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Strategic Planning

This page offers a model to design and implement a strategic planning process.

Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy.

Strategy has many definitions, but generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources). The senior leadership of an organization is generally tasked with determining strategy. Strategy can be planned (intended) or can be observed as a pattern of activity (emergent) as the organization adapts to its environment or competes. Source: Wikipedia.

Open the document and download here:

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Mentor Skills & Principles – Assessment Tool

This page provides a tool for mentors and mentor program leaders. It is a summary of our Mentor for Purpose Overview (aka Mentoring 101).

This outlines the key principles and skills needed for mentors to excel in their roles. It is intended as a tool to be used by the staff of organizations that have mentoring program with the volunteer mentors. The skills match the Life Solutions Network Mentoring 101 training. A learning environment is needed to continually grow; we learn from our mistakes and experiences with the help of routine constructive feedback.

Use this tool formally or informally. Formally, a supervisor of the mentor program may give structured feedback once or twice per year. Informally, mentors use it as a review before a mentoring session or to self-assess after a session. All learning can be pursued independently by following the links below.

Click the file below to download the document and have access to the many links.

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Mentor Development Planning

This document discusses a process to develop mentors, from orientation to initial training to ongoing development. It links the LSN Toolbox to the process. Note that green text highlights resources that are not currently on-line but freely available upon request.

Background: Volunteer mentors have various starting points. It could be as basic as never mentoring or some experience as a mentor in a corporate setting or being a very experienced but informal mentor of a teen child. Moving from this variable starting point to being an impactful mentor requires guidance and structure.

The Life Solutions Network can support you in mentor development. It starts with a choice to make quality (skills and effectiveness) an important goal as well as quantity (more mentor relationships).

Recommended Process:

Provide orientation to the organizations mission and mentor role.
- Expectations. A clear role description guides the needs.
Provide initial training.
- Mentoring skills. Review and align on the essential skills and then offer the Mentor for Purpose Overview
- Contextual skills. These include mental health, trauma, abuse, recovery and poverty.
Establish an expectation for ongoing development.
- Offer ongoing workshops. See the Mentor for Purpose Workshop series.
- Encourage self-learning. Explore the Life Skills Wiki, subscribe to internet newsletters or just read a book or short article.
- Offer individualized coaching. Consider assigning an experienced mentor as a “sponsor” to a new mentor.
- Consider assigning a lead volunteer. Coordination of training and development requires “capacity”.
Establish tracking and communication systems.
- Self-assess skills once or twice per year. Use the Principles and Skills Assessment Tool.
- Attendance at required 2-4 development sessions per year. Bringing your volunteers together as a group can include social, informational and development agenda topics.
- Implement Best Practices. See the Mentoring.org web site.
- Testing. Consider a Mentor Resource Page to insure awareness of available resources. Follow-up with an initial and then annual on-line quiz of content and policies.

Further Discussion:

Guiding mentor development requires resources and the focus of a Volunteer Coordinator or Mentor Program Leader. It requires the structure of a good Process Design and tools, e.g. a Volunteer Dashboard or Mentor Development Tracking tool.
Leadership must insist on mentor development; make it a priority.

Monthly and Quarterly Review Process (Doc)

Monthly Review: Did we do what we said would get done? Involve the Staff.

Quarterly Review: Are we still working on the right things? Are we on-track to achieve the annual goals? Involve the Staff and Board.

Review Executive Dashboard

Review Metrics

Check if there is a consensus on status
Do a gap analysis on “reds” and “blanks”
Understand root cause of reds
Define and document plan adjustments

Review Projects

Check if there is a consensus on status
Do a gap analysis on “reds” and “blanks”
Understand root cause of reds
Define and document plan adjustments

Review Strategic Plan

Identify other highlights or gaps

Review Processes

Check if there is a consensus on status (for recently developed processes)
Do a gap analysis on “reds” and “blanks”
Understand root cause of reds
Define and document plan adjustments
Check if Process Summaries have been approved or review one per month

Review Process Masterplan

Identify other highlights or gaps
Check if other processes need to be added to the Exec Dashboard

Critique

Identify document synergies/overlap
Identify ideas to further streamline the review

More on Operational Excellence – Process Management

Process Masterplan

A Process Masterplan outlines all of the work of the organization. Key elements of each work process are defined along with the desired documentation, effort and ownership. Here is an example of a completed Process Masterplan:

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Process Summaries

A Process Summary is the documentation of one of your processes, i.e. one of the lines in the Process Masterplan. Contact us if you want a Word template to document a process.

Here is an example Process Summary:

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Training

Here is the material we use to train your organization. In 90 minutes we conduct the training and complete a detailed Process Summary. Each participant is prepared to document a process they own.

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Process vs Project

More Information

Operational Excellence (Doc)

Operational Excellence is doing what you said and know needs to get done, when it needs to be done (to meet customer requirements). It is about planning and executional excellence. There are strategic and tactical components.

Recommendation: Instill accountability and focus by establishing an annual, quarterly and monthly review process with your board and staff centered on a set of key documents. With practice, you should be able to conduct the review in less than an hour.

Annual Review and Renewal: What are your choices with regards to Strategy, Action Plan, Metrics and Organization Design and Processes?
- Renew Mission and Strategies. You want these to be long-lasting (3+ years) but year-to-year you might make a few adjustments with an occasional overhaul.
- Develop Dashboard with Goals. Reconfirm that you are tracking the right metrics and add monthly goals. Focus on the few things that you are serious about and committed to improving.
- Develop Masterplan (or Action Plans). Identify the key actions, owners and target dates to drive your desired results.
- Renew Work Process Masterplan. This is a short version of the “best practices” you want to focus on.
- Update Organization Design. An organization is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. If you want to change the results, you must consider a change in the design.
Monthly Review: Did you do what you said would get done? Involve your staff.
- Review Masterplan (or Action Plans) and Process Masterplan. Update the status of each assigned item (color code each item green, yellow or red). Have the owner report on progress and address reasons for delays (yellows or reds). Use the “greens” to acknowledge accomplishments.
- Review Dashboard and Goal Status. Do a gap analysis of results that significantly deviate from goal.
- Review Follow-Up List. This captures agreed-to follow-up items and serves to help the “group memory”.
Quarterly Review: Are you working on the right things? Are you on-track to achieve the annual goals? Involve your staff and board.
- Review Masterplan and Process Masterplan. In addition to the above Monthly Review work, ask if you are still working on the right things to drive needed metrics. Make adjustments to the documents.
- Review Dashboard and Goal Status. Same as Monthly Review.

Further Discussion:

Keep the annual, quarterly and monthly review documents simple, ideally to single pages. The format doesn’t matter but some examples are attached. Each organization will have its preferences.
Don’t track too many things on the Scorecard. It takes time to gather the data. The Dashboard should reflect the needs of the Board for a high-level update.
The Masterplan or Action Plan is likely comprised of various projects. Don’t use the Monthly Review to do a Project Review. Project Reviews should be scheduled separately and led by the Project Leader.

Open the document and download here:

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Dig Deeper

Read more about Operational Excellence on these pages.

Process Management.

Characteristics of High-Performing Non-Profits (Doc)

Leadership that envisions, enables and energizes.
- Clarity of and sharp focus on its mission. A strategic plan guides the mission delivery.
- Organization values identified and reinforced in all activities.
- High expectations combined with caring coaching and ongoing development of volunteers and employees.

Processes are continually improved.
- Basic systems in place to ensure “product” delivery and consistency.
- Always seeking best practices but innovating when necessary.
- Alignment on key outcome metrics with root cause analysis when not met.

Clients’ needs (and those of other stakeholders) are relentlessly focused on and delivered.
- Relationships are cultivated.
- Proactive partnerships with other organizations to create synergy in service delivery.
- Clients influence direction through leadership engagement.

Organization design is renewed regularly to create a culture of respect, integrity, flexibility and learning.
- Mistakes are learning opportunities.

Open the document and download here:

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Organizational Capacity Strategy (Doc)

Typical Desired Outcomes

Expanded organizational capacity with improved results.
Sustainability (survive employee transitions).
Empowered high-performance staff and volunteers.

Principles

Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. If you want different results, change the design.
Documented processes with clear owners leads to continual improvement and sustainability.
You get what you measure.
Give people good games to play. Volunteers and employees have hidden talents.
Complement “demanding” expectations with quality coaching and mentoring.

Interventions Menu

Organization Design