Crafting a strategic plan
A good way to begin thinking about strategic planning, including the beginning stages of the environmental scan, is to consider the notion that "thoughtful planning starts by asking the right questions" (Evans & Alire, 2013, Ch. 4, The Planning Process, para. 4). In crafting a strategic plan, one must first consider several elements that influence the external and internal organizational environment. When the environmental planning process, SWOT analysis and mission, vision, and values statements have been completed, the data collected from these processes must be turned into a strategic plan. This means creating and crafting specific, realistic goals and objectives that constitute a structured and timely action plan for the organization's future.
When beginning to conceptualize a strategic plan, complete with tangible goals and objectives, it is important to consider "how far we look into the future and how flexible we are in adjusting plans to changing circumstances" (Evans & Alire, 2013, Ch. 4, The Planning Process, para. 2). Procedures for carrying out these goals and objectives should be described and included based on those factors, that is, how far into the future they reach and how easily they can be revised if circumstances unexpectedly change.
Goals are the framework, the "bare bones" structure of the strategic plan. Evans and Alire offer a short definition of these types of mid- to long-term goals as "an accomplishment that will aid in the achievement of a strategy" (2013, Ch. 4, Goals, para. 1). Strategic goals should fit the requirements alluded to in the acronym "SMARTER - specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, time-framed, extending, and rewarding" and should be constructed and written with the fulfillment of these criteria in mind (Evans & Alire, 2013, Ch. 4, Goals, para. 3). An example of a goal could be "By January 2015, the library will have translated no less than 50% of its finding aids into Spanish and uploaded them onto the library-hosted LibGuides website". Goals such as these should be carefully monitored and revised as necessary to maintain alignment with operating circumstances and conditions. There is no reason to miss meeting a goal simply because it was never realistic or attainable in the first place.
The next component of generating a strategic plan is to develop objectives. These objectives break the goal down further into smaller elements, eventually into behavioral tasks or actions, that are straightforward and can (hopefully) be achieved rather readily. While the goal is often larger in scope, the objectives help to create a still more manageable "to-do" list of sorts - an action plan - for the organization to work towards meeting the goals. The action plan, which consists of manageable tasks complete with a rough timeline or deadlines, is balanced further by the addition of an explicit and unavoidable assessment procedure, which is completed at some prescribed point or date in order to monitor the success and fulfillment of the plan.
Many objectives could be written for the initial goal suggested above, including ones focusing on analyzing which finding aids to translate, which should be prioritized in sequence, who should do the translation, when the project should be completed by, etc. Narrowing down the goals into objectives, tasks and assessment processes will help to "identify appropriate activities, policies, and procedures as well as the resources required" to achieve the big ideas put forth in the strategic plan (Evans & Alire, 2013, Ch. 4, Objectives, para. 3). Policies and procedures, as well as a careful delineation of required resources, will help staff and managers follow a "blueprint" for achieving the task at hand as well as potentially what to do if difficulties arise.
In our team-based Organizational Analysis project, we structured the body of our strategic plan as follows:
Goal: a brief statement that focuses on an outcome desired by the organization
Objective: another brief statement that suggests an action required to attain that outcome
Action Plan: a series of statements that list a sequence of realistic actions (including possible procedures/policies/resources)
Assessment: explicit steps to be taken after the action plan is completed to determine whether or not it was successful
Sayed (2013) comments on this deliberate interrelationship between these four elements:
"...Performance measures are tied directly to goals and objectives, which, in turn, are aligned in a cause and effect relationship to form a strategy to achieve specific outcomes" (p. 105).
Essentially - one of these elements cannot exist without the others in a well-crafted strategic plan.
When beginning to conceptualize a strategic plan, complete with tangible goals and objectives, it is important to consider "how far we look into the future and how flexible we are in adjusting plans to changing circumstances" (Evans & Alire, 2013, Ch. 4, The Planning Process, para. 2). Procedures for carrying out these goals and objectives should be described and included based on those factors, that is, how far into the future they reach and how easily they can be revised if circumstances unexpectedly change.
Goals are the framework, the "bare bones" structure of the strategic plan. Evans and Alire offer a short definition of these types of mid- to long-term goals as "an accomplishment that will aid in the achievement of a strategy" (2013, Ch. 4, Goals, para. 1). Strategic goals should fit the requirements alluded to in the acronym "SMARTER - specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, time-framed, extending, and rewarding" and should be constructed and written with the fulfillment of these criteria in mind (Evans & Alire, 2013, Ch. 4, Goals, para. 3). An example of a goal could be "By January 2015, the library will have translated no less than 50% of its finding aids into Spanish and uploaded them onto the library-hosted LibGuides website". Goals such as these should be carefully monitored and revised as necessary to maintain alignment with operating circumstances and conditions. There is no reason to miss meeting a goal simply because it was never realistic or attainable in the first place.
The next component of generating a strategic plan is to develop objectives. These objectives break the goal down further into smaller elements, eventually into behavioral tasks or actions, that are straightforward and can (hopefully) be achieved rather readily. While the goal is often larger in scope, the objectives help to create a still more manageable "to-do" list of sorts - an action plan - for the organization to work towards meeting the goals. The action plan, which consists of manageable tasks complete with a rough timeline or deadlines, is balanced further by the addition of an explicit and unavoidable assessment procedure, which is completed at some prescribed point or date in order to monitor the success and fulfillment of the plan.
Many objectives could be written for the initial goal suggested above, including ones focusing on analyzing which finding aids to translate, which should be prioritized in sequence, who should do the translation, when the project should be completed by, etc. Narrowing down the goals into objectives, tasks and assessment processes will help to "identify appropriate activities, policies, and procedures as well as the resources required" to achieve the big ideas put forth in the strategic plan (Evans & Alire, 2013, Ch. 4, Objectives, para. 3). Policies and procedures, as well as a careful delineation of required resources, will help staff and managers follow a "blueprint" for achieving the task at hand as well as potentially what to do if difficulties arise.
In our team-based Organizational Analysis project, we structured the body of our strategic plan as follows:
Goal: a brief statement that focuses on an outcome desired by the organization
Objective: another brief statement that suggests an action required to attain that outcome
Action Plan: a series of statements that list a sequence of realistic actions (including possible procedures/policies/resources)
Assessment: explicit steps to be taken after the action plan is completed to determine whether or not it was successful
Sayed (2013) comments on this deliberate interrelationship between these four elements:
"...Performance measures are tied directly to goals and objectives, which, in turn, are aligned in a cause and effect relationship to form a strategy to achieve specific outcomes" (p. 105).
Essentially - one of these elements cannot exist without the others in a well-crafted strategic plan.