Strategic Planning: How to Realize Your
Vision of Success
An Address by Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
for the IARF Congress 2002
(THIS
DOCUMENT IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION. I HAVE VERY LIBERALLY USED
THE WORK OF JOHN M BRYSON IN THIS ADDRESS, PARTICULARLY HIS
BOOK STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR PUBLIC AND NON PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS,
Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1988.)
Hello,
Shalom. I feel very privileged and honored to be here. I usually
begin teaching with the following intention that is part of
daily Jewish prayers, "May all of the words that I speak
be in service of fulfilling the commandment to love one's
neighbor as one's self." It is, also, a custom of my
tradition to dedicate the teaching to someone. Being in Budapest,
I find myself physically closer, than I ever have been, to
where my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were murdered
by the Nazis because they were Jews. I dedicate this lecture,
about how to work more effectively for religious freedom,
to their memory.
My hope is that I am able to communicate to you the benefits
and process of strategic planning. The key word here is communicate,
in this room we represent different religions, languages,
cultures and nations. The theory and practice of strategic
planning that I learned and will teach comes from a very American
model, indeed it was developed in American business schools.
I realize that imbedded in the model may be American assumptions
and values, with our emphasis on results over relationships,
outcomes over process. I have tried to correct for this.
In
the NGO sector in the U.S. there was initial resistance to
this model. NGO, of course, stands for Non-Governmental Organizations.
In democratic societies NGO's are public institutions not
controlled by the government, but controlled by its members.
These institutions either provide services that the government
does not or become places where policies and programs are
developed that can either supplement or challenge the government's
programs. NGO's are the building blocks of civil society.
Now back to the idea of strategic planning, initially members
of NGO's were concerned that the emphasis on planning and
results would take away the human dimension so important to
NGO's.
Today,
after about 20 years of using it, the NGO sector in the U.S.
is convinced that it is the best way to operate. They learned
that it is the most effective way to achieve their vision
of success-to get done what they hope to do-to make a wish
into a reality. Three years ago the board of the IARF decided
to undertake a strategic planning process. The Board worked
hard at this and a year ago agreed upon a plan, which many
of you have seen. I will go over some of it today, part of
that plan is for you to create plans on the local level. Tomorrow
you will participate in three workshops and be given step-by-step
instructions on how to proceed.
WHAT
IS STRATEGIC PLANNING?
The
simplest statement is that it has one purpose to help an organization
do a better job. It is a systematic process through which
an organization agrees on priorities that are essential to
its mission and responsive to the environment in which it
exists. I will explain what this means. Several key concepts
in this definition reinforce the meaning and success of strategic
planning. The process is strategic because it involves how
best to respond to the dynamic and changing environment that
we live and work in. NGO' s have many choices in deciding
what to do next and how to do it. Being strategic requires
recognizing what these choices are and committing to one set
of responses over another by having a clear set of criteria
by which to make a decision.
Strategic
planning is systematic in that it calls for a process that
is both focused and productive. The process raises a series
of questions that helps you examine past experiences, test
old assumptions, gather and incorporate new information about
the present, and anticipate what may happen in the environment
in which the organization will be working in the future. It
is about asking careful questions, looking at what really
happened in the past, and trying to figure out as best as
we can what may happen in the future that will effect our
work, for example taking into account population changes or
political developments.
Strategic
planning involves choosing specific priorities-making decisions
about ends and means, or said differently about results and
process, for both the long term-the next few years and the
short term-the next few months. It is very important that
there be widespread agreement within the organization about
what you want to achieve and how you want to do it. When you
set long-term goals, the short-term action has to be in service
of achieving the goals.
Finally
the process is about building commitment to the organization
from all of the people involved. The more people you involve
in the process, the more people who will be interested in
your success, the more points of view that you hear, the better
you will be able to plan and address potential problems. Involving
people in the process gives them an interest in the plan working.
Many
cultures have a saying that essentially means, "If you
don't know where you are going you can't get there."
Strategic planning is about figuring out where you want to
go and how to get there. Another common saying is, "A
sailor can not tell an ill wind from a good wind if he doesn't
know his destination." People and organizations need
to have a sense of direction- a sense of where they want to
go and how they want to get there- the leadership of an organization
is responsible for setting the direction. Each of you in your
leadership capacity in your group has the responsibility to
make sure that the group has an agreed upon direction and
an agreed upon method of getting there.
To summarize effective strategic and action planning can help
NGO's of any size to:
· Think strategically
· Clarify future direction
· Make today's decisions in light of their future consequences
· Further the organization's mission
· Develop a coherent and defensible basis for decision
making
· Address major issues and solve major organizational
problems
· Improve organizational performance
· Deal effectively and rapidly with changing circumstances
· Build teamwork and expertise
· Improve organizational credibility and enhance organizational
legitimacy
Of
course there is no guarantee that you will achieve all of
these things, but I bet that most of you would be happy to
achieve even half of these. Tomorrow we will spend the day
in workshops to begin this process. Now I will tell you the
eight-steps for strategic planning and then explain each one
in detail. The eight-steps are:
1-
Agreement on the strategic planning effort, or planning the
plan;
2- Study the IARF Strategic Plan;
3- Clarify your mission and values;
4 Assess the internal environment;
5 Assess the external environment;
6 Identify strategic issues and goals;
7 Create a Vision of Success;
8 Create specific objectives.
Before
we get into the details it is helpful to open up our imaginations.
Please follow along with the following guided visualization.
Please put your feet on the floor, arrange whatever your holding
in your lap or on the floor
..if you
are comfortable doing so, please close your eyes gently
..take
a few deep breaths and allow your weight to sink into your
seat
.notice your breathing
.in your mind's eye
visualize the number 3 and watch it dissolve
.visualize
the number 2 and watch it dissolve
..visualize the number
1 and watch it dissolve
..visualize a large zero and
walk through it
you are walking into a hotel
see
yourself at the next Congress several years from now
.see
who is around you
.imagine yourself reporting to a group
on the accomplishments of the IARF with great pride, delight
and satisfaction, what is it that you are proud of
what
good thing has your chapter or branch or group accomplished,
what other IARF accomplishments are you proud of
now
imagine listening to others speak about what accomplishments
are they taking delight in
listen and feel yourself
full of a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction about the
IARF
.on your next breath walk out the Congress
and re-enter this room, gently open your eyes.
.Please
turn to someone near you, with whom you have a common language,
and each of you take a few minutes to tell the other person
what you saw and heard
[AFTER ABOUT TWO MINUTES-I
WILL SAY IF THE SECOND PERSON HAS NOT YET BEGUN TO SPEAK,
PLEASE DO SO].
Beginning the Process
Step
One: Development of agreement on what the strategic planning
effort will be -or agreement on the plan for planning.
As I said, tomorrow you will begin working here, when you
return home if you want to engage your whole group-whether
it be a chapter, region or project group-in a planning process
you need to negotiate an agreement with all of the key internal
decision makers and opinion leaders about what the process
will be and how to do it. The support and commitment of key
decision makers are vital, if strategic planning in an organization
is to succeed. If you want to affect the wider community,
involvement of key decision makers outside of the organization
is also helpful. For example, if you want to engage in inter-religious
dialogue, involving some of the important religious leaders
who are not in your organization in the planning process can
be very helpful.
In
a full planning process it is important to involve all of
the different constituencies of the organization, all of the
subgroups that form by demography, commonality of interest,
or role they have such as volunteer or staff. The key leaders
of these groups must agree on the purpose of the strategic
planning effort; the steps that will be taken; what will be
written up and when; the role of everyone involved in the
process and who will be involved; and agree to commit whatever
necessary resources to proceed with and successfully conclude
the effort. You need to do this if you want to engage in a
full-blown effort in your home group. As I said tomorrow we
can only work with who is here and you will be able to accomplish
a more limited task.
If
you do engage in a full blown planning effort, it is essential
to assemble the planning team. It needs to be representative
of the various points of view and constituencies in the organization,
contain respected leaders as well as some newer members, probably
not exceed 10 to 12 people, have staff and volunteers, and
above all they need to be reasonable people who can work together.
The
IARF Plan
Step
two: Studying IARF Strategic Plan for 2001 to 2007
We are all part of groups functioning within the IARF. The
overall mission of the IARF is the starting point for everything
that any chapter, branch or local group of IARF does. The
IARF staff and board are responsible for the success of the
stated mission and agreed upon strategic plan of the organization.
Therefore, I think that it is important and useful for us
to keep referring to the IARF strategic plan as we do our
work.
The board went through a rigorous, careful, democratic, deliberative
and participatory process in creating the plan. The mission
statement that it opens with is a powerful return to the origin
and roots of the IARF when it was founded in 1900 as an organization
to bring together people "striving to unite pure religion
and perfect liberty."
The
plan states, "The purpose of the IARF is to work for
freedom of religion and belief because it is a precious human
right that potentially enables the best within our religious
lives, or our search for truth or enlightenment, to flourish.
It requires:
· Freedom from oppressive interference or discrimination
by the State, Government or society's institutions on the
grounds of religion or belief;
· Mutual understanding, respect and the promotion of
harmony, or at least "tolerance", between communities
or individuals of different religions or beliefs; and
· An essential accountability by religious communities
to ensure that their own practices uphold the fundamental
dignity and human rights of their members and others.
This
mission or purpose is the container that holds all of our
work on a local level. What each IARF group does needs to
further this mission and there are very many ways to do so,
depending on local needs and conditions.
Mission Statements
Step
three: Clarification of Mission and Values
Each local group needs to develop its own mission statement,
within the context of the stated mission of the IARF as a
whole. What is a mission statement?
A mission statement needs to communicate the essence of your
organization to everyone involved and to the public; it needs
to say why you exist.
What should be in a mission statement? The following concepts
are critical in defining who your organization is:
The first concept is the Purpose: clearly stating what your
organization seeks to accomplish, why does it exist, what
is the ultimate result? The IARF statement says, "to
work for freedom of religion and belief".
Perhaps
your local group has as its mission to "to increase understanding
between the local religions." In defining purpose it
is essential to focus on outcomes and results rather than
methods. How is the world going to be different? What is going
to change? It usually contains an infinitive verb that indicates
a change will take place such as to increase, to decrease,
or to prevent. It frequently states the problem as well, as
the IARF does when its says "oppressive interference
or discrimination by the State, Government or society's institutions
on the grounds of religious belief." Perhaps your local
group would say, "to end the government discrimination
against religions new to our country."
The
second concept is the activities or programs-the business-that
you choose in order to accomplish its purpose. The IARF statement
says that there are three types of challenges to religious
freedom: 1- external or structural such as government of social
institutions; 2-relations between communities or individuals
of different religions or beliefs; 3- internal, the practices
of religious communities themselves. This suggests that IARF
groups can engage in activities-or have as its business-that
address these challenges. The IARF mission statement concludes
with the following:
Thus
the IARF works with and for:
· Groups from different religious traditions or beliefs
(normally those which share in its values), and
· Communities suffering from religious persecution
or discrimination.
This helps us further understand the activities of IARF and
helps local groups hone in on their mission. For example you
may think about which communities are suffering from discrimination
where you are.
In working on the mission statement you may have discussions
answering the following questions:
1. Who are we?
2. What are the problems we wish to address?
3. What do we want to do to respond to them?
4. What is our philosophy and what are our core values?
5. What makes us distinctive or unique?
Discussions
on any of these questions can last for minutes or hours-it
depends on how many talkative people are in your group. You
can't let the conversation go on forever, it will paralyze
the group. It needs to be contained. At times the discussions
may seem too philosophical or academic to be of much use.
If discussions get bogged down in tiny details or become very
abstract, move ahead. Sometimes you need to stop, summarize
and perhaps write a brief description of what was agreed upon
and what was not. Then take a break and begin the discussion
again at another time. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT STRATEGIC
PLANNING NOT GET IN THE WAY OF USEFUL ACTION.
However
it is important to remember that strategic planning IS ultimately
about purpose, meaning, value, and virtue and therefore it
is very philosophical in a practical sense. Strategic planning
is a process of asking ourselves and each other hard questions,
in order to do our work more effectively.
I will go over the questions that you need to discuss before
drafting the mission statement.
1.
Who are we?
If your organization was a person walking down the street
and someone asked who are you, what would the answer be? This
is a question about the group's identity. It is to help make
a distinction between what it is and what it does. Too many
organizations make the mistake of confusing what they are
and what they do. What you are is working for religious freedom,
there are many different activities that will further this.
To think of yourself only as what you do, closes off creative
responses to changing circumstances. The classic example of
this in business schools in the U.S. is the railroad industry.
In the beginning of the 20th century they were among the richest
and most powerful in the U.S. by the end of the century it
was weak and poor. In the beginning they defined themselves
as railroad companies-what they did at the time, their activities-rather
than as transportation companies that happened to be in the
railroad business. The emerging automobile and trucking industries
took their business. If they had defined themselves as transportation
companies, they might have avoided the steep declines that
they experienced. An example of the opposite is from the NGO
world, the March of Dimes. This was an organization in the
US whose work was stopping the polio epidemic. In the 1950's
this epidemic in the US was stopped. The March of Dimes could
have gone out of business, but they understood their mission
was to help children afflicted by disabling diseases. They
switched their focus from Polio to Muscular Dystrophy and
continued to be an effective organization. Their identity
was their mission, and they understood that it was something
more than what they did. Our spiritual traditions teach that
each of us is something more than our actions that we should
not over identify with our actions. The same is true of an
NGO, it needs to have an identity- perhaps a soul-greater
than what it happens to be doing. Some traditions teach that
every person comes into this life with a purpose, a mission
and our task is to discover it and fulfill it. Well the strategic
planning process is like discovering the soul of an NGO and
fulfilling its mission.
2."What
concrete problems do we wish to address?"
The answer to this question provides the basic social justification
for the organization's existence. The purpose of the organization
is to address these problems. This gives us the perspective
that the organization is the means to an end and not an end
in itself.
3.
What do we want to do to respond to the problem?
This forces us to stay in touch with the problem. Many organizations
will end up talking only to themselves. People can be very
self-righteous, and self-congratulatory, talking only within
their own group about how bad things are "out there"
without ever doing anything. Organizations must stay in touch
with what is really happening and address it. Paying attention
to external factors is likely to prompt the innovations in
program or internal affairs that are necessary to remain effective.
Most of the information critical to innovation comes from
outside the organization. Pay attention to what is happening
around you. It is very important that members be reassured
that they will not be punished for bringing in bad news from
the external world. Frequently key decision makers do not
want to hear bad news and create an environment where people
are afraid to report what is going on. Good leaders create
safe environments for different points of view to be expressed
and disturbing information to be reported.
4.
What is our philosophy and what are our core values?
These are essential to answer in developing strategy. Only
strategies that are in tune with our philosophy and core values
are likely to succeed; strategies that are not are likely
to fail. For example if an organization decided that having
loud noisy public demonstrations was the best strategy but
its values were to have contemplative action and meaningful
dialogue, the strategy would fail. Clarity of value and philosophy
allows an organization to maintain its integrity. Clarity
will allow a group to say "no" more easily to proposals
or actions that are questionable and say "yes" more
easily to those that will enhance its integrity. For example
an organization may be tempted or invited to be involved in
a campaign that slanders- tells lies about- a public official
who is involved in religious persecution- clear values will
help the organization say "no" to a tactic like
this that would compromise its integrity.
5.What
makes us distinctive or unique?
What do we do that no one else does? What need are we addressing
that no one else is? How would somebody be able to recognize
our organization in a crowd? Or, if another organization is
addressing the same problem, why should we exist, what is
special, unique different about the way we address this problem?
You need to be able to answer these questions to understand
your special role. Also, being able to explain your uniqueness
frequently makes it easier to get funding from foundations
or individuals.
The
mission statement serves as a boundary for the organization,
it sets the criteria for which activities can be pursued and
what not to be involved with. The mission statement being
a boundary focuses the organization's energy. In a for profit
organization the basic criteria for choosing to do something
is "can we make a profit." In the NGO the mission
statement serves as the criteria for whether or not to do
something.
A
clear mission statement, once agreed on, can limit the struggle
for control within an organization. It attracts people with
similar ideas because it makes clearer the basis on which
decisions are made. You don't do something just because it
is interesting or the pet idea of one key person, it must
fit within the mission. A clear mission statement, by setting
clear boundaries, can allow an organization with many different
constituencies to move forward.
The
mission statement functions to motivate the staff, board,
volunteers and donors of an organization. It can get people
excited, keep people focused and serve as a rallying point.
The mission statement is also used to help evaluate the success
of the activities or programs that the organization is engaged
in. Something can seem like a good idea, and could even be
operationally successful, but it needs to be evaluated on
the basis of whether it fulfills the mission. For example
someone could organize a community football league for youth
from different groups to interact and learn about each other.
The teams could form, the games happen, but the youth never
in fact have any dialogue or meaningful conversation. Operationally
the plan worked, but is it worth continuing if it doesn't
fulfill the mission? The mission statement becomes your measuring
stick for decision- making. Used properly it will help you
focus your energy.
Stakeholders
Planning
borrows a concept from political science, the concept of stakeholders.
To have a stake in an organization is to have an interest
in its success. The stakeholders are all of the people and
groups that have an interest in the success of your work.
This is a much greater number of people than just the staff,
volunteers and the people who get direct service from any
NGO. Think about who benefits from the success of your project.
If you are engaged in a process of religious dialogue between
antagonistic groups, then the potential beneficiaries of your
work include all the members of those groups; all of the people
in the community who will appreciate the reduction of tension;
the government responsible for maintaining order; the local
economy may benefit; the entire IARF has an interest in your
success; the people who contribute money to your organization
also want you to succeed. As you see when you begin thinking
about it you have large group of stakeholders.
Prior
to the development of a mission statement, an organization
should complete a stakeholder analysis. One can also describe
a stakeholder as any person, group or organization that can
place a claim on an organization's attention, resources, or
output, or that is affected by that output. Examples include
staff, service recipients, volunteers, board of directors,
members, funders, other NGOs that you may work with, and the
people you buy your supplies from. Attention to stakeholder
concerns is crucial because the key to organizational success
is the satisfaction of key stakeholders-according to their
criteria for satisfaction. Let me repeat that, you need to
satisfy them according to their criteria. That means when
you develop your criteria for success you need to take into
account how all of your stakeholders judge success.
A
complete stakeholder analysis will require the planning team
to identify who the stakeholders are, what their stake in
the organization or its output is, what their criteria are
for judging the organization, how well the organization currently
performs against those criteria, how the stakeholders influence
the organization and in general how important the various
stakeholders are. A complete stakeholder analysis will identify
what the organization needs from its various stakeholders-
for example money, staff, or political support. I know that
hardly any group here will be able to carry out a complete
analysis, and that you probably do not need to. However, it
is extremely useful for the people doing the planning, the
planning group, to spend an hour or two, going over who the
stakeholders are and analyzing their relation to the organization.
It is only after doing the stakeholder analysis that you ask
the five questions that lead to the mission statement. You
need to keep in mind what the various stakeholders would say
in answering those questions.
The
mission statement itself needs to be very short- often not
more than a paragraph and sometimes just one sentence. But
the development of the mission statement should grow out of
extensive conversations in response to the five questions.
Complete answers to these questions may serve as a basic outline
for a description of the organization in the future, or its
vision of success.
VALUES
I
now want to return to the fourth question that you will discuss
in preparing the mission statement, don't worry I don't expect
you to remember what it is. The fourth question is, "What
is our philosophy and core values." This is perhaps the
hardest question to answer and the most important one to have
widespread agreement about. If you do not share values, it
is difficult to work together. Many times we assume that other
people have the same values we do, and are surprised and angry
when they don't. It is important to explicitly state the values
and not just assume that everyone agrees. Sometimes these
are difficult conversations to have, especially when the organization
has people from different ethnic or religious backgrounds.
Oddly enough the conversation can produce the most surprises
when everyone is from the same background and people discover
that they may have different values. Remember what I said
earlier, only strategies that are consonant with core values
are likely to succeed.
Knowing
what your values are and keeping to them will help you through
difficult decisions. In the IARF strategic plan, immediately
after the statement of purpose is a list of the values, which,
quote "underlie our organization and affect its character."
I suggest that your group study and discuss these values to
see if you share them and if they can form the basis for your
work as well.
They are listed in pairs in the document and I want to highlight
one as an example of how they affect the way that we work
together and the strategies we choose to pursue. I quote:
"Mutual respect and tolerance: However certain we may
feel in the truth of our faith tradition, we are clear that
we should listen to the experience and convictions of others
with respect. The limits to tolerance are where there is any
failure to meet the basic criteria of human rights of others.
In such cases nonviolence and other legal norms are still
necessarily called for in expressing our criticism."
This
pair of values has internal and external implications. Internally,
mutual respect is the fundamental value that governs the way
that we treat each other. We need to understand within our
group how different people perceive respect. Aspects of respect
are culturally determined. Externally, the way the value is
explained has implications for our strategy, we will not tolerate
situations that violate the basic human rights of others,
but we will not engage in violence.
Your group needs to discuss what level of agreement or disagreement
you have on the values such as democracy, broad participation
in decision making, equality of men and women, financial accountability,
transparency of decision making, diversity, and inclusiveness.
Of course there are many other values that you may need to
discuss. The point here is that within each IARF group there
needs to be a mutual shared understanding of the values that
people have in common AND those that they agree to disagree
about, in order for them to work together effectively.
WRITING
THE MISSION STATEMENT
Once
the planning group has done a stakeholder analysis, discussed
the five questions and written down their answers you are
ready to begin the process of writing the mission statement.
There is no magic formula for finding the wording that best
expresses the collective intention of your organization. It
can be drafted by one person alone or by a few. The most important
issue is that there has been consensus in the planning group
on the answers to the questions in developing the statement.
After
a statement is drafted the planning group will discuss it.
Frequently these discussions last for a long time and people
will gain new insights into the organization. Do not try to
fix every word as a group, discuss the differences of opinion
and then allow one or two people to work on it again and bring
it back to the group. Groups are good at many things, but
writing is not one of them, all of the rewriting needs to
be done by one or two people and be brought back to the group.
Unless you are a small organization the strategic planning
group does not include everyone. IT IS ESSENTIAL TO CIRCULATE
THE DRAFT MISSION STATEMENT A FEW TIMES TO THE BOARD, STAFF,
AND A FEW KEY STAKEHOLDERS. NOT CIRCULATING THE STATEMENT
TO THEM WILL RESULT IN MANY SERIOUS PROBLEMS. YOU MUST GIVE
THEM A CHANCE TO HAVE INPUT. SOMETIMES IT IS HELPFUL TO SEEK
AN OUTSIDE OPINION FROM SOMEONE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE ORGANIZATION
TO SEE HOW EASILY THE STATEMENT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD. This process
can last a while and become tedious, there is value in reaching
agreement and having a statement that accurately reflects
the organization. Because you are doing it within the context
of being a part of the IARF, which already has a clearly articulated
statement, it ought not to take too long. The overarching
mission and values are already in place, you can do your mission
statement relatively quickly.
ANALYZING THE SITUATION
Steps
4 and 5: Assessing the Internal and External Environments
Once you have reasonable draft of the mission statement- not
necessarily the final one- you begin to take stock of where
you actually are. As a popular American philosopher Yogi Berra
once said, "You can observe an awful lot just by watching."
To respond effectively to changes in environments, NGO's increasingly
must assess their internal and external environments. To use
Yogi Berra's language, they must watch. And they must also
interpret what they observe. The next step in planning is
to provide information on the internal strengths and weaknesses
of the organization in relation to the external threats and
opportunities that it faces. This will provide valuable information
for identifying the strategic issues and strategy development.
An effective strategy is based on understanding how the organization
-what is inside- relates to the larger environment-what is
outside. Every effective strategy will take advantage of the
internal strengths and the external opportunities at the same
time it minimizes or overcomes the internal weaknesses and
external threats. In other words figure what you are good
at and what within your mission can be achieved.
The
tool most used is called a SWOT analysis; SWOT is an acronym
that works in English, (I imagine it doesn't quite work in
Hungarian or Japanese). "S" is for strengths, "W"
is for weaknesses, "O" is for opportunities and
"T" is for threats.
The
planning group begins by listing all of the strengths the
organization has, for example a dedicated staff person, a
strong volunteer core, particular technologies, or economic
resources, a strong belief system, special expertise in a
certain area, the backing of the IARF etc, whatever you can
think of that is a strength or asset. Remember to include
the effects that you already have had on people. After you
list them, discuss them so that you fully understand and appreciate
your strengths.
Then do the same thing with your weaknesses, for example:
not enough funding, not enough staff, no meeting space of
our own, too few volunteers, etc. I have no doubt that you
have complained about your weaknesses. This time take the
time to list them and understand them without feeling despair
or being overwhelmed. This part is always hard, but an honest
self-assessment is necessary to accurately gauge what you
can and cannot do. We all have great hopes and aspirations
to change the world, but as it has been said many times, it
starts with one small act. If that act is successful we can
take the next step. We have a much greater chance of success,
if we have an honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses.
Naturally we have to stretch ourselves to do better and knowing
our strengths helps. Next we undertake the external assessment,
we explore the environment outside of the organization to
identify the opportunities and threats that it faces. There
are three major categories that may be examined: one- forces
and trends; two the people we are serving or working with;
three-actual or potential competitors, collaborators, or enemies.
I will explain.
Forces
and Trends are usually broken down into four categories: political,
economic, social and technological- in English the acronym
PESTs-again I imagine that the acronym won't work in Hungarian
or Japanese- but please promise to tell me what it would turn
out to be. In PESTs "P" is for political, "E"
is for economic, "S" is for social and "T"
is for technological. PESTS usually refer to the threats;
opportunities are often more widely distributed. For example,
trends may be the demographic realities of your local area,
the various age proportions in the population, the increase
in technology, or the rise of a particular political or religious
group. You would identify potential changes in key shareholder
groups.
The
IARF planning committee went through a SWOT like analysis
and in the plan cites its findings. Section three of the plan
is titled, "The propositions and analysis of the current
situation on which the plan is based." I will give you
some examples both because they are relevant to the work that
you do and because they are indicative of the kind of analysis
that you need to do as well.
I quote from the document:
3.1
There has been a welcome growth in the number of inter-religious
and interfaith institutions both internationally and locally
in the past decade. They tend to be Western, Northern or Industrial
by the country of origin, senior staffing and financing.
3.2 Similarly, not only has the field of Human Rights organizations
grown enormously in the past generation, the specific organizations
devoted to religious freedom per se have grown in the past
decade. There is a prolific amount of information on their
websites.
So,
please notice the planners scanned the environment saw the
quote "threats" to the IARF in the form of other
organizations doing the same work, therefore competing for
the same funding and the same members. It is not that these
other organizations are threats in that they want to harm
the IARF or are threats to religious freedom. No, they are
threats in the sense that they are after the same energy sources,
meaning the same constituents and the same sources for funding.
The planning document follows then by stating that the IARF
should develop its specific area of specialization while utilizing
existing organizations doing work for religious freedom or
human rights as resources of information and as allies, and
avoiding competition with them or duplication of their work.
We should achieve a reputation for specializing in a particular
approach to religious freedom work.
For
you on the local level, it means that you need to analyze
who in your area is doing religious freedom work, what they
are doing, how can you learn from them, and use them as a
resource, not compete with them. You will develop programs
furthering religious freedom that are different from theirs,
but complimentary. Perhaps there is a group working on religious
freedom in schools, you then do not duplicate that work, but
act as allies to them and develop a different type of program
that addresses religious freedom. That is the essence of being
strategic. Find out what is needed, what is being done and
what new thing that you can do well that will contribute to
bettering the situation.
The
next findings by the IARF planners are as follows:
3.3
From the perception of human needs for relief, sustainable
development, general civil and political rights, peace, vocational
training, literacy, schools and environment comes the imperative
to try to link them with religious freedom. These are activities,
which a few of our member groups are doing, but they are beyond
the professional competence of IARF, as well as likely both
to diffuse the impact of its message and confuse its identity.
3.4 In fact the growth in the number and huge professional
expertise of the NGOs addressing these major world problems
makes it important that IARF does not stray into trying to
deliver solutions to them.
This
description combines looking at existing opportunities in
the world, needs for relief etc, with assessing the strengths
and weaknesses of IARF. The realistic conclusion is that IARF
does not have the expertise and resources to address these
problems. In addition the environmental scan showed that other
organizations were more capable of doing that work. Furthermore,
there was a strategic determination that to be involved in
these activities would confuse people as to the mission and
identity of IARF. The mission is religious freedom and not
economic development or relief.
And now I quote again from the report, "Thus the Council
decided that IARF should develop programs which are intrinsically
about religious freedom, its preconditions, development and
the consequences to communities of its denial. This will entail
the replacement of the Social Service Network programs with
differently focused practical work and initiatives."
For
your local work it means looking carefully at what other NGOs
are doing and deciding what it is that you can do best that
is in alignment with the mission of furthering religious freedom.
It is always difficult to see all of the important social
needs that we want to address and discipline ourselves to
focus on the one that our organization can do best. To be
effective we need that discipline and strategic thinking.
If we want to do everything, we end up doing nothing well.
I
will quote one more set of findings:
3.8 There are six constituencies towards which IARF's programs
should be focused. Some have been chosen because they are
strategically wise, however in many cases we believe that
these constituencies are not adequately included in current
religious freedom and interfaith initiatives. Thus in our
approach they merit out attention:
· The IARF family: To enable it through chapters, branches
and member organizations to bear public witness through appropriate
mass media to the situation as regards religious freedom where
their societies are at risk.
· Young adults: To create opportunities for them to
engage with religious freedom as an issue, which affects them
and their peers in the world.
· Opinion shapers and/or decision makers: To create
discreet forums within or from countries where religious freedom
issues exist for them to explore ways to improve the situation
in their countries. This includes working at the U.N.
· Communities, which are the victims: To assist such
communities that are denied their religious freedom to recover
from, or better nonviolently to resist, the damage caused
by their oppressors.
· Other religious freedom (or Human rights or religious)
organizations: To assist them in the implementation of a religious
freedom advocacy campaign or initiative.
· Small civil society organizations: To encourage them
to include religious freedom in their portfolio of concerns
and to assist them to undertake initiatives, which promote
the preconditions for religious freedom locally as directly
as possible.
This
list is a wonderful example of looking at opportunities that
exist and strengths that can address them. We have expertise
in religious freedom issues, we have access to organizations
like the U.N., we have existing chapters, branches, and member
organizations, and we have a history of involvement that has
resulted in respect for our work. It recognizes that we can
work in alliance with other groups.
The
planners conclude from this that: These six constituencies
are not sufficiently included either in IARF's current work
or that of other organizations. Thus the council decided to
propose implementing a substantial series of programs, which
would enhance the overall objective of IARF in the world.
One immediate result of that decision by the Council is the
creation of a program that has produced the presence of all
the young adults with us today who will be involved with planning.
Will all the people involved in the young adult program please
stand-up. Let us applaud their presence and thank them for
their energy.
I
encourage you, in your planning groups tomorrow to think of
these program constituencies and imagine how you might involve
some of them. Clearly no one group could or even should address
all of them. I will now review the potential constituencies
again so you can begin thinking about them and to think about
what help you need from the IARF secretariat or branch.
· How can you help to bear public witness about threats
to religious freedom where societies are at risk?
· How can you involve young adults in the work you
do and engage them in ways that religious freedom effects
them?
· Are there ways for you create discrete venues where
local leaders can meet to explore ways to promote religious
freedom?
· Are their communities in your proximity, or that
you can have contact with, that are victims of religious oppression?
Are there ways that you can help them heal, change their situation
or non-violently resist?
· Are their other religious freedom or human rights
organizations that you can work with to promote religious
freedom?
· Are there small NGO's, small civil society organizations,
or community groups that you can approach to encourage to
include religious freedom issues in their portfolio of concerns
and work with them to do so? An example is working with schools
about how religion is taught, or how other religions are described.
It
is helpful to approach the process with a broad mind and allow
for many possibilities before deciding on a plan of action.
The IARF planning document contains additional analysis and
conclusions and I encourage you to read it. I think I presented
those that have the most direct impact on your work.
Putting it All Together
Step
6: Identifying Strategic Issues and Goals
Identifying strategic issues, or setting goals, is the heart
of the strategic planning process. It is deciding what will
be done, why it will be done, how it will be done, when it
will be done, where it will be done, who will do it, who may
gain from it and who may lose from it being done. You only
undertake this knowing what your strengths and weaknesses
are and what external threats and opportunities exist. You
will describe all of the threats to religious freedom and
all the opportunities to promote religious freedom and understand
your strengths and weaknesses. You will also understand the
larger strategic plan identified by the IARF and work to further
it. Discussing which strategic issues to focus on will cause
conflict within your group. That is fine.
I
will repeat this. It is hard to make the choices about what
to do, people in your group will have different opinions.
Frequently there is more than one right answer. We have a
dilemma, a difficulty in making a decision, not when one answer
is right and one wrong, but when there are two or more answers
that will produce good results. Choosing between two good
paths is a lot harder than chosing between a good path and
a bad one. It is very important that people respect each other
in this process. Remember the values that I talked about earlier.
At this stage in the planning process it is good to reaffirm
the values about the way people treat each other and have
respectful discussions.
The conflicts that we have in deciding what are the most important
issues and what to do will cause heightened emotions and concerns.
As with any journey, fear and anxiety are as likely to be
travel companions as excitement and adventurousness.
The
planning team will review the mission, the values, the vision
and SWOT analysis and the IARF Strategic Plan. This will provide
you with a sort of map of your organization in relation to
its environment. It is very important to look at the objectives
section of the IARF plan. It describes what the organization
has set out to achieve by 2007. This is only possible to do
if each chapter and branch plans accordingly. Your actions,
the people in this room, are essential to the success of the
overall IARF plan.
Those
objectives include:
One: To promote religious freedom in up to eight major areas
of current persecution or discrimination in the world through
constructive intervention including programs. The IARF Council,
Staff and member organizations are researching which areas
in the world to focus on.
Second: the Code of Practice that is being worked on here
at the conference and has its own strategy for implementation.
Third: To create an interlocking world network of 200 young
adults concerned to maintain standards of religious freedom
that will contribute to the leadership of IARF, all of the
groups can play a role in bringing that about.
Fourth: To assist victimized community groups suffering from
religious oppression in 5-10 countries. The aim would be to
create projects with those communities, which both help practically
and highlight the suffering, which has arisen from violent
or highly discriminatory acts of religious intolerance. You
need to decide if you can provide such assistance
Fifth: To be a resource for the public interest in religious
Freedom by providing:
· Significant internet and information technology resources-which
is another set of workshops at this conference
· Educational resources such as literature or drama
in local languages which disseminate information in an attractive
form for their intended readers, perhaps neo-literates or
young people.
· Provision of periodic events such as congresses or
conferences dedicated to specific problems that activists
in the field of religious freedom face.
The
planning team needs to study the overall objectives of the
IARF and then carefully examine the mission, vision, values
and SWOT analysis that it has completed. The next step is
to develop a list of goals that you believe are both critical
to your group's future success and attainable. These will
most likely be a combination of internal and external issues,
some possible examples are: secure adequate funds; hire qualified
staff; develop a program that helps prevent violence between
two religious groups; gain the attention and confidence of
key public opinion shapers; develop an exciting youth program.
You
can begin by having each person in the planning team list
on a piece of paper what she or he thinks are the four to
eight critical goals to accomplish over then next two to five
years. Then have the team discuss them and see if they can
agree to one list of four to eight goals. Next circulate the
list to other members of the organization and get their opinions.
Then the team meets again to formulate a final list of four
to eight goals to submit to the rest of the membership for
approval. In order for the plan to work, there must be widespread
approval of the goals by the membership.
Having a Vision
Step
7: Creating a Vision of Success
Martin Luther King Jr. said "If you want to move people,
it has to be toward a vision that's positive for them, that
taps important values, that gets them something they desire,
and it has to be presented in a compelling way that they feel
inspired to follow."
Once
you have established your goals, it is time to take a break
from the sharp discipline of goal setting and invite your
imagination to play. Allow yourself to develop a description
of what the organization should look like if it fulfilled
all of it goals. This is called a "vision of success."
A vision of success can inspire you. The vision can be detailed
you can include how it fills it mission, how people treat
each other, what values are being lived, how decisions are
made and how the goals were achieved. The vision needs to
be brief. Each person on the planning team can take time to
write a vision, share it with others and then collectively
agree on one. Once formulated, sharing the vision with everyone
in the group can create excitement and motivation. Inspirational
visions generally have the following features: they focus
on a better future, encourage hopes and dreams, appeal to
common values, state positive results, use word pictures,
images and metaphors and communicate excitement. .
Making
it Happen
Step
8: Creating Specific Objectives
Once you decide on your goals, you have to formulate a plan
for achieving those goals. There are usually a variety of
ways to achieve any one goal. You must choose the best way,
which is the best strategy, for your group to achieve the
goal. Here is an example. Let us say that your goal is a certain
level of financial security. At this point the planning team
can continue to work on it by inviting others in the organization
who have expertise in finances to work with them or they can
turn this part over to a committee charged with fundraising
or as I prefer to say organizing money. Some possible ways
to achieve it are: seeking grants from foundations, increasing
paid membership, soliciting contributions from wealthy individuals,
asking religious denominations or institutions to make contributions,
seeking a government subsidy or creating a product that you
could sell. You need to decide based on your circumstances
which of those you should pursue. That becomes your strategy.
The next step is to set objectives.
Let
us say you decided that for your group the best funding strategy
is seeking grants from foundations and asking religious institutions
to make contributions. You begin by making a realistic assessment
of the amount you want to raise from each category . You can
then set an objective of, for example, raising $10,000 from
foundations and $5,000 from religious institutions. Next is
continuing to write a plan that identifies which foundations
and which religious institutions you want to ask, identify
the appropriate way to ask each one, and develop a clear time
table submit the request. It is very important that you set
up clear timetables and clearly identify who is responsible
for doing each piece. You do this for every objective.
These
details are essential if you want the plan to work. You will
have invested a great deal of time and energy in formulating
the plan-if you want that investment of time and energy to
pay off, then you must follow through with the details.
Two
of the most frequent problems with all NGO's are accountability
and timeliness. Accountability means holding people responsible
for what they said that they would do. In NGO's work is done
by volunteers and by staff who are overworked and underpaid,
therefore we frequently do not say anything when a promised
responsibility is not fulfilled. We need to hold each other
to high standards; that is our responsibility to the mission
of the organization. Holding each other accountable is a mark
of respect to each other and respect for the integrity of
the organization. Of course it must be done in a kind and
respectful way. Remember the values of the organization of
respecting each other. We can hold each other responsible
in caring and loving ways. If we want to succeed in our mission
and achieve our goals we need to keep our commitments in a
timely fashion.
Some Tips and Cautions
This
process can seem very overwhelming, complicated and scary.
You can keep it simple. Do not explore every question and
issue that comes up. Only focus on the most important questions.
This is not the time to get bogged down in esoteric philosophy
or small details. While many questions are interesting, you
don't have the time or energy to pursue all of them. Focus
on the critical issues.
To
make this process pay off: produce a written plan, a document.
It does not have to be long, but something you can refer back
to as a guide for decisions and action. The document does
not have to be perfect, it is easy to get caught up in producing
the perfect plan, the perfectly written document. DO NOT WASTE
YOUR TIME PRODUCING A PERFECT DOCUMENT, remember the point
is action and the plan is just a tool. It is a more effective
tool of it is clearly written down. It is much better to come
up with an outline than to get bogged down in preparing a
beautiful document.
The
length of time it takes will vary with the size of your organizational
unit , be it a chapter, branch local group or project . You
must look at the steps in the process and set up a time schedule
to complete each one. You must plan the planning process itself.
It is important to keep to a timeline or it can seem endless.
Again, the point of it all is action and planning is a way
to make action more effective.
Tomorrow
we will have three workshops. You will be working in small
groups to begin planning for your own organizational unit.
You will receive step-by-step guidance. We will then collect
your work and attempt to identify where new strategic plans
are being made. This will be noted by the regional coordinators
on Friday morning. Your organization will be offered appropriate
support from the Regional Coordinator for you to continue
the process in the coming months.
The
IARF has a vision of a world where everyone is free to believe
as they like, the leadership has crafted a plan to help bring
that into being. Each of us, in our hearts wants to live in
world where all human beings recognize their connection to
each other; where each of us knows that we are part of the
same web of life. By working together with a clarity of focus,
we have the ability to move the world one step closer to that
vision.
THIS
DOCUMENT IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION. I HAVE VERY LIBERALLY USED
THE WORK OF JOHN M BRYSON IN THIS ADDRESS, PARTICULARLY HIS
BOOK STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR PUBLIC AND NON PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS,
Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1988.
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