Why plan?  Planning is an essential aspect of good management, enabling an organisation to move, in a structured way, towards achievable objectives.  The plan is then used to measure progress towards those objectives.

In encouraging whole-of-organisation commitment to strategic planning, it may be useful to itemise and communicate the key benefits of planning for the organisation.  The Strategic Plan:

• clarifies the organisation’s aims
• communicates artistic and business/operational direction
• identifies priorities
• optimises resources, including time
• gives a sense of direction and purpose
• clarifies the positioning of the organisation in the minds of its stakeholders, including audiences
• establishes objectives
• monitors outcomes, functionality and effectiveness
• allocates responsibilities
• steers around avoidable problems

From challenging current strategies from an external stakeholder perspective, to approving the accompanying financials that underpin the finished plan, the board generally oversees the overall strategic planning process. 

The board’s specific role in each step of the process should be negotiated with the organisation’s management at the outset of planning, and reviewed as necessary throughout the planning process.  Key questions to consider include:

• Has the board approved a plan and timetable for producing the organisation’s next strategic plan?
  
  
• Is there board and senior staff commitment to the planning process?