Business Strategy 5: Step 2 Identify Organizational Mandates

This continues our series on steps that can help you change your business strategy

In step 2 of John M. Bryson’s Strategic Planning Cycle you identify organizational mandates that would affect your strategy. Bryson writes “The formal and informal mandates placed on the organization consists of the various “musts” it confronts—that is, the various requirements, restrictions, expectations, pressures, and constraints it faces. It is surprising how few organizations know precisely what they are (and are not) formally mandated to do.” (p 37)

Why Clarify Organizational Mandates

“Few members of any organization have ever read, for example, the relevant legislations, policies, ordinances, charters, articles, and contracts that outline the organization’s formal mandates. Even when they have read these materials, it is likely that their organization’s strategic plans will fail to address at least some of the formal mandates and that these mandates may be overlooked.” (ibid)

Purpose and Outcomes of Clarifying Mandates

“The purpose of step 2” Bryson writes “is to identify and clarify the nature and meaning of the externally imposed mandates, both formal and informal, affecting the organization.

You seek four outcomes from this step:”

• Identify the organization’s formal and informal mandates, including who is mandating what and with what force
• Interpret what is required as a result of the mandates (leading perhaps to explicit goals or performance indicators)
• Clarify what the mandates forbid (which might also lead to explicit goals or performance indicators)
• Clarify what the mandates do not rule out (the rough boundaries of the unconstrained field of action)

Process of Clarifying Mandates

The process guidelines for step 2 are straightforward:

• Have someone compile a complete list of the formal and informal mandates that apply
• Review the mandates to clarify what is required, what is forbidden, and what is allowed
• Regularly remind organizational members of what the organization is required to do and forbidden to do, to conform with the mandates
• Undertake a regular review of the mandates and discuss which ones seem to be current, which may need to be revised, and which should be dropped

Saturday we analyze how to clarify organizational mission and values