Strategic Planning

I've been recently asked several times about Strategic Planning. I want to start out by saying that I believe the leadership of an organization should be in a constant state of strategic planning. I don't think it should be something that is done once every three years until you need a new one. If a company is only 'going through the motions' of doing its daily business, it risks ignoring the changes in the market or worse, becoming obsolete.

However, strategic planning is a great way to get the board and other constituents engaged and involved in the big picture of the organization. I see the formal process of strategic planning as a way to make sure that everyone agrees which direction the company is going. It's the big picture: North, South, East, or West. The day to day decisions need to be based on what is necessary to keep heading in that direction.

Something that I could not stress enough in this process: the Strategic Plan needs to be a living document. Things change quickly in the NP world. The plan needs to be able to adapt with the landscape. Also, I find myself implementing things as we think of them instead of according to a 'timeline.' So those things get added to the plan even though it's already adopted. There are other instances that may take more time and financial planning (such as becoming a Union theater company) in which a three year plan is extremely helpful in identifying the financial implications and what conditions need to be met before the company can safely venture into that change.

The three questions you should ask during the process are:
1. Where have you been?
2. Where are you now?
3. Where are you going and is that still the right direction for the company.

It's also a good idea during this process to do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

After having done this kind of work with both smaller and larger organizations, I realized that Strategic Planning will affect the company in different ways depending on where the non-profit is in its life cycle.

For instance, for Starting Gate Productions, our process mainly focused on sustainability. We were less interested in changing our organization or adding to it than we were about making sure that we had person power and finances to keep the company running.

For Mu, the company was in a much different place. The company had been around for 17 years, has had a major impact on the Twin Cities theater scene, and was growing at an unprecedented rate. Combine that with succession planning of a founding Artistic Director and you have a lot to consider and talk about. Also, the company needed to change according to it's new size. This included change in our marketing strategies, Board culture, and fund raising culture. Being a larger company with a higher profile creates more Opportunities (identified through a SWOT analysis).

Here is an example of some specifics that we identified in our plan:
1. Since we are an Asian American arts company, we realized the importance of keeping a pipeline of artists that are trained and can allow us to maintain the level of artistic achievement that we have acquired. Due to this we have created two programs that would invest in future artists of the company.
2. We have been working on a succession plan of our founding Artistic Director. This process includes delegating workload that only a founding member would take on. The position of Artistic Director needs to change in order for a sane person to take the job.
3. Our outreach into schools and community groups has taken a HUGE hit in the last two years. We are reworking the language and approach to our programs in schools to better fit curriculum as well as creating better sales tools such as online videos of samples of our work. We have also created a marketing/strategic plan just for this department.
4. Our desire to increase our local and National profile has led us to experiment in future seasons with bringing in National artists which Mu would present in the Twin Cities. We are also looking at booking higher level venues on a more consistent basis and are budgeting more money for advertising dollars.
5. Our Taiko programs are going through a reassessment process to decide what direction we want to take it. To increase our artistic level requires more commitment from the artists and a strategy.
6. Our board has created committees that are responsible for reporting back on a monthly basis of progress. The committees include Funding/Development, Strategic Planning, Gala, and Marketing.

These are just a few things that have come out of our Strategic Planning process. I put out these examples in hopes of inspiring you into the kind of thinking that will affect change for your organization. I have found that this process is continuous. We are still having deep, serious conversations about things that have come up in this process and we are still reaching out into wider circles (audiences and other focus groups) to get an idea of where our constituents want us to go.

Again, I want to reiterate that Mu is in a very unique situation in it's lifecycle. For you, a strategic planning might be to re-assess your programs and realize that you are still on the right track and no changes are needed. This affirmation is still important to move forward with a new energy of assurance that everyone is behind the work.