How to create a strategic plan for your organization that won’t just sit on your bookshelf for the…

Hint: The process is the plan.

The process is the plan.

In the late 1990s, I was working for a university and participated in their strategic planning process. We spent the better part of a year engaging administrators, staff, faculty, and students in developing a beautifully comprehensive three ring binder of a 10-year strategic plan for the university. I proudly placed it on my mahogany bookshelf along with other important documents and continued on in my work.

Three years later, I pulled the binder off my bookshelf to check in on our progress, and not surprisingly, much of our plan was irrelevant because of changes in the higher education market, technology, economy, and culture. Our 10 year plan had been outmoded in under three years.