Linking Governance and Management

For good governance and management to occur, there needs to be a process for determining goals, monitoring progress toward their achievement, and nimbly adjusting strategy in response to changes in the environment or experience in implementation.

Strategic plans have a useful life of three to five years. By then, the environment has changed from the year a plan was initially authored and the leadership of the organization evolves as well. A current plan’s authors are succeeded by new board members and staff. Both of whom need to have the same understanding and commitment to an organization’s strategy as did the authors of the preceding plan.

Today’s world requires flexibility, innovation, and nimbleness in strategy. Continuous attention to emerging challenges and opportunities at Board and staff meetings is critical. An annual review and update in between “total re-think” years is essential.

Every three to five years the strategic planning process authors a new strategy – saving only core purpose and core values from previous years. A new envisioned future leads to new goals, objectives and strategies. New strategies lead to new priorities and target dates for completion of action plans. The plan is reviewed annually and updated by asking 5 questions about progress toward each goal and refining the strategy accordingly:

1. Have we achieved the objectives of the goal?
2. How satisfied are we with the pace of our progress on this goal?
3. Have contextual conditions related to the goal changed?
4. What has been our experience in executing the strategies and actions related to the objectives for this goal; what has worked and what hasn’t?
5. What recommendations, if any, do we want to make for modification of objectives/strategies related to this goal?

Revised objectives can then serve as the base for development of the chief staff executive’s annual performance review. Those goals then serve as a basis for staff critical objectives. Performance compensation can be linked to achievement of critical objectives flowing from the strategy.

When this process is followed the planning system works exceptionally well. When it is not followed, clarity and consensus about what will constitute success is diluted or lost.

Is it time for your organization to engage the current board and staff in a redo of your strategic plan? Discussing strategic issues before, during, and after developing a new strategy will renew the commitment to a process for planning strategically integrated with ongoing governance and management and not just producing a document.

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