Response to discussion question 1

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Respond by sharing additional strategies for defining, prioritizing, and/or meeting organizational goals.

 

According to Bryson (2011), creating a strategic plan is of great importance, but primarily contributes to the creation of a nonprofit's public value.  In order to benefit from the full weight of planning, comprehensive and exhaustive implementation procedures ought to be outlined for the budget and action plans, etc. in order to transition from strategic planning to strategic management (Bryson, 2011a, p. 286).  However, in the pursuit of optimal performancean organization cannot neglect to make its vision the forefront of its decision-making (Bryson, 2011b).  In fact, Bryson (2011b, p. 273) prescribes the following attributes be inclusive in an organization's vision: mission; basic philosophy, core values and cultural features; goals, if they are established basic strategies; performance criteria (such as those related to critical success factors); important decision-making rules; [and] ethical standards expected of all employees.  Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. national/Grand Chapter or local chapters do not have an official vision but this should not hinder Monterey Peninsula Alumnae Chapter (MPAC) from developing a working vision of success that will guide is social action initiatives.  Therefore, a short term goal would be to develop a vision of success simply because the chapter does not have an explicit vision; however, this vision would not be memorialized in a formal document such a charter, but instead would be a fluid, living thing.  Such method is support by Bryson (2011a), in his statement, "...allow for adaptive learning as new information becomes available and circumstances change" (p. 286). 

Part of the vision of success would be to determine short and long-term goals.  In order to accomplish that, a strategy I would use would be to "measure relative importance" since it has said that collective decision making can be most difficult (Saaty & Peniwati, 2008, p. xi; Weigand, Flanagan, Dye & Jones, 2014).  Measuring the relative importance of items allows conflicting value subjectivity to be compared and prioritized through empirical scaling.  But in order to define those goals, the chapter is limited in its approach due to bylaws and protocol.  Still, the recommendation would mimic Weigand, Flanagan, Dye & Jones's (2014) strategy-to-task and capability-based planning (CBP) methods.  CBP would allow members of the chapter who have the necessary skill, expertise and passion to propose new goals and objectives to the Executive Board prior to submission to the chapter meeting floor.  All proposals would include an assessment of the community's needs, specific areas of focus, a match of the size of effort to the available resources, descriptions of desirable results and outcomes, a timeline, proposed delegation, implementation guidelines, discussion on key local relationships and recommended measurement of success.  Furthermore, this implementation of CBP would require that the member's proposal incorporate the Grand Chapter's social action goals and objectives throughout (Thaler, 1993; Weigand, Flanagan, Dye & Jones, 2014).  Another strategy would be to use the results from the SWOC/T analysis to set priorities through understanding and recognizing contingencies and urgencies (Richards, 2012).  From there, we are able to balance priorities into four strategic planning groups, ultimately building a roadmap for implementation (Richards, 2012).  

References 

Bryson, J.M. (2011a). Implementing strategies and plans successfully. In Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (4th ed.). (pp. 286-316). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Bryson, J.M. (2011b). Establishing an effective organizational vision for the future. In Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (4th ed.). (pp. 271-285). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Richards, E.O. (2012, April 19). Putting your SWOT to work [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exm9uAKYkl0.

Saaty, T.L., & Peniwait, K. (2008). Group decision making: Drawing out and reconciling differences. Pittsburgh, PA: RWS Publications.

Thaler, D.E. (1993). Strategies to tasks : a framework for linking means and ends. Santa Monica, CA: RAND. 

Weigand, K., Flanagan, T., Dye, K., Jones, P. (2014). Collaborative foresight: Complementing long-horizon strategic planning, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 85, 134-152. doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2013.08.016.

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