Strategic Planning

Translating your vision into action.

In today’s uncertain world, healthy organizations have a clear idea of who they are, why they exist and where they are going.  An organization’s effectiveness and continued success rest on a clearly defined vision and mission.  This foundation must be augmented by strategic goals that are supported by its constituents.  Goal alignment and investment from all stakeholders helps translate the mission into action and accomplishment.  

Cargas can provide facilitation services to help you with your Strategic Planning process.  The scope and format of the consultation varies based on the needs of your unique organization.  We have guided Strategic Planning projects that only included Board Members, as well as those that involved senior and middle management and planning with all staff. 

Some groups expanded to include other stakeholders (customers, funders, vendors, partner agencies).  Some of our
projects involved organizational assessment and data collection while others just focused on facilitation of a retreat to create the plan.

Typically the Strategic Planning Retreat identifies critical issues facing the organization, defines Strategic Goals, determines broad strategies to accomplish the goals, and designs a process to make the Strategic Plan a living document that will be used regularly and routinely in decision making and prioritizing.

The primary outcome of the consultation is a 3-5 year Strategic Plan.  This document can then be used for more specific action (operational) planning within work groups or other appropriate smaller groups. The Cargas consultant may provide additional consultation for the second phase of planning and implementation or that stage may be handled internally.  Recommendations will be made to executive leadership for the development of an on-going planning process that will keep the organization moving forward on the Strategic Goals.