05/05/2022

Essential Steps to a More Focused and Effective Strategic Plan

Here are three ways to make it happen

“We completed 66 of 72 tasks last year. Is that good?” The genuine question came from a befuddled board president for a large healthcare association. He was assessing the activities of the organization’s current strategic plan as they were about to embark on the next three-year planning effort. 

It’s a common tendency: Measuring the success of an association strategic plan by the number of activities or tasks completed. But activities and results are not necessarily the same. For example, if you are trying to summit a mountain and you’re measuring progress based on how many steps your Apple Watch has tracked, is 4,000 steps good? It depends on where those steps are taking you.

You could be working hard—and getting nowhere. Unfortunately, that is where many associations find themselves when it comes to their strategic plans. For too long, we have evaluated the quality of a strategic plan based on the number of priorities and activities needed to support those priorities. The more priorities the better, right?

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.