What’s the Plan, Stan?

If you were to ask my clients where I stand on planning, they would tell you I am a big fan. In fact, I might be a planning evangelist. They would also tell you I am a fan of plans with solid objectives that speak to the mission, business goals and objectives as well as and smart strategies and tactics to support those goals and objectives.

Whether work for a large nonprofit, association or community-based organization, I’m willing to bet you are stretched for resources, including one of your most precious resources: time. When we are stretched for time, we can go into survival mode and skip all planning – heading straight to tactical implementation. The main problem with this (very common) way of working is tactics are just a collection of things if they aren’t linked to strategy. And, when it comes time to fight for your budget, you will be far more successful linking those amazing tactics to a solid strategy that shows ROI and measurements of success – all being driven up through your mission.

At the beginning of the year, I challenged clients and colleagues to spend time establishing plans for their work in 2015. Theoretically, we all know the benefit to writing and executing to a plan, but here are a few reasons I am so personally in love with a good plan:

1. You will be better prepared: Sure, writing a plan requires that precious resource of time up front, but it will save you time (and mistakes) in the long run. Writing and executing to a plan will help you stay focused, on message, and headed in a purposeful direction – toward your mission. I’ve also seen that having a plan in place helps inform swift, smart and strategic thinking when unexpected moments occur.
2. You will be able to determine if goals and benchmarks are met: Taking the time to set benchmarks in a plan will give you something to review and share throughout the year. If everyone agrees on goals and objectives and revisits those goals and objectives at the end of the year, you will be one step closer to helping report ROI and successes, and those of us in communications and fundraising are always looking for ways to show the value of our strategies and tactics.
3. Speaking of everyone agreeing, plans get people on the same page: Taking the time to write a plan is the first step. Sharing, and getting buy-in on the plan is the ever-important next step. Whether it is your team, committee, executive director or board of directors, if everyone contributes to – or at least reviews and approves – a plan there is a collective desire for success created.

Now that we are past the halfway mark of the year, I pose another question: If you have written solid plans, are you still executing to those plans or are they collecting dust as your attention has been drawn to a number of other priorities as the year has gone on (hey, it happens to the best of us).

By the end of this quarter, I suggest dusting of one of your plans (e.g., media relations, trade show, internal communications, social media and blog, marketing automation, content, or — in a perfect world — a big integrated communications plan that speaks to all of those things) and focus on 3 simple questions that will ensure you are leveraging the plan to its maximum potential:

• How much of this plan have we executed? The answer could range from all to none. If the former, skip to the next question. If the latter, now is a good time to assess the roadblocks that may have gotten in the way of execution; next determine if there is a need to remove roadblocks and begin to execute some of the plan, or if this plan is best saved for another time.
• Have we evaluated our success thus far? If you are executing to plan, you will hopefully have some metrics that show how your efforts speak to the mission, business, fundraising and/or program objectives of your organization. If you haven’t taken the time to pull these metrics, I recommend jumping on that immediately. More so, if you haven’t reported on your metrics (i.e., shared what worked and what needs to be tweaked), now is the time to make sure your colleagues, volunteers and board of directors know how you have moved the needle.
• Do we need to accommodate shifts? Perhaps evaluation shows it is time to make some shifts in the plan (even if that shift is your timeline for execution). Or, perhaps your budget has changed, resources have come and/or gone, etc. There are many reasons why a plan might need to shift, and that is okay. Now is a good time to document the reasons for the changes to the plan, update it and continue to execute and report.

Ensuring your brand awareness and clear concise communication for your organization takes some planning. It is never too late in the year to put something ‘on paper’ and start executing. Start small and work toward making strategic planning a natural part of your culture.

Let’s Collaborate: I love a good plan – let’s talk about yours. What is your must-have plan, planning tool, metric or measure of success, etc.?