I posted a few months ago about the Qm2 Museum Directors roundtable, run by John and Anita Durel, which I have been attending this year. One intriguing take-away from our last meeting was John's thoughts on strategic planning. He believes that knowing how to think strategically and act strategically is more important than simply having a strategic plan. And that the primary purpose of creating a plan in the first place is to teach your organization how to think and act strategically.

The Litchfield Historical Society has had several strategic plans over the years and the best of them was developed in conjunction with a skilled facilitator. She was able to take a somewhat resistant committee (the chair announced she hated strategic planning during the introductions) and lead us to a plan that clearly articulated our needs, set goals and clearly assessed our existing and needed resources. The plan helped us set annual priorities and gave us a way of checking our progress, yet it was still difficult to consistently make the plan part of our daily thinking.

As we move forward toward our next plan, I am looking for ways to insure that the plan we create is integrated into all aspects of our work. We may need to change the way we plan, or we may need to change the way we work.  Right now I am interested in resources to help me think about our organization's next steps.

John stresses that no single approach to strategic planning works for every organization. We all have choices that we can make and by making good ones we can help to ensure our organization's success. He cites Jim Collins' study of successful companies Good to Great (2001) which found that for the leaders of successful companies the process is not simply planning and implementation, but an ongoing, iterative process of asking questions, debating, deciding to try something, assessing the results, and then asking more questions.

John has summarized and outlined his approach to strategic planning in a document available on the Qm2 Web site: http://www.qm2.org/Essential_Questions_Before_Strategic_Planning.pdf

Qm2 actually has an entire section of their Web site devoted to strategic planning resources, containing management briefings on being strategic, creating a strong vision, and board retreats contributed by John and Anita Durel, Mary Case, Michael Randel, and Will Phillips.

Also of interest is John's new book Building a Sustainable Nonprofit Organization (AAM Press 2010). The book is based on a workbook John developed for the Museum Directors roundtable. Press materials for the book describe it as "a workbook containing strategic thinking activities that can be used with staff and board, as well as checklists for the CEO, to focus the organization on things that matter in creating a sustainable enterprise."  We use some aspect of the workbook at every roundtable meeting and I can highly recommend it as a great resource to help focus your thinking on building sustaianability.

I want to emphasize that there are many other resources on strategic planning available on the Web in addition to those found on the Qm2 site, including several posts on planning here on the Heritage Resource Center. Liz Shapiro posted on La Piana Resources and David La Piana's book The NonProfit Strategy Revolution and other posts have touched on the planning process as well.

We at the Litchfield Historical Society will be creating a new strategic plan of our own in the coming year and, although at this time I don't know which direction we will take, learning both Durel's and La Piana's thoughts on planning is helping me "plan the plan." Check them both out. I am sure they will help you as they have me.

By Cathy Fields