Strategic Synergies:

Strategic planning should be an opportunity to:

• Listen and learn
• Set future direction
• Gain alignment
• Create energy
• Drive accountability

But often it is more of a “check the box” exercise, meeting the requirement to complete a plan without gaining the benefits of an engaging, thought-provoking planning process.  Common approaches to nonprofit strategic planning are mostly top down, with a limited number of participants, limited to the senior staff and representatives of the board.  They tend to be an exercise in collecting everyone’s goals for the next few years rather than developing a collective vision of a more successful future and ideas on how to make that a reality.  These approaches fail to be a learning process, relying on working out from the last plan versus taking a candid look inside to surface key strengths and challenges, and looking outside to identify critical emerging trends.  And too often they have a limited impact on agency outcomes as once the plan is completed it goes on the shelf until it is time to look at it again in three to five years.

This is the way most strategic planning used to be.  But a lot has changed in the last decade or two.  The world is moving so much faster around us, and our business models can be disrupted overnight.  In this environment leading organizations are adopting approaches that fully engage their staff and key stakeholders in developing and deploying strategic planning which takes full advantage of their collective insights and staying relevant by embedding the strategies into their daily work.

Strategic Synergies

Globe North has deep experience in leading organizations through the end-to-end process from strategy development through deployment and execution.  Working with leading private, public and nonprofit organizations we have developed a more open, inclusive and collaborative approach which breaks down silos, enhances insight, and ensures alignment.  We call it Strategic Synergies.

Over the last few years, we have worked with chapters of The Arc to tailor our strategic planning model to their requirements – stressing engagement of self-advocates, families and staff at all levels.

Process Overview

Our Strategic Synergies approach is an innovative approach to strategy that emphasizes listening, learning, and setting organizational directiontogether. Dreaming and working together, plans are developed in a way that strengthens the teamwork of board, staff, and self-advocates, positioning them for successful execution.  Chapters of The Arc have successfully employed this approach to do their planning, enhancing alignment across groups, functions, locations, and levels.

Getting Started

Our approach begins with engaging the senior executive team in a review of prior strategy work and an overview of the Strategic Synergies model.  Together we plan out a series of in-person, round table style interviews that cover all key stakeholder groups.  If there are multiple sites, we take care to visit as many as possible, engaging with people where they work or live.  We also ensure good representation across programs and functions.  The objective is to develop a 360⁰ view of the agency.  We also work with the leadership team to build a strong fact base including key agency metric trends and a regional scan that identifies critical trends in its operating environment.

Strategy Development Sessions

Leveraging a board/staff retreat format, strategy development is done over multiple days in an engaging, fast-paced way that fosters innovation, creates the safety needed to ensure candor, and builds the energy that will be needed across the team to take the ideas generated and make them happen.  All participants have a hands-on role in assessing the position of the organization today, setting a vision and goals for the next few years, and developing actionable plans to implement the strategy.  Exiting the session the team has a clearly defined approach to communicating and validating the strategy, engaging the organization at all levels.

Driving Execution Success

The work of successful strategy is just beginning when the development session is completed.  We work with organizations to launch initiatives ensuring well-defined objectives and measures of success.  We also help them develop the dashboard they need to assess progress, celebrating wins and adjusting where needed.  The objective is to ensure strategy is manifest in the world of daily work, visible to all so they can track their progress and celebrate their results, together.

Our approach begins with engaging the senior executive team in a review of prior strategy work and an overview of the Strategic Synergies model.  Together we plan out a series of in-person, round table style interviews that cover all key stakeholder groups.  If there are multiple sites, we take care to visit as many as possible, engaging with people where they work or live.  We also ensure good representation across programs and functions.  The objective is to develop a 360⁰ view of the agency.  We also work with the leadership team to build a strong fact base including key agency metric trends and a regional scan that identifies critical trends in its operating environment.

Strategy Development Sessions

Leveraging a board/staff retreat format, strategy development is done over multiple days in an engaging, fast-paced way that fosters innovation, creates the safety needed to ensure candor, and builds the energy that will be needed across the team to take the ideas generated and make them happen.  All participants have a hands-on role in assessing the position of the organization today, setting a vision and goals for the next few years, and developing actionable plans to implement the strategy.  Exiting the session the team has a clearly defined approach to communicating and validating the strategy, engaging the organization at all levels.

Driving Execution Success

The work of successful strategy is just beginning when the development session is completed.  We work with organizations to launch initiatives ensuring well-defined objectives and measures of success.  We also help them develop the dashboard they need to assess progress, celebrating wins and adjusting where needed.  The objective is to ensure strategy is manifest in the world of daily work, visible to all so they can track their progress and celebrate their results, together.