Strategy Takes Discipline

Acknowledge that the responsibility of a board member cannot be adequately fulfilled without a significant time commitment. Boards that only expect 50 to 75 hours from directors per year are doomed to exacerbate the gap between board and management knowledge and surrender real authority over strategy to management.

Clarify the distinction between strategy and operations. The board’s involvement will only be in determining the organization’s vision, mission, core values, key result areas, and their indicators of success. How the organization implements and achieves those shared expectations is the prerogative of management (within boundaries, of course).

Agree that board and management will work together to develop the best strategy they can conceive between them. They will all understand it; they will all own it. Past plans will be honored, not criticized, and refined for the future.

Refresh your understanding of the existing strategic plan by reviewing it thoroughly and comparing projected results to actual.

Meet for an off-site session (allowing about 10 hours with an overnight in the middle) to re-examine the strategic plan. Avoid the dog-and-pony show approach with management presenting a PowerPoint demonstration and deluging the board with facts and figures. Engage the entire group, mixing board and management together, with activities such as:

• Pairs discuss how the vision engenders passion for them or what could be added that would engender passion
• Groups of three list what they like and dislike about the mission statement
• Individuals record actual examples of how they have seen one or more of the core values lived out by people in the organization

Each of these activities would be used to generate whole group discussion on the aspects of the plan being considered. It may lead to draft revisions for further processing. The aim, though, is not to do the word-smithing but to create a shared understanding of these fundamental directives for the organization. With that ground work, attention can be turned to exercises examining the current situation:

• Post flip chart pages around the room with titles of trends (Economic, Political, Demographic, Tastes/Preferences, etc.) that are relevant to your organization and have everyone cycle around the room, using large markers to add their observations to each list
• Post flip charts showing the points management identified as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (completed in advance of the session and shared by email to all directors) and invite board members to add to or question items based on their pre-session review
• Brainstorm with the whole group the greatest challenges they believe the organization faces in delivering on its mission
• Groups of three or four at a table list what appears to be the few areas where the organization could focus its resources to most strategically advance its mission

Again, these activities quickly involve everyone in the process and establish a broader base of information and perspective from which to make group decisions. With an understanding of the current situation, meaningful discussion can lead to a group decision about the key result areas for the organization. From there, the task is to determine what will be the indicators of success and how they might be observed and measured.

• New table groups of three or four list suggestions for what would be the indicators of success for each key result area

Ultimately, a draft outline of strategy will emerge. Management would be tasked with processing the proposed changes with more staff and presenting a word-smithed version at an upcoming board meeting. As well, management would do enough of the operational planning in support of the strategic plan to return to the board with proposed targets for each indicator of success.

Board would later discuss, challenge, and formally approve.