Strategic Planning Made Easy

Anyone who has sat in a non-profit managers meeting knows the sinking feeling that comes with the phrase “strategic planning.” Three months of pie-in-the-sky planning that doesn’t actually change anything once the consultant's contract is up. Or maybe you get dragged out to some retreat center for a day where half the time is spent doing awkward ice breakers. I know that feeling. I’ve experienced that feeling.

But strategic planning needs to happen (and to the faith communities who are scared of the word “strategic,” it can be missional, too!). At far too many places, the people responsible for doing the communications work are either ill equipped, ill advised, or just not super good at it. But You Were Close! is going to make sure you are EVEN closer this time around as you pursue your strategic planning efforts as we're happy to put the pieces together for you!

In fact, that’s what I did for Breath of God Lutheran Church and The Highlandtown Preschool. After doing an initial Communication Audit, it was time to start doing some Strategic Planning, too! Here’s how I did it.

Planning Core Principles

Before I get too far into the work we did with Breath of God, it’s important to talk about some of my core principles when it comes to any type of communications planning. These universal principles will keep your organization grounded and help you avoid mission creep.

First, you should be intentional in your actions and planning. We can have a thousand ideas on what we should do, and we should even explore those ideas as well. But it is easy to get lost or caught up in the creativity of new ideas and forget why you might be doing something. So while making a strategic plan, if you can’t answer, “Why would we do this?” then it isn’t an idea worth pursuing.

Next, be efficient in your communication. A word of caution - this isn’t about doing things the fastest way possible or taking the shortest route from “Point A” to “Point B” in your storytelling. It is, however, about not spending energy on things that take away from your communications work or are redundant. Take away the fluff!

Next, you need to be meaningful in your sharing. Search, dig, be critical, and find the thing that matters about what you are saying. Don’t get lost in poetry if you aren’t a poet!

Finally, be authentic in your voice. Just be who you are, and don’t try to be all the things to all the people. A non-profit organization can’t fix all the problems, and faith communities can’t pretend to have everything figured out. Folks see right through that when you try, so just be who you are.

Informed Planning

I’d be thrilled if every organization talked and communicated to my taste, but we know that isn’t going to create an authentic voice. One of the ways we can be authentic in our planning is to bring in voices from the community, and that’s exactly what we did with Breath of God.

After our communication audit, I got together over Zoom, on the phone, in person, and even one email to talk with Breath of God community members. Working with Pastor Mark, we identified people who reflect the diaspora of folks within the community. I asked the same set of questions to each person and allowed them to respond as themselves, and provide their own context. A few of the questions were simple enough (ie. “What does Breath of God do well? Where does it need help with its communications?”), but the best stories came when I asked folks to tell their version of the story of Breath of God. I talked to Joe who has been a member for 82 years(!) reflect on the ups and downs of the congregations and how excited he is about the work the congregation does now. I got to talk to young adults who expressed how the church has nurtured and cared for them even when they don’t understand this church thing. I talked to parents of kids who are so excited that the preschool is grounded in the community. I even talked to a volunteer at the church - who is not religious - talking about how much Breath of God means to her. There are stories, here, to share.

Organizational Objectives

With our principles firmly in place and voices from the community represented, BYWC! went about the difficult work of identifying key areas for strategic planning and improvement in Breath of God’s communication work. After careful thought and planning, I'm now tasking the organization to meet these three objectives:

• Objective #1 - Strengthen Knowledge Management

• Objective #2 - Improve Impact of Communication Efforts

• Objective #3 - Diversify & Amplify Content Creation Opportunities

This isn’t a ring and run. I didn’t give them these objectives and then just move on, and I won’t do that for you either. Check back in a few weeks to read about how I'm going to prepare Breath of God to tackle these objectives!