08/26/2019

How to Create a More Inclusive Strategy

Strategy is more than what you have - it's what you do

“It just sat on a shelf.” At this point I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard an association leader use that phrase to describe what happens too often to a strategic plan, or what they fear will happen to the one their board has just approved. Strategic plans are often composed in a spirit of ambition and enthusiasm but always risk withering when the time comes for implementation.

Fixes to the problem don’t come easy. One possible path, suggests strategy consultant Dave Algoso, is to think of strategy less as a specific goal and more of a process. “More than something you have,” he writes in a recent article for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “strategy is something you do.”

But how, exactly? One of Algoso’s main prescriptions is to get discussions of strategy away from abstract language and frame them in terms of the people who will be affected by a strategic shift. That may involve directly including them in the discussion process.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.