Strategic
Planning: It's Easier If You Know Where You Are Going.
My job as president
is to lead your congregation. In order to lead effectively, the first thing I
have to know is the overall objective,goal or mission. It can be very difficult
to make any long-range plans concerning our synagogues future without first knowing
what we want to be, where want to go, and what do we need to do to get there.
The
strategic planning process starts by asking some very basic
questions:
1. What Is Our Current Situation?
2. What Do We Want
To Achieve?
3. What Must We Do To Get There?
4. How Will We Know If We
Have Succeeded? The
Mission Statement
Many
organizations have created mission statements. They are, by design, high level,
strategic visions of what the organization is or should be. We need to establish
exactly what is BSKI, what is it here for and who do we intend to serve.
Why
Use a Strategic Planning Facilitator?
Experience
shows that planning sessions run by team members often become expanded staff meetings,
rehashing old positions and leaning toward the strongest members' views. An
outside facilitator for Strategic Planning - maintains
a climate of openness and broader participation, minimizing personality and departmental
differences and encouraging opinions that differ from the leader's.
The
Strategic Planning facilitator works to keep discussions on track and realistic.
Working together to develop plans, the team becomes committed to implementation
when it returns to the board and its committees. In addition, the facilitator's
personal experience as a Strategic Planning Consultant in business and strategy
can be a source of insight and new perspective to our organization. Strategic
planning can serve a variety of purposes to our congregation.
If we are successful
we can: -
Clearly define the purpose of our organization and to establish
realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time
frame within the organization's capacity for implementation.
-
Communicate goals and objectives to the board and membership.
-
Develop a sense of ownership of the plan for our future.
-
Improve the effectiveness of the organization's resources by focusing the resources
on the key priorities.
-
Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for
informed change when needed.
-
Bring together ideas that have value in building a consensus as to the direction
the organization is going.
-
Bridge staff and board of directors
-
Build stronger leaders, committees and staff members.
-
Provide the glue that keeps the board focused together on the same goals.
- Produce
great satisfaction among planners in establishing a common vision.
-
Increase productivity from increased efficiency and effectiveness.
-
Solve major problems.
Gary
Kodner
President |