Strategic planning is the process of defining an organization's direction and making decisions about how to allocate resources to achieve its long-term goals. At its core, a strategic plan serves as a roadmap, guiding an organization’s efforts toward fulfilling its mission and vision.

Our working definition of a strategic plan is:

"The top three or four priorities that the board agrees must be accomplished over the next 2-3 years."

These priorities are not just a to-do list; they are carefully chosen key initiatives designed to position the organization for success. A well-crafted strategic plan ensures that every decision, investment, and initiative contribute to delivering the organization’s vision and creating a meaningful impact on the communities it serves.

Why Focus on Three or Four Priorities?

Many organizations fall into the trap of setting too many goals, which dilutes focus and hinders execution. Limiting the strategic plan to three or four key priorities enhances clarity, ensuring everyone understands what truly matters. It also optimizes resource allocation by directing financial, human, and operational assets toward the most critical objectives. With fewer priorities, teams can concentrate their efforts, leading to more effective implementation and measurable impact.

After three decades of guiding organizations through strategic planning, we’ve identified these eight essential tips

Tip 1: Assemble the Right Strategic Planning Team

The success of a strategic plan starts with having the right people in the room. Over the years, we’ve found that the most effective planning teams include board members, senior staff, and three to four key stakeholders whose insights are essential to the organization’s future.

The ideal group size ranges between 15 to 20 participants, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives while keeping discussions productive.

Research consistently shows that the least effective planning teams are those made up exclusively of either the board or the staff. A board-only team can lack operational insight, while a staff-only team may struggle with big-picture strategy.

The strongest planning teams include a mix of board members, staff, and external stakeholders, bringing together the necessary expertise, experience, and outside perspectives to identify the most impactful strategic priorities.

Tip 2: Engage Stakeholders in the Strategic Planning Process

While some stakeholders play a crucial role in shaping the strategic plan, they may not be directly involved in the planning meeting. This includes staff members, funding bodies, and organizational members—groups whose perspectives matter but whose presence in the room may not be necessary.

A highly effective way to incorporate their insights is through a strategic stakeholder survey. This tool gathers valuable input ahead of the planning session, ensuring that key viewpoints are considered without overwhelming the discussion. In our experience, these surveys yield an impressive 70% response rate, demonstrating strong engagement.

The survey should focus on core strategic areas, such as the relevance of the organization’s vision, key strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and potential risks.

By integrating these perspectives, the planning team gains a broader, more informed view; helping shape a strategy that truly reflects the needs and realities of the organization and its stakeholders.

Tip 3: Keep the planning short & strategic

Effective strategic planning isn’t about long, drawn-out discussions—it’s about identifying the top three or four priorities that the board agrees must be achieved over the next two to three years.

The planning team’s role is to pinpoint these priorities through a clear, strategic process, which includes vision alignment, strategic scenario planning, and a SWOR assessment (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Risks). The goal is to determine the key initiatives that will drive the vision forward, address potential challenges, and capitalize on major opportunities.

One common mistake is relying on lengthy stakeholder interviews, town hall meetings, or extensive community consultations to determine these priorities. In reality, these approaches often lead to consensus on the least controversial ideas, rather than identifying the most impactful strategies.

Decades of strategic planning have proven that an effective plan can be created in just three-quarters of a day—streamlining the process while maintaining depth and direction.

Tip 4: Strategic planning is all about the conversation and the questions

At its core, strategic planning isn’t about rigid processes or excessive documentation. it’s about meaningful conversations and approaching decisions with curiosity rather than assumptions.

Instead of operating from fixed conclusions or preconceived notions, effective strategic planning encourages asking the open-ended questions, exploring possibilities, and remaining open to new perspectives.

The most effective planning approach unpacks the organization’s vision, explores its future implications, examines potential scenarios, and identifies opportunities and risks (SWOR analysis).

Through this process, the top three or four strategic priorities will naturally emerge. These priorities should be rigorously tested through thoughtful questioning and open discussions during the planning session, ensuring they are truly aligned with the organization’s vision and future needs.

Too often, strategic planning sessions are derailed by overly rigid methods, aimless discussions, stacks of Post-It notes, and irrelevant small-group exercises.

Instead, the focus should remain on the key strategic questions that drive real impact:

“What difference do we want to make for the communities we serve?”

“If we execute these three or four strategies brilliantly, will they position us to succeed over the next three years; no matter what the future holds?”

By keeping the planning process conversational, focused, and question-driven, organizations can develop a truly actionable and visionary strategy; without unnecessary complexity. 

Tip 5: Operationalize the Plan

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is taking too long to finalize their strategic plan. Even when completed, many plans end up as little more than wish lists rather than actionable roadmaps. A strategic plan that truly works must not only position the organization for the future but also provide clear accountability and guidance.

A staggering 80% of strategic plans fail because they lack key accountability elements, such as timelines and success measures. Without these, the plan becomes vague and difficult to implement.

From our experience, by 1PM on the planning day, the larger planning team has typically completed its work—identifying the top three or four strategic priorities. At this point, a smaller group, including the CEO, Board Chair, and facilitator, can take the next few hours either that day or later in the week, to operationalize the plan. This means creating action plans for each strategy, setting clear timelines, and defining success measures.

Why does this approach work? Because the conversations from the day are still fresh, allowing for a more accurate, nuanced, and meaningful translation of strategic priorities into practical, actionable steps. By the end of the day, the plan is fully developed and ready for board approval, ensuring momentum isn’t lost and execution can begin.

Tip 6: Use your strategic plan to drive meaningful change in board governance

A strategic plan is only effective if it shapes the way the board operates, makes choices, decisions, and engages in discussions. Throughout the facilitation process, the facilitator should guide directors, staff, and stakeholders on how to use the plan as a tool for focusing conversations and driving decision-making.

This requires real structural changes in how the board functions. The board agenda should be aligned with the key strategic priorities, ensuring that meetings remain focused on what truly matters. Board papers should track progress against the agreed success measures, providing accountability and insight into whether the organization is on course.

Additionally, ongoing strategic discussions should be embedded into board meetings, allowing for agility in responding to emerging challenges and opportunities.

A well-designed strategic plan shouldn’t just sit on a shelf—it must fundamentally transform how the board thinks, acts, and operates, ensuring that strategy remains at the heart of governance and leadership.

The strategic plan also provides guidance around the future makeup of the Board Skills matrix that assists in new Director recruitment. Skills, experience and aptitude that would help drive the enquiry and guidance provided by the strategic plan should be a priority. This then contributes to the culture of the Board and ultimately organisational culture. 

Tip 7: Ensure every staff member understands and supports the strategic plan.

A strategic plan can only succeed if it is embraced at every level of the organization. Every staff member, regardless of their role, has the potential to contribute to its success. As senior leaders, your responsibility is to help staff understand their impact and see how their daily work aligns with the organization's broader strategic goals.

One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through one-on-one conversations between line managers and their team members. Rather than imposing changes from the top down, managers should guide employees in viewing their existing roles through the lens of the key strategic priorities.

A simple yet powerful question to ask is:
“How can you tweak what you’re currently doing to have a greater impact on these strategies?”

This approach helps staff connect their work to the organization’s vision, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement. When employees see how their contributions directly influence the organization’s future, they become active participants in achieving strategic success.

Tip 8: Formally review the strategic plan at least annually

A strategic plan needs to be adaptable, flexible, and reflect changing circumstances. We have found one of the most effective ways of doing this is to convene a Strategic Plan review session with Board and Senior Executives annually. The focus is on asking and investigating 5 questions: What has worked, what hasn’t worked, what did we miss, what do we add to the strategic plan, what do we take out of the strategic plan.

In closing

Strategic planning should be an ongoing, adaptive process that keeps directors and staff aligned and focused on shaping the future.

The Board plays a crucial role in monitoring and adjusting the strategy as new opportunities or emerging risks arise. Meanwhile, staff members keep the Board informed about successes and highlight areas that need attention, ensuring everyone can collectively navigate the best path forward.