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Ian Hughes 1998, Revised by Ian Hughes, 2001

Introduction

This guide to strategic planning is based on Goodstein, L. D., Nolan, T. M., & Pfeiffer, J. W. (1993), Applied Strategic Planning: A Comprehensive Guide, Amsterdam: Pfeiffer, and related sources. A Strategic Plan Template for Microsoft Word to accompany this guide may be downloaded from the World Wide Web site or obtained from the author.

A plan is a scheme of action to attain an objective. We make informal plans whenever we decide we want something, and work out what to do to get it. This Guide operates from an assumption that plans based on better information and greater capability will be more useful in helping us to achieve our goals. However, I do not assume that planning must be entirely rational, that once they are written down plans must be closely adhered to, or that there is a single best way to do planning.

A strategic plan is drawn up and implemented with a conscious awareness that planning and action take place in complex social, political and economic environments. There are people who may be affected by our plans, or who believe they may be affected, and there are people who do things that affect our planning even they may have no knowledge of us. Strategic planning takes account of how others in the environment may affect, or be affected by our planning.

Planning is anticipatory decision-making, a process of deciding what will be done before the action is required. Strategic planning takes into account the reality that things will change between the time of making the plan and the time of implementing it. So strategic planning is flexible and responsive to changing circumstances.

Goodstein, Nolan and Pfeiffer define strategic planning as

The process by which the guiding members of an organization envision its future and develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future (Goodstein, 1993: 3).

The vision of a future state is an important element. This is not simply an extrapolation of current trends, or an attempt to anticipate the future and prepare for it. Envisioning involves a belief that what we do in the present can influence and change aspects of the future. Strategic planning does more than plan for the future; it helps us to create the future that we want for ourselves and those who follow us.

Although the Applied Strategic Planning model is designed for planning at the organisational level, the principles and the template accompanying this guide can be adapted to a specific program or project. Strategic planning is the process of deciding what the future of the organisation, program or project should be, and what strategies should be followed in order to make that future happen. The purpose or mission of the program is identified; future issues and opportunities are considered and strategies developed to handle these. Strategic planning recognises that resources, opportunities and threats are not fixed. It is opportunity driven, open-ended and responsive to change.

Books of strategic planning, (including Goodstein, Nolan and Pfeiffer 1993) often present models like flow charts with a beginning and an end. This is fine for projects that have a beginning and an end, but misleading for program planning, which requires a cycle, in which planning is a continuing part of an ongoing program of activity.