How involved should your Board be with your strategic
planning process?
As usual, opinions vary all over the map on this question.
On one end of the spectrum, some people view strategy-making
as the responsibility of the staff. The
Board should be generally informed – and certainly consulted if anything “wild”
is being considered – but their main role is to ask good questions, and then
approve “management’s” strategy. And
they should definitely stay out of reviewing annual operating plans.
On the other side, there are those who believe that the
entire Board needs to be intimately involved with the entire strategy process –
including a careful review of a detailed implementation plan. Granted, some of these tend to be more of our
smaller nonprofits – but this philosophy exists even in larger organizations.
Which is right and how do you decide what is best for your
organization?
In my view, it is essential to involve every Board in three
different aspects of the strategy process:
*Mission Affirmation:
What impact do we want to make and for whom/what?
*Mission Metrics:
What metrics will we use to track progress?
*Visioning: What
would the world look like if we were accomplishing our mission 100%? What would our organization look like,
ideally, so we have the opportunity to accomplish our mission as effectively as
possible?
Beyond that, the next question I encourage clients to ask
themselves is “How instrumental will the Board be in the successful
implementation of this strategy?” The
more important they are to successful implementation – and that includes giving
and raising money – the more involved they should be. You can include the Board – or at least Board
representatives – in the setting of Strategic Goals, SWOTs (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), and Strategy Themes.
As an example, a few years ago I was consulting with a group
and a core of their Board was very involved with the strategy process. They came up with an exciting vision and
participated in creating some really big, bold goals. At the end of the process, the Board members
were fired up! And this Board is experiencing
a lot of success in accomplishing those goals – including raising a lot of
money. I seriously doubt that would have
had the passion they now have, had they not been so involved.
Engage your Board properly with strategy and make even more
of a Mission Impact!
For
more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this
blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com You will find free resources you can
download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at
no cost. You can also check out my book,
Mission Impact: Breakthrough Strategies
for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested. And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit
Consulting on Facebook.
