Much like a resume or a marketing campaign there are some key elements that should be included within your strategic plan, but there is no one singular format.
What is a Strategic plan?
A strategic plan is the high level outline of where your organization is headed: how it's going to get there and how you're going to measure that success.
Who receives the strategic plan?
Your strategic plan should be simple to understand because it's to give an understanding of the direction of your organization to your management, staff, and stakeholders.
What format should I have my strategic plan in?
It's important to consider you audience when creating and communicating your plan. Some people learn better through video, some through audio, and others through writing.
The purpose is to educate and inspire your people into action. The worst thing you can have is a plan that sits on the shelf that no one takes time to read or act on.
No matter the format of your strategic plan it needs to be able to give people direction into where your organization is headed.
What do I need to include in my strategic plan?
Depending on who you have to answer to, your strategic plan may be more or less complex. It also depends if you're creating a strategic plan for your organization alone and it's going to be filled with information that you'd prefer keeping confidential, or if you're trying to tell the world exactly what you plan on doing.
Here are some publicly available, non-confidential, strategic plan examples to help shed the light on what other organizations are doing. You'll notice that the all include development on their organization's vision, mission, values, and strategic priorities.
If you're looking for a step-by-step walkthrough of the entire strategic planning process,
check out our starter kit:
