In a featured article on the CharityVillage blog, our team explored the importance of meaningful engagement to access the collective wisdom of your staff, board, and community in building an impactful strategic plan. Here, we'll dive deeper into specific engagement strategies that can enhance both your strategic planning process and your final plan.
Considerations for Relationships and Outreach
When embarking on a strategic planning process, the effectiveness of your engagement efforts will rest the strength of the relationships you have with those you want to engage. Consider these key groups to involve in your process:
Board Members: Their governance experience and strategic oversight can guide critical decisions.
Leadership: They play a vital role in shaping organizational direction and priorities.
Frontline Staff: Their firsthand knowledge of daily operations and community needs is invaluable.
Community Members: Engaging them ensures your plan reflects the realities of the people you serve.
Peer Organizations: Collaboration with the organizations you work alongside can yield shared insights and resources, enriching the planning process.
It is typically easiest to engage board and leadership as they have specific priorities and responsibilities related to strategic planning.
Accessing insights from frontline staff, community members and peer organizations will contribute significantly to the quality of your strategic plan, but these groups may be harder to engage.
For example, frontline staff may be working hourly making it challenging to find time to engage them on strategic planning work that is not directly related to their role. Community members are a wide and varied group with different levels of connection to your organization and experiences with community engagements. Peer organizations may view your organization as a competitor or it may be difficult to determine who within their organization would be beneficial to engage.
If you’re looking to gather input from individuals, groups, or organizations that you’re not yet well connected with, it’s worthwhile to invest time in assessing and building those relationships before launching into the strategic planning process.
Building Relationships
Show Up: Attend community events or sector gatherings where potential collaborators will be present. Your presence will signal commitment and interest in building connections.
Ask for Introductions: Ask mutual connections to facilitate introductions and foster relationships. Warm introductions can lead to more meaningful conversations.
Participate Actively: Involve yourself in local initiatives, discussions, or volunteer opportunities that align with your mission. This can help you understand community dynamics better and establish trust.
If broad outreach is your goal but you lack a large email list or social media following, consider what investments you might want to make in these areas. Alternatively, think about leveraging your partners’ networks to extend your reach beyond your current channels.
Explore opportunities to integrate your outreach efforts into existing events, community gatherings, or industry conferences where your target audience is already planning to be. Collaborating with others can enhance your visibility and deepen your engagement.
Sensemaking and Validation
Once you’ve gathered input from various groups, it’s crucial to create space for sensemaking as a group. Start by developing a synthesis of the feedback you’ve collected and share it back with your collaborators. Invite contributions and reflections from the group on questions like:
What resonated?
What is missing?
Collaborative sensemaking not only validates the voices you’ve heard, it strengthens your relationships by demonstrating that you value their input. Taking the time to process this feedback as a collective will lead to richer insights and a more robust strategic plan.
As your strategic planning process progresses and you develop a draft plan, don’t hesitate to return to those you engaged earlier in the process for validation. This step ensures that you’re on the right track and that the plan accurately reflects the collective wisdom of your organization and community.
Highlighting Engagement in Your Plan
An important piece of the engagement process is documenting who you engaged throughout your planning journey. Including this information in your strategic plan builds transparency and strengthens your case for the value of the plan. By demonstrating that you consulted a diverse array of voices—each contributing unique perspectives and expertise—you create a convincing argument for the relevancy of your strategic goals.
Incorporating engagement into your plan enhances its credibility. It signals to your team, funders, and community that your decisions are informed and rooted in the realities of those you serve. It can fosters a sense of ownership among contributors who see their insights reflected in the final plan.
The Value of Collective Wisdom
Meaningful engagement is not just a checkbox in the strategic planning process; it’s an essential component that can lead to a more impactful plan. By prioritizing relationship-building and outreach, fostering collaboration, and highlighting engagement, you’ll create a strategic plan that genuinely reflects the needs and aspirations of your organization and the communities you serve.