Chora’s Strategic Plans are “living”, forward-looking documents that provide tangible steps towards achieving your strategic vision. With a clear operational emphasis, they guide institutional change with specific tactical next steps. Chora’s Strategic Plans are underpinned by a current situation assessment and rigorous financial and market analyses.
A strategic plan identifies how your organization can best transition from what it is to what it aspires to be. It requires determining ambitious but realistic goals, measurable intermediate results, actions and tactics, and appropriate benchmarks to gauge progress along the way.
In broad outline, strategic planning is an integrated process comprising six steps:
- Assessing the current (internal and external) situation and preparing staff and Board for change;
- Laying out an inspiring vision and core strategic directions that define where your organization wishes to be by the end of the planning period;
- Setting measurable objectives that will propel it from where it is to where is wants to be;
- Building consensus among staff, chain of command, and Board to support the plan;
- Drafting annual operating and fiscal tactical plans to achieve the agreed objectives and bolster a case for support; and
- Designing instruments to evaluate progress and develop the flexibility to adapt the plan to evolving circumstances.
Each step calls for close interaction with all stakeholders who must recognize their voices in the final plan. Chora’s extraordinary care in designing custom-tailored workshops, surveys, and interviews ensure broad ownership of the results and a strong consensus.