The creation and usage of a strategic plan (or comprehensive plan) gives an organization a “road map” for objectives and goals for the next 3–5-year time span by evaluating where the organization is currently and where it aspires to be. When done effectively, it is a living and evolving document that can better define the organization’s role and purpose and create a single forward-focused vision to align staff, leadership, and other stakeholders. Even if your larger organization has a strategic plan in place, your department can develop their own to align with the larger organizational plan and to develop department-specific goals and objectives.

• Strategic Plan Components
  • Vision: A description of the ideal future and the outcome it hopes to create for its stakeholders. The “end state” or “why we matter.”
  • Mission Statement: A description of who the organization services and how it will structure itself. What we do, why we do it, who we serve, and how we deliver results.
  • Core Values and Beliefs: Statements of belief describing behaviors and ideas to guide actions.
  • Strategic Priorities: Key focuses to close gap between the ideal and the real/current situation.
  • Critical Success Factors: Broad measures indicating that the organization is making progress toward the vision.

• 4 Stages of Creating a Strategic Plan
  • Stage 1: Take stock of present and create a SWOT analysis.
    • SWOT Analysis
      • Internal: S (Strengths) and W (Weaknesses)
      • External: O (Opportunities) and T (Threats)
  • Stage 2: Create a shared vision and define key values/beliefs.
  • Stage 3: Identify strategic priorities and develop goals and plans.
  • Stage 4: Carryout operational plans and monitor, evaluate, and revise as needed.

• Strategic Plan Models
  • Basic: Often used for newer organizations without background information to guide them. First establish a mission statement for your organization. If one does not exist, determine goals that must be reached to fulfill mission statement and the tasks that must be completed to reach those goals.
  • Issue-Based: This model begins with a SWOT analysis. Next comes the mission statement, planning budget creation, and a schedule to implement the plan. There is annual monitoring and reporting, as well as adjustments made as needed.
  • Alignment: The Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) is made up of two parts: 1) strategic fit and 2) functional integration. This means identifying             the key goals and then the steps that are needed to reach those goals.
• Strategic Plan Examples:
  • City of Waukesha Strategic Plan
  • Village of Elm Grove Strategic Plan
  • City of Madison Strategic Plan
  • City of Milwaukee Health Department Strategic Plan

Without buy-in from all stakeholders into the strategic plan process and implementation, a strategic plan can easily become just a document. Building your plan as a group with the perspectives of many connected to your organization can help ensure your strategic plan is a reflection of the needs of your community. This can involve surveys, data collection, and other ways of soliciting feedback. These tools can also be helpful as you implement your plan as a way to measure progress.

Additional Information & Resources

Videos

• A Plan is Not a Strategy– Harvard Business Review; 2022

Books

• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. Jim Collins (2001).
• The Art of the Long View. Peter Schwartz (1991).
• Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic Management. Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel (1998).
• Strategic Planning 101, ASTD Info-Line. Jeffrey and Linda Russell (2006).