Anavi Strategies works with a diverse set of clients in the public impact sector to develop 3 to 5 year strategic plans. Our mission is to help guide mission-driven organizations–such as government agencies, nonprofits, and philanthropies–towards achieving greater social impact through data-driven and empathetic practices.
While the development of strategic plans can often be seen as simply a formality for organizations of a certain size, often being required by funders or Boards of Directors, we aim to use the process of strategic planning to guide future work, strengthen impact, and support leaders in taking informed risks.
Thoughtful planning can lead to transformational change and growth. A strong and grounded strategic plan is the best tool for an organization to hold itself accountable in terms of fulfilling its mission and vision, and to track its own success at meeting its long-term objectives.
When a strategic planning process is well-designed and centers all relevant stakeholders’ voices, it can serve as a backbone that guides the organization’s day-to-day work in a way that moves it closer to its vision.
It can help manage risks as organizations take ‘big swings’ towards achieving their goals, as well as support leaders in knowing what to say yes to, and which opportunities to turn down for the sake of staying on course in the long-term.
When a strategic planning process is well-designed and centers all relevant stakeholders’ voices, it can:
Serve as a backbone that guides the organization’s day-to-day work in a way that moves it closer to its vision;
Help manage risks as organizations take ‘big swings’ towards achieving their goals;
Support leaders in knowing what to say yes to, and which opportunities to turn down for the sake of staying on course in the long-term;
Enable a strong and equitable stakeholder engagement process to help leaders; understand the organization’s blind spots and – at times – the unintended impacts of their work;
Create meaningful opportunities for staff to contribute to the organization’s vision and long-term sustainability;
Develop an organizations’ ability to communicate with its stakeholders, leading to increased trust and shared accountability.
Key Strategic Planning Principles
At Anavi Strategies, we design each strategic planning process around a set of key principles:
Trauma-informed: Anavi team members are all trained in trauma-informed care. We incorporate a standard set of principles and tools to engage clients in a trauma-informed manner at every stage of the strategic planning process.
Engaged and Communicative: Anavi establishes clear and regular communication channels with all stakeholders involved in the process, and is highly responsive to client needs. Our approach helps us ensure people are engaged consistently. It also helps us navigate and adapt to unexpected challenges or changes that can arise for any organization during the planning period.
Data–driven: Anavi team members use programmatic, organizational and administrative data whenever possible to inform the strategic planning process design, stakeholder engagement sessions, and ultimately all recommended action steps as a part of the overall strategic plan.
Adaptive: Every organization will experience unforeseen challenges and transitions throughout a strategic planning process. Anavi team members remain flexible and willing to adapt both the stages of the process, as well as the style of engagement with each client.
Culturally Sensitive: Anavi prioritizes bringing a racial, gender, and socioeconomic literacy lens to every aspect of our work. This includes a high level of skill and emotional intelligence in facilitating potentially uncomfortable discussions for the sake of centering equity in each outcome of the strategic planning process.
Our Approach: Creating Tailored Strategic Planning Process for Each Client
A strategic plan is only successful if it is viewed as a resource, and utilized as a tool to take action. Ensuring the success of a strategic plan is directly tied to the success of the strategic planning process. Because of this, we design each process to be tailored to fit our client organization's needs and objectives. We customize each strategic planning engagement using the following approaches with our clients:
Communicate Proactively and Consistently: Establishing a regular cadence of written updates, shared documents and check-in meetings throughout the process ensures the process is seamless for all stakeholders, and maintains a high level of clarity for why each action is being taken. Regular communication also allows for timely pivots or adaptations to changing circumstances.
Align on Process and Preferences at the Beginning: It is critical to identify which leadership team members and staff will be managing the project for the client, and which individual or governing body holds final decision-making authority over key processes and outcomes. It is also equally important to gauge clients’ level of experience and comfort with addressing key challenges across stakeholder groups, and design the process with this in mind.
Clarify Board of Directors’ Role in the Process: Boards of Directors are typically the final vote in approving an organization’s strategic plan. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to what kind of role Boards will have in a strategic planning process, it is critical to identify the Board’s role and level of engagement, and ensure there are opportunities to build executive-level buy-in throughout the strategic planning process. Board members can often lend specific expertise, or be utilized to strengthen partnerships and funding opportunities.
Prioritize High-Quality Engagement: Each organization requires different types of engagement across different stakeholder groups. It is important to identify which kinds of engagement will produce the optimal level and type of feedback from each group (e.g. surveys, interviews, focus groups, all-staff meetings, decision-making sessions, etc.), and to ensure that staff have the opportunity to help shape the style and frequency of engagement throughout the process.
Clearly Delineate Process for Data Collection and Analysis: The degree of data collection and analysis capabilities can vary greatly across organizations. It is important at the outset of the process to align with the client on what kinds of programmatic and organizational data exist, as well as what kinds of publicly accessible administrative data will help inform the design of the process. As such, Anavi Strategies ensures there are robust data security practices and tools in place to protect stakeholders’ privacy and confidentiality.
Strategic plans can serve both as an organization’s north star, and its guardrails for its current stage of growth – they help ensure all stakeholders are clear on where the organization wants to go, and help leaders consistently prioritize the actions needed to get there over its next few years of work.
Conclusion
Strategic plans can serve both as an organization’s north star, and its guardrails for its current stage of growth – they help ensure all stakeholders are clear on where the organization wants to go, and help leaders consistently prioritize the actions needed to get there over its next few years of work. This means that the more stakeholder voices are meaningfully incorporated into the strategic planning process, the higher the level of trust and buy-in that is developed through the process itself.
At Anavi Strategies, we believe that each stage of this process should prioritize equitable opportunities for all key stakeholders to help shape the organization’s future and growth.
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