Strategic planning series: Part 2
In our last post, we explained how strategic planning can support an organization’s success. But many people have participated in strategic planning processes that felt disconnected from reality, produced plans that sat on a shelf, or even created frustration and harm.
Strategic planning can backfire when it excludes key players, overlooks the perspectives of those most affected by decisions, or fails to create meaningful opportunities for people to understand one another’s perspectives and priorities. When the people responsible for implementing a plan have little voice in creating it, even well-intentioned strategies can be difficult to put into practice.
An equity-focused approach addresses these challenges by engaging the people most affected by organizational decisions throughout the planning process and embedding equity into every aspect of the plan, resulting in stronger alignment and clearer pathways to implementation.
Like many organizational processes, how strategic planning happens can be just as impactful as the plan it ultimately produces. By applying an equity lens throughout the planning process, we produce a robust, effective, and adaptable plan. Because the people who will carry out the work help shape the plan, potential barriers to implementation can be identified and addressed early.
Equity also informs every part of the plan itself. Rather than defining just one equity goal, organizations can incorporate fairness and inclusion into any strategic priority. For example, a growing organization may identify updating its internal systems as a strategic priority. An equity-focused approach would consider not only what systems need to change, but also whose needs those systems should serve, how decisions will be made, and how the changes will affect staff and other impacted people.
The same equity lens can be applied to an organization’s vision, mission, values, theory of change, evaluation mechanisms, and measures of success, ensuring that equity is woven throughout the organization’s strategy rather than isolated within a single initiative.
Equity also shows up in the details of the implementation. In planning for implementation, we consider not only what staff will do, but also how they will do it, and how the experience will be for the staff and for everyone who interacts with the organization. We make sure the distribution of work is fair and that timelines are realistic. We plan for clear and compassionate communication about any changes that may feel challenging.
The benefits extend beyond the plan itself. By participating in an equity-focused strategic planning process, staff members build skills in collaboration, decision-making, inclusion, and strategic thinking. These skills support successful implementation and strengthen the organization's capacity long after the planning process is complete.
Ultimately, equity-focused strategic planning produces a realistic, effective, and flexible plan that organizations can actually use – aligning organizational priorities with community needs, strengthening relationships, and growing organizational capacity.
- Includes the perspectives of people affected by an organization’s decisions, both internally and externally
- Addresses challenges and opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked by drawing on the different perspectives of leaders, staff, and impacted community members
- Generates shared understanding and commitment among leaders, staff, community members, and other groups relevant to the organization’s success
- Builds trust and relationships that will benefit the organization and the community well beyond the life of the plan
- Develops skills for equity, inclusion, collaboration, and planning that support implementation and future organizational growth
- Produces plans that are more realistic, actionable, and sustainable because they are informed by the people responsible for carrying them out
If you’d like to dive deeper, consider joining our new strategic planning cohort program! With expert guidance from our consultants and a collaborative learning community, you'll design a strategic planning process tailored to your organization — and leave ready to put it into action.
