Strategic planning should be a core activity of every nonprofit organization.

The following is an
overview of one successful model of strategic planning heralded by JM Bryson in his book,
Strategic Planning for Public and Non-Profit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and
Sustaining Organizational Achievement.
I frequently refer to Brysons Strategic Change Cycle while working with nonprofits, as its steps
are easy to understand and implement.

Strategic planning can be defined as development of decision-making rules that guide future
organizational actions (Anderson, 2000). Armstrong (1982) states that strategic planning
requires a process for determining long-range goals, procedures for formulating and evaluating
alternative strategies, and a system to monitor the plan after implementation. More simply
stated, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more,
how its going to get there and how it will know if it got there or not (Bryson, 2004).

As the public sector continues to take on more significant roles previously managed by the
private sector, the need to move beyond bureaucratic decision-making processes to strategic
foresight and management has become increasingly critical. Bryson (1998) posits that the
benefits of such planning are significant. Such planning can provide a culture of thoughtful
action, improved decision making enhanced organizational effectiveness and increased public
value (Bryson, 2004). There are several models of strategic planning used in the public and
nonprofit sector and are all similar in nature. The Strategic Marketing Planning Process is
divided up into three distinct phases: analysis, strategy development and implementation
(Caputo, 2002). The Customer Centered Strategic Planning Process identifies and eliminates
services that do not benefit the customer, while Robbins Scenario Planning encourages
participants to rely on historical data to project future trends (Caputo, 2002). Participatory
Strategic Planning focuses on facilitating employee participation in the development of
mandates, roles and expectations (Caputo, 2002). Brysons Strategic Change Cycle (2004)
provides a comprehensive model that allows organizations to create a strategic plan through ten
non-sequential steps. While each approach has its merits, the Strategic Change Cycle provides
the most thorough plan and system of checks and balances for an organization engaged in the
strategic planning process.

Brysons Strategic Change Cycle is a theory that proposes that strategic planning is accomplished
through ten distinct, non- sequential steps. The first step, initiating and agreeing on the strategic
process, is critical to ensure that the organization is committed to the process and can involve
both key opinion leaders and key decision makers. Two key roles emerge in this step the
process initiator and the process champion (p. 82). They will conduct the initial stakeholder
analysis and recruitment of members to the strategic plan coordinating committee (SPCC). Once
the players have been identified and have signed on to the process, the process moves into the
second step clarifying organizational mandates. Bryson and Alston (2005) define
organizational mandates as exactly what is formally and informally required to do (and not to
do) by external authorities (p. 97). This step is imperative to ensure that the organizations
actions are compliant with any regulations and/or with public expectations.

Bryson emphasizes that having a clear mission is essential to an organizations success it

establishes the organizations purpose and leads to concrete measures of success or failure
(113). The mission also lays out what the organization does (Green & Medlin, 2003, p. 29), while
values guide how the organization operates (Bryson & Alston, p. 54). Organizations should use
the values and missions to create a vision of success what the organization would look like or
accomplish if it follows the strategies in place (Bryson & Alston, p. 72). Environments scans
provide the organization with a sense of what can be accomplished within realistic confines. A
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges (SWOC) analysis helps the organization
begin to tease out strategic and operational issues (Bryson and Alston, p. 77).

Steps 5 and 6 are perhaps the most critical in the Strategic Change Cycle. In this stage, SPCC
members must identify strategic issues facing the organization (Bryson, p. 42) and formulate
strategies to manage the issues (Bryson, p. 46). Strategic issues are those that require a policy
choice or change challenge (Bryson and Alston, 2005, p. 85). These issues affect an
organizations mission, mandates, services, financing, structure or management (Bryson and
Alston, 2005, p. 89).

Bryson (2004) stresses the importance of obtaining formal support and adoption of a strategic
plan as the seventh step in the Strategic Change Cycle. Through this step, the Strategic Planning
Coordinating Committee (SPCC) gains a widely shared agreement on the plan from both internal
and external stakeholders. Welsh, Nunez and Petrosko (2006) argue that effectiveness of
strategic planning depends on widespread support for it, and as such, formal adoption is critical
for the plans success (p. 693).

Additionally, this step serves as a chance to energize stakeholders about the plan (Bryson and
Alston, 2005, p. 109). The next step in the Strategic Change Cycle asks the organization to
establish a vision for the future. Bryson states that this step develops a clear and succinct
description of what the organization should look like as it successfully implements its strategies,
achieves its full potential, and creates significant public value (Bryson, 2004, p. 224). Simpson
suggests that comparing the vision of success to the current reality provides a tension that
motivates organizations to sign on to a strategic plan (Simpson, 1990, p. 72). This is similar to
step 3, in which the SPCC developed a vision of organizational success (Bryson and Alston, 2005,
p. 115). Unlike the earlier organizational vision of success, this step provides a guide to strategy
implementation as opposed to strategy formulation (Bryson and Alston, 2005, p. 115).

Steps 9 and 10 in the Strategic Change Cycle are the true tests of the strengths of a strategic
plan. The work of the Strategic Planning Coordinating Committee (SPCC) in previous steps has
laid the groundwork for implementation and evaluation. If the SPCC has done their job correctly,
identified organizational strengths and weaknesses, capitalized upon opportunities and
challenges, engaged all relevant stakeholders, and identified and addressed key strategic issues,
the organization will begin to see the realization of their vision of success. Step 9, the
implementation of the strategic plan, completes the transition begun in step 7 from strategic
planning to strategic management (Bryson, 2004). An action plan is developed that addresses
the strategic issues that were previously identified. Frontline staff and volunteers become heavily
involved with the strategic process as they begin to provide services or accomplish tasks that
tackle strategic issues. Management staff also identifies issues with the implementation and
make changes as necessary. Sandelands (1994) suggests that difficulties with implementation can
be avoided through the use of a strategic management system, such as total quality
management. One clear way to both show support for and implement a strategic plan is to
create line items in an organizations budget for previously identified strategic issues. Bryson
(2004) indicates that budgets are the most important and significant policy statement that an
organization can make in support of a strategic plan. Bryson also stresses that in addition to
maintaining the role of process champions throughout the implementation stage, it is equally
important to develop communication and education processes for all other stakeholders.

It is important to recognize that Step 10, reassessing and revising strategies and plans, is not
meant to be the end of the process. Rather, it is the connection from implementation to previous
steps. The key role of leadership in this step is to analyze what Peters (1993) defines as the
realized strategy the sum of intended strategy and emergent strategies.

If you are interested in working through the strategic planning cycle within your organization,
please consider reaching out to ERC to help you with this process.