Overview of the Five-Day Strategic Planning Process
Strategic Plan Launch, September 24: Lay the Groundwork for Planning
In this launch, we will create the environment and context for our work together. We will collectively review and make meaning of the data gathered from the four Surveys and multiple Focus Groups to set the foundation for our planning process.
Practical Vision, October 1: Identify a 3-5 year Practical Vision
Each of us carries some level of anticipation and hope for the future of the Center. Therefore, the vision already exists within us, and it motivates and informs our actions. Each individual’s insight is needed to create the shared vision of the group. This session breathes consciousness into our latent vision of the Center, giving it energy and creating shared commitment to bring the vision into reality.
Underlying Contradictions, October 2: Identify the Blocks to the Practical Vision
Contradictions are found in historic and societal trends, in our images and attitudes, and in patterns we create and out of which we operate. Contradictions are barriers that prevent us from realizing our vision. They are like boulders in our path to the future. They are sometimes recently arrived, sometimes longer-term realities in our Center. In this meeting, we will identify these resistances and address them as we create the Strategic Directions.
Strategic Directions, October 15: Focus Change and Set Direction
We will take the different threads of what we have generated as potential avenues to pursue. These will be directions for our future, which we will use as a framework to steer the Center towards the Practical Vision.
Focused Implementation, October 16: Determine a Calendar of Action for the Next Year
In this last meeting, we will move from analyzing and thinking about all the creative things that could be done to making decisions about what will be accomplished for each strategic direction in the next year. We will create a first year timeline for when those accomplishments will be completed, create teams to accomplish them and outline a 90-day implementation plan for each team.