Our Strategic Planning Consultations use the ICA-inspired Technolgy of Participation Strategic Planning methods as an "operating system" with organization and community groups.
The four half-day sessions ask the following questions*, to which all participants respond. The responses are clustered, interpreted, and given a distinguishing name by the group of participants. These names are the answers to the session questions.
Preparation and Design
What led to the decision to do planning now? Who will be involved? What decisions have already been made or need to be made prior to the event? What is the timeframe you are planning for?
What is THE question you are trying to address?
Practical Vision
What do we want to see in place in three to five years as a result of our actions?*
Shared excitement arises when the unarticulated desires, hopes, and dreams for the future are elicited from the goup and participants come to consensus around a practical vision for a specific time frame.
Underlying Contradictions
What is blocking us from moving toward our vision?*
Before participants trip over obstacles in their ush to the future, they need an in-depth understanding of the blocks and barriers that stand in the wa of their vision and what keeps them in place. This step enables a group to talk about their contradictions in an objective way.
Strategic Directions
What innovative, substantial actions will deal with the underlying contradictions and move us toward our vision?*
Having glimpsed the future and being clear about what is blocking it, a group can then craft strategies that will address the underlying contradictions and move them toward their vision. This session brings focus to the work ahead.
Focused Implementation
What wil our specific measurable accompishments be for the first year?*
After taking a look at what final success looks like for each of the strategic directions and clarifying the current reality in relation to each one, a group is able to determine realistic accomplishments for the first year, lay out specific responsibiilties and deadlines and create a plan for ensuring implementation.
Recent Strategic Planning Consultations
Varrow, Inc. Greensboro, NC
