What is Strategic Planning?

It has come to our attention that some of you out there may be wondering:

What is Strategic Planning?

Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it's going to get there. Typically, the process is organization-wide, or focused on a major function such as a department. At EPL, we are approaching this project by inviting input from all staff and community members.

How to Get a Feel for Strategic Planning -- There's No Perfect Way to Do It

Planning typically includes several major activities in the process. Different people often have different names for these steps. They might even conduct them in a different order.

One Way to Look at Strategic Planning

One interpretation of the major activities in strategic planning activities is that it includes:

1. Strategic Analysis

This activity can include conducting some sort of scan of the organization's environment (for example, of the political, social, economic and technical environment). Planners carefully consider various driving forces in the environment, for example, increasing competition, changing demographics, etc. Planners also look at the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis). Note that in the past, organizations usually referred to "strategic planning" as "long-range planning".

2. Setting Strategic Direction

Planners carefully come to conclusions about what the organization must do as a result of the major issues and opportunities facing the organization. These conclusions include what overall accomplishments (or strategic goals) the organization should achieve, and the overall methods (or strategies) to achieve the accomplishments.

At some point in the strategic planning process, planners usually identify or update what might be called the strategic "philosophy". This includes identifying or updating the organization's mission, vision and/or values statements. Mission statements are brief written descriptions of the purpose of the organization. Mission statements vary in nature from very brief to quite comprehensive.

Vision statements are usually a compelling description of how the organization will or should operate at some point in the future and of how customers or clients are benefiting from the organization's products and services. Values statements list the overall priorities in how the organization will operate.

3. Action Planning

Action planning is carefully laying out how the strategic goals will be accomplished. Action planning often includes specifying objectives, or specific results, with each strategic goal. Therefore, reaching a strategic goal typically involves accomplishing a set of objectives along the way.

Action planning also includes specifying responsibilities and timelines with each objective, or who needs to do what and by when. It should also include methods to monitor and evaluate the plan, which includes knowing how the organization will know who has done what and by when.

It's common to develop an operational plan or management plan, which includes the strategic goals, strategies, objectives, responsibilities and timelines that should be done in the time alotted.

Main text found on: http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/basics.htm.
Edits by EPL Strategic Planning Committee.