Ldg W/ Wisdom, Vision & Value

6.3 Course Project. The Strategic Plan and Portfolio

Getting Started

Throughout the course, you have been examining an organization (of your choice) by conducting a variety of analyses to better determine where the organization currently “is” as you plan (strategically) where it needs to go and what it needs to do to reach its goals. As you draw all your work together for the final Course Project, imagine that you have been tasked with functioning as the new CEO of the organization.  The premise is that the previous CEO made a number of unwise (foolish) choices that led to unrealized potential and unmet goals. Your next order of business as the new leader of the organization is to develop a basic strategic plan. Based on your learning in this course up to this point, you have acquired the basic knowledge, skills, as well as several of the tools, that you will need to create this plan.

This Course Project begins with pulling together each of the assessment tools you have created in this course. Each element will be part of your Strategic Plan, but you also will compile key data from many of those separate tools into a single page Strategic Plan Snapshot. For example, you will incorporate the mission and vision statements you wrote in Workshop #1, as well as Drucker’s Five Questions in Workshop #2. You will include the SWOTT Analysis you wrote in Workshop #3, the Balanced Scorecard results you created in Workshop #4, and the S.M.A.R.T. Goals you established in Workshop #5. As the instructions below detail, your strategic plan also will require a written executive summary that includes your observations about the entire process. Taken collectively, you will have a completed strategic plan that you can submit as your completed assignment. You also will have one more valuable tool for your Leader Toolkit!

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Create a strategic plan utilizing the elements of wisdom, mission, vision, and values.

Background Information

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Read pages 386-7 from the Middlebrooks text:  Discovering Leadership: Designing Your Success.

3. Read the article  Strategic Planning and Plan Sustainability (new tab) .

4. Review all the data and assessments you have conducted during the course. Synthesize what you have found. What seem to be the key themes? What seem to be the most important insights, needed changes, or re-alignments? Then, from that material determine your “strategic initiatives.” Your strategic initiatives should be the three most important changes, items, objectives, or tasks that need to be completed to “get on track strategically, wisely, and as a good steward for the organization.” These three items may be the same or similar to your three SMART goals. However, you are not limited to just using those goals. Rather, analyze and synthesize all that you have studied. Your strategic plan and initiatives need to reflect a thorough understanding of:

a. What do we need to do (e.g., specific goals, changes, direction)?

b. Why are we doing this (e.g., missional/vision/values alignment, better stewardship)?

c. How are we going to do this (e.g., specific action step or steps)?

d. Where are we going (e.g., deliverables/measurement/metric to determine success)?

5. This Course Project assignment will result in your building a portfolio that ultimately serves as your Strategic Plan. Compile the various tools that you have created in this course pieces into a single document, updating them based on feedback/grading earlier in the course. Here are the elements that you will include in your portfolio (one Word document):

a. Cover page: Do not use a scholarly title page; instead, be creative in designing a professional cover page for your Strategic Plan that identifies the organization, your name, and date. Please do include the Academic Honesty Statement at the bottom of the page.

b. Strategic Plan Snapshot: On a single page, use some creative way of communicating the key findings/actions steps/deliverables/measurables to anyone in the organization who would review your Strategic Plan. You can use this  template (Word document)  or search the internet for examples of templates or other visuals that might help you be creative. The key idea is that the strategy snapshot creates a compelling visual presentation. Imagine it as something that could hang in an office or in a hallway and that effectively communicates answers to what, why, how, and where (e.g., metric). Also, consider how the “picture” or “snapshot” ties everything and all of the initiatives together. A strategic plan will not be successful unless everyone is “on the same page.” So, the snapshot can help communication and align the organization to where you are going in the plan.

c. Executive Summary: In one to two pages, clarify the key ideas/findings of your Strategic Plan. Be specific rather than to write in generalities. Also, be sure to end with a strong conclusion section. While the Snapshot creates a compelling visual, the executive summary provides more concrete detail and clarification.

d. Assessment Tools: Include the materials (corrected from feedback provided by the instructor) as a section of your strategic plan. These assessments provided the data and the rationale for the key components and actions steps for your plan. In some sense, consider these “appendices” for reference.

i. Drucker’s Five Questions

ii. SWOTT Analysis

iii. Balanced Scorecard

iv. S.M.A.R.T. Goals

e. Reference page