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

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: