Business Strategy 4: Step 1 Initiate & Agree on a Strategic Planning Process

This continues our series on John M. Bryson’s Strategic Change Cycle for your business
The strategic change cycle outlines a series of steps organizations implement to strategic change. The 10 steps of the change cycle provide a structure for systematic progress. The first step includes initiating and agreeing on the process for strategic planning. Bryson writes “The purpose of the first step is to negotiate agreement among key internal (and perhaps external) decision makers or opinion leaders about the overall strategic planning effort and the key planning steps.”
Tasks that Help You to Initiate and Agree
Bryson identifies the following tasks for you to finish to build agreement:

• “Identify who the  key decision makers are”
• “Identify which persons, groups, units or organizations should to involve in the effort”
• “Conduct a preliminary stakeholder analysis…in order to figure out whom to include in the series of initial agreements”

“Attention to stakeholder concerns is crucial: the key to success in public and nonprofit organizations (and communities) is the satisfaction of key stakeholders…a stakeholder analysis will help the organization decide whether it needs different missions and perhaps different strategies for different stakeholders.”
What the Initial Agreement Should Cover
Bryson continues “The initial agreement should cover

• The purpose of the effort
• The preferred steps in the process
• The form and timing of reports
• The role, functions, and membership of any group or committee empowered  to oversee the effort, such as  strategic planning coordinating committee (SPCC)
• The role, functions, and membership of the strategic planning team
• The commitment of the resources necessary for proceeding with the effort
• Any important limitations on or boundaries for the effort

The Process to Reach Initial Agreement
“The process of reaching an initial agreement is straightforward in concept but often circuitous in practice. It usually proceeds through the following stages:

• Initiating the process
• Introducing the concept of strategic planning
• Developing an understanding of what strategic planning means in practice
• Thinking through the important implications of the process
• Developing a commitment to strategic planning
• Reaching the actual agreement

Thursday we explore step 2 of the “Identify organizational mandates”