Strategic Planning & Sustainability Archives - Page 3 of 4

24 Aug, 2022

Try This: Assess Staff & Board Buy-In

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-08-22T13:24:01-04:00August 24th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Board of Directors, Staff, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Try this and let me know how it goes for you.

This post is a follow up to What’s in it for Me? Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement, where I shared, “If [the question] “What’s in it for me?” sounds self-serving, it’s because it is. In order to increase engagement, communities and the people driving the actions to produce change should easily see how their involvement leads to the change they wish to see.”

In other words, what you’re asking them to do not only has to make sense, but has to be worth it for them.

In theory, as their leader, what you should say goes, right? These days, this isn’t without a lot of push back.

In an ideal situation, you wouldn’t have to convince staff and board that what you want to happen matters. I’m sure it’s frustration when you experience the push back.

I recently finished a project where I observed that the executive director cared about that the process than staff and partners did.

Well, I could tell they understood the importance of the project and how it could support their work, but there was major hesitancy.

Let’s explore getting your staff, board (and anyone else that’s important to your project) on board.

This activity is ideal for:

Board of directors, staff, and other stakeholders expected to participate in this project

Here’s what you’ll need:

Schedule time for this activity, where you can work with minimal interruption. Make sure to schedule breaks!
Whatever setup you use to capture your process (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.). Make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

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17 Aug, 2022

Let’s Build a Partnership

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2023-03-22T19:17:12-04:00August 17th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Capacity Building, Partnerships, Sustainability|0 Comments

Recently, the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) published data on the 2022 pass rate for the ASWB licensing exam. The analysis concluded major disparities in pass rates for Black test takers, older adults, and other marginalized groups.

The data were published as a result of years of advocacy and pressure from the National Association of Social Workers, schools of social work, other social work organizations, and individual test takers. Previously, data on pass rates were never released.

I’ve shared my experience with preparing for the licensing exam before, and while majority of test takers pass this exam on the first try, questions about the fail rates were enough to warrant looking into this. Lack of social work licensure can result is loss of job opportunities for many social workers, so it makes sense to explore why these disparities continue to exist.

This is an example of bringing together a group of individuals who care about an issue, and work together to address it. Test takers, professors, licensing exam prep experts, exam test question writers, and more were all needed for this process.

Part of my role as a facilitator includes facilitating partnership meetings.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies a partnership as “organizations that share a common focus and combine resources to implement joint activities, avoid[ing] duplication of effort, ensuring synergy of resources, and enhanc[ing] overall leadership.” From my viewpoint, this also includes individuals who may not be part of an organization but hold a significant amount of knowledge, power, and connections.

Partnerships may develop in response to an emerging issue (such as disparities in test taking scores) and ideally, you’re bringing together individuals that care about the impact of this emerging issue.

A tricky aspect of building a partnership includes understanding the partnership’s purpose and selecting the appropriate individuals and organizations. Every entity mentioned in the licensing example plays a pivotal role in how students prepare for this exam and how the exam is written and administered.

Another aspect of building a partnership is understanding that, while everyone cares deeply about the issue, they have their own ideas for addressing it.

So, how do we bring together various important perspectives to reach a common goal? Here are seven questions to consider for building a partnership:

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15 Jun, 2022

Try This: The SOAR Analysis

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-06-15T15:49:19-04:00June 15th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Strategic Planning, Try This|0 Comments

This this activity and let me know how it goes.

You’ve probably heard of the SWOT analysis. Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s considered a traditional component of the strategic planning process.

It’s useful, for the most part.

What I mean by this is that, a glaring issue with the SWOT analysis is that the SWOT analysis has a tendency to focus on deficits within an organization, with the intent of fixing issues and problems.

This can often be draining to your stakeholders to always think of the problems.

Another issue with the SWOT analysis is that everyone has to agree that what’s considered a “weakness” or a “threat”, as much as their needs to be agreement on what’s a “strength” or a “opportunity”. This is really based on your perception.

Dismissing the SWOT analysis doesn’t mean dismissing potential barriers to your strategic success, but it does prevent us from creating experiences that’s more engaging during the strategic planning process.

Enter the SOAR analysis.

This activity is ideal for:

Board of directors, staff, and other stakeholders involved in your strategic planning process

Here’s what you’ll need:

Set aside a full day (or several) for this activity, where you can work with minimal uninterrupted (as we’re still in a pandemic, determine how this will work for an in-person setting or a virtual setting) Make sure to schedule breaks!
Whatever setup you use to capture your process (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.) but make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

(more…)

16 Feb, 2022

What’s in it for Me?: Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-02-15T09:54:43-05:00February 16th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Stakeholders, Strategic Planning|0 Comments

Last fall, I joined an ad-hoc group to strategize around Black maternal health and abortion access. During our initial meeting, one member asked, “How will this be different from what’s currently being done?”

In the marketing and advertising world, there’s the question “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM for short).

“What’s in it for me?” is a tactic to describe (from your perspective) the benefits customers should expect to experience as a result of having the product or service. Getting customers to buy a product or service is one thing. But what keep customers coming back?

“What’s in it for me?” ins’t just a marketing tactic. It’s a barometer for stakeholder engagement. For our involvement, we expect to gain something in return.

“How will this be different from what’s currently being done?” is a variation on “What’s in is for me?” because while we still want to be a part of something that matters, we’re still need to determine if this one thing (in this case, participation in an ad hoc meeting that leads for a result) would be worth our time.

Whether driven by intrinsic drivers (experiencing a sense of accomplishment or a higher sense of self worth) or extrinsic ones (recognition for a job well done or payment is exchange for labor), as each person is different, each person is motivated by different things.

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19 Jan, 2022

Try This: Check In on Your Strategic Plan

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-01-19T16:40:42-05:00January 19th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Strategic Planning, Try This|0 Comments

*Try this out and let me know how it goes for you.*

On the road to becoming more data driven, and making sense of stakeholder data, organizations use the data to inform their strategic planning process.

A strategic plan, in short, is a written document that outlines an organization’s mission, vision, the context the plan is being developed in, strategic goals and steps for achieving them over a designated period. .

Like logic models, theories of change and similar documents, the process for developing a strategic plan can be tedious. As such, there’s more focus on getting the document “just right” as less on how to use the document to guide your work.

When you don’t have a plan for checking in on your strategic plan, you run the risk of it sitting on the shelf, collecting dust next to all the evaluation reports that don’t get read.

In all seriousness, a strategic plan is a living document. Each strategic goal has a desired outcome. As we know, life happens, and where we thought we would be may not be where we end up, based on a variety of circumstances. While your strategic plans are set in place, the path for achieving your goals and have shifted since the plan’s implementation. With this understanding, let’s explore how to use your strategic plan as an accountability tool.

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone responsible for leading a strategic planning process
Anyone interested in participating in the strategic planning process

Here’s what you need:

Your organization’s strategic plan
Whatever setup you use to capture your process (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.) but make sure it’s kept in a place that you can refer back to

The steps:

(more…)

Try This: Assess Staff & Board Buy-In

Let’s Build a Partnership

Try This: The SOAR Analysis

What’s in it for Me?: Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement

Try This: Check In on Your Strategic Plan

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