal; organizational growth, profitability, and efficiency.  Each step contains different functions that together present a picture of where your organization is, where it is going, and how to get there. The process requires two meetings held at the organization’s headquarters or a selected site.

Step 1:  The Mission

Developing the mission statement is one of the most critical components in the planning process because it dictates every step taken from here.  In developing the mission statement we ask organizational leadership to individually fill out a form asking the following questions:

Who are we?

Where do we want to go?

How do we get there? 

This information is reviewed and discussed in an open forum to decide one clear mission, and that is written into a formal mission statement answering those three core questions.  In addition, if the organization is performing the plan on a particular department those issues are identified and a statement of purpose is composed to use during the remaining steps of the process.  

Step 2:  Stakeholders        

Once the mission statement is complete we turn our attention to identifying stakeholders.  Bryson (2004) defines a stakeholder as ‘any person, group, or organization that can place a claim on an organizations attention, resources, or output or is affected by that output”.  Identifying stakeholders begins by leadership helping determine who in the organization should be present.  These select individuals attend an initial meeting to be introduced to the process and asked to help in the development of external and internal stakeholders left off the initial list.  Representatives from each stakeholder group are brought in to complete the next steps.

Step 3: S.W.O.T

Once the organization’s mission or the purpose of the plan is established and all stakeholder representatives identified those individuals attend a second meeting asking everyone to come up with a quick list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  Those ideas are placed on a board in front of the room, condensed based on similarity or eliminated.  Once determined, the remaining set of ideas for each category is examined individually to set a goal that confronts the situation the processes and individuals needed to achieve that goal. 

Step 4: Action Plan and Implementation

The action plan is the most useful document given to the organization once completed.  The plan uses the SWOT analysis information to set goals that address issues identified during the process.  In accomplishing this task we determine the processes and employees needed to implement the plan and assign responsibilities to monitor performance.  In addition, once the plan is established it can easily be used to monitor performance and quickly identify what corrections are required.  

Step 5: Follow-up

Now we have reached the exciting conclusion of your plan.  We will compile a planning handbook outlining the process conducted and clearly stating the goals and objectives we established for the future.  This handbook includes:

          1)     Executive Summery (bullet points of your statistics and results)

 2)   Mission Statement/Statement of Purpose

 3)     Identification of Stakeholders

 4)     S.W.O.T

 5)   Goals and Objectives

 6)      Action Plan

 7)      Implementation Strategy

 STEP 6:      List of our organizations contact numbers    

In addition, our organization handles any questions or request by the organization after the planning handbooks are distributed.  We will reevaluate your plan with leadership at a free follow-up consultation after six month and one year period.