designing effective strategic planning retreats
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Sponsored by:
Designing Effective Strategic Planning Retreats
Rick Lent and Sam Frank
August 7, 2013
Twitter Hashtag - #npweb
Part
Of:
Sponsored by:
Advising nonprofits in:
• Strategy
• Planning
• Organizational Development
www.synthesispartnership.com
(617) 969-1881
info@synthesispartnership.com
INTEGRATED PLANNING
Part
Of:
Sponsored by: Part
Of:
Coming Soon
Sponsored by:
Today’s Speakers
Sam Frank Principal, Synthesis Partnership
Founding Director, Nonprofit Webinars
Assisting with chat questions: Jamie Maloney, 4Good
Part
Of:
Rick Lent Principal
Meeting for Results
Designing Effective Strategy Sessions: Planning to Achieve Results
Rick Lent, Ph.D. Sam Frank
www.meetingforresults.com
Strategy, planning & organizational development
for nonprofits
www.synthesispartnership.com
Take-Aways
1. Critical role of engagement in a strategic planning.
2. How to choose tools to help you structure an
effective, engaging session in your situation.
3. How to use selected tools for implementing
effective structures regarding…
• Whom you invite to participate.
• How you design the discussion to support dialogue.
• How you plan to reach a decision.
• How you plan to follow-up.
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What is changing in how organizations conduct strategy sessions?
1. Changes in focus: how broad or prescriptive?
2. Changes in the frequency of planning?
3. Changes in who is involved?
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What is your experience? Type in your thoughts on any of these:
Changing Context for Strategic Planning?
• Planning has to be directional and flexible.
• More critical to involve various stakeholders as well as senior leaders.
• More of a dynamic process subject to ongoing input and improvement.
• Greater need to build organizational engagement and commitment quickly.
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Overview: Nonprofit Strategic Planning Process
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Preparation
Assessment
Implementation
Engagement
Plan Development
Engagement
Preparation
Assessment
Implementation
Plan Development
Examples 1) A major foundation wants to revamp the strategy that has
shaped its direction for decades • 200 people, from front desk to board participate
• Video of interviews with beneficiaries
• 2 ½ days
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2) National social action organization wants to develop aligned strategy to coordinate multi-state efforts. • 30 presidents and board members from state affiliates
• 2 days
3) State nonprofit needs to redefine how it serves its clients • 6 executive board members and 20 regional representatives • 6 hours
Challenges
• More people involved in planning with different stakes and levels of authority.
• Widespread understanding and support essential to fast and flexible implementation.
• Need to avoid overly lengthy implementation process, multiple re-dos, cascades and so on.
In large, complex, and potentially contentious sessions, you need to pay critical attention to meeting structure to be successful.
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Unseen Structures Affect What We Do …
This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Unseen Structures of Meetings
• Physical, temporal, procedural aspects of meetings.
• With an (unrecognized) impact on how we interact with each other and the work of the meeting.
www.meetingforresults.com 14 This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Which Strategic Planning Meeting Would You Rather Attend?
12 Structural Choices Across the Three Phases of Any Meeting
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Planning
1. How you define the work of the meeting.
2. Whom you invite.
3. How you design the discussion.
4. How you plan to reach a decision.
5. How time will be “spent.”
6. How you will arrange the meeting space.
Conducting
1. How you share responsibility.
2. How you support dialogue.
3. How you manage time
4. How you work with any conflict.
Achieving Results
1. How you build decisions.
2. How you plan to follow-up.
This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Key Choices for Structuring for Effective Strategic Planning Meetings
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• Whom you invite to participate.
• How you design the discussion to support dialogue.
• How you plan to reach a decision.
• How you plan to follow-up.
Whom You Invite
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• Include (representatives of) the whole system.
• Not just the “usual suspects”
• Tool for identifying diverse stakeholders:
– “ARE IN.”
This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
ARE IN: Identifying Who Should Be Present
• Be clear about the work of the meeting and what a successful result will entail. Then plan to include those who represent: – Authority to act on meeting conclusions.
– Resources to apply in implementing meeting conclusions.
– Expertise on critical aspects of the discussion or decision.
– Information on some aspect of the discussion.
– Need for an effective outcome of this meeting. This tool was first defined by Weisbord and Janoff (2010)
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This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
How You Design the Discussion
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Plan to maintain a productive discussion given:
– Numbers of participants and if they know each other
– Differences in status or perspective
– Role of presentations
– Tools to support your structure: 1-2-All
PALPaR (Present, Ask, Listen, Pause and Reflect)
• Three Reaction Questions
This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
1-2-All: Effective Engagement for Groups of Any Size
After introducing a subject or question to be addressed by the group, complete the following steps. 1: Individual Reflection. Check to make sure everyone
understands the question or topic for consideration, and then give individuals a moment to gather their thoughts.
2: Small Group Discussion. Next ask participants to turn to their neighbors to form small, 2-3 person groups to share their ideas. Explain the time they have for their discussion and ask them to make sure everyone in their small group can share his/her thoughts in that time.
All: Whole Group Report. Ask each group for a brief report (typically 1-3 minutes) summarizing their small group discussion for everyone.
www.meetingforresults.com 21 This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
PALPaR: Creating a Respectful Exchange of Reactions
Before presenting a plan or proposal, outline the following steps to participants, and then implement as described.
Present: You present the proposal (report or other information).
Ask: Then you ask participants to talk with each other (in small groups) to answer three “reaction” questions:
1. What did you like about this proposal?
2. Where do you need more information?
3. What don’t you like?
Listen: Take reports from each small group, one question at a time. That is, take everyone’s comments on the first question about “likes” first, before going to the second question. As you hear replies, record key points where all can see.
Pause: Then take a break to incorporate what you have heard before continuing. Use this pause to reflect on feedback received and decide how to respond. You do not have to change your proposal in response to the feedback. And…
Reply: Come back to the group and summarize what you heard as key points, and then how you have taken that feedback into account (or not) in the final proposal.
www.meetingforresults.com 22 This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Three Reaction Questions: Gathering Balanced Feedback
After you present a proposal, ask participants to reflect on their own or (even better) to talk in small groups to answer the questions below. Try not to take any questions at first, as this will open up the discussion before you give them all a chance to reflect on their reactions.
1. What do you like about [the proposal]? 2. Where do you need further information? 3. Where do you have concerns?
After a few minutes, take reports (from individuals or small groups), one question at a time beginning with the first. Make sure you get all replies to the first question before proceeding to the second. Once all the reactions have been shared, ask the group, “What are we learning about this proposal/decision?” to help everyone integrate all that s/he heard and arrive at overall conclusions.
www.meetingforresults.com 23 This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
How You Plan to Reach a Decision
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• Productive engagement requires being clear how you want to reach decisions on strategy.
• Five ways to reach decisions with a group, “5Cs” – Consensus
– Consent
– Compromise
– Counting
– Consulting
This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
How You Plan to Follow-Up
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• Strategy can be implemented more effectively when people have a chance to reflect on their actions in an appropriately structured and timed follow-up...
• Tools to structure effective follow-up:
– Three Follow-Up Questions
– Follow-Up Timing
This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Three Follow-Up Questions Learning from a balanced review of progress
Bring the group together and focus the discussion around these three questions:
1. What has been accomplished as planned?
2. What hasn’t been accomplished as planned?
3. What can we learn about making progress in this area from our answers to both questions?
Use all three questions one at a time in this order. You can modify the questions to fit the circumstances, but use all three types.
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This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Follow Up Timing Choosing an Effective Time for Learning from Actions
Announce a review of progress on agreed actions within 30-45 days of the original meeting.
• This period of time is usually long enough to have some accomplishments.
• More important, this is not so long that the only thing that is “top of mind” is why some planned action was unrealistic.
www.meetingforresults.com 27 This work by Rick Lent, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
For More Information..
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Rick’s e-book available on Amazon
and other e-book retailers.
Also see Rick’s blog at
www.meetingforresults.com/blog
or sign up for his newsletter
Contact Rick directly at:
rick@meetingforresults.com or 1-978-580-4262
Critical Issues in Strategy, Planning & Organizational Development
perspectives for nonprofit trustees and staff
Archive at http://bit.ly/SyParchive
Contact Sam directly at:
sbf@synthesispartnership.com or 1-617-969-1881
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